What could go wrong?

Luckly the flash drive didn’t use some sort of keyed encryption. After taking a closer look at the contents though, ____ decided against blackmailing the mafia.

Warehouse locations
passwords
Shipments
Dropoff times

The data contained here was most likely the accumulation of information gathered by a spy within their organization. It was unlikely that such precious information would just be handed over to someone else in a single place.

Alerting them of the information taken would increase the likelihood the rat would be snuffed out, would force them to relocate and increase their security. ____ could benefit more from taking their more advanced equipment… reverse engineering it, then taking it apart to use as parts for his current projects. Of course, that’s easier said than done.

One thing for sure, the spy they had likely had a back-up in case the information was lost. In that event, it’s only a matter of time before someone else acts on this information and alerts the organization. So worst case scenario, he only had a few days before other players tip off the Redfellas. They may have taken their time, but like him, now know someone else has the info they worked hard to get. This is a race to see who can take advantage first.

___ could try an easy score, but that would be such a waste- all of their weapon caches were separated from their drug storehouses. He decided to surveil one of each and noticed how there were more guards surrounding the warehouse for the weapons. Funnily enough, they were dressed in uniforms for “Daniel’s Accessories”, a jewelry company- a front so that they could disguise what they’re doing here. It’s entirely possible they have a few weapons to sell to villains, but as far as the record has shown the only thing they had there were laser guns and mag-lev tech… odd. It’s possible the spy didn’t get everything.

If ____ attempted to raid the location himself for the items, there was a chance that reinforcements would come to protect the stuff. There’s no way he could move it all himself, and he hasn’t accumulated enough money to hire henchmen yet. The best plan of action is to become a new, (non-paying) customer of their services. After attempting to install malware through a false email, once again he had to go to the drawing board. These people aren’t idiots- they know not to download anything. So it looked like he’d have to go in there himself to install the malware.

The doors themselves had fingerprint recognition, and it was likely they already recognized each other. If he went in disguised as one of them they would know that someone was capable of disguising themselves and passing themselves off as one of them in the future - it wouldn’t help him in the long run. He doesn’t have enough time to become goon either and sneak in there, it’s possible they have a protocol for initiation. Luckily, there’s a shipment that’s supposed to come in tomorrow. It would be more beneficial to give off the impression of unprofessionalism, likely guns-blazing… an anti-hero persona perhaps, to avenge some non-existent, no-name family member.

Specialties:

Acting
Poisoning (tranquilizing)
Emergency Medicine
Aikido
Slavic languages (Russian)
Criminal Activity
Kusari fundo
Blow dart
Lock picking
Parkour

The floor seemed to wobble a bit, the bit of muffled talking around him confirmed that he’s arrived to where he needed to. Not surprising, since ___ was in a truck that was meant arrive there. He couldn’t see beyond the light seeing through cracks of the shipping container but he knew they would start unpacking soon. He had to remind himself that this was necessary- the best option he had to get some gear… It was going to be a bit fun though; the chance to test out his fighting skills will be a nice bonus.

He just needed to sneak into the shipment, go into the warehouse, look around for anything valuable to take, and locate the shipment logs. Hopefully he can subtly install his virus and pretend he came in here for revenge instead. He puts on a mask, clears his throat, and vocalizes a bit over the sound of a crunching pallet crate to get the right tone for his performance. He needs to sell that he doesn’t have experience killing people, that he just wants justice. It should be doable.

The backdoor of the truck opens, and he hides behind one of the crates, careful not to touch the squeaky plastic wrap surrounding it. Is this much plastic honestly necessary?  After the pallet truck pulls out a crate of metal wires and turns, he quickly runs to a wedge - in between pallet boxes. Taking out his blowdart, he looks around for the security guards.

There are no superpowered people here, as far as he was aware. As long as no one else shows up, this plan should go without a hitch.

It came slowly.

It was just a sound. Quiet at first, but steadily it grew closer and closer. For the guard at the perimeter, at first, it would’ve just seemed like someone passing by. The street wasn’t far and he was just there to make sure no one would cross the fence to get any closer to the warehouse. He would also alert the rest of his…gang? He would alert them if there were hide or hair of the Pigs or, heaven forbid, a hero showed up. Not many had walked by, an occasional vagrant or late-night worker trying to take a shorter route home, but no one he should be worried about.

This new figure, slowly approaching and…whistling? They were different. He couldn’t quite make out their figure, but they were shorter, and something about their…frame was off. He could make out the general outline, a normal human, perhaps a bit feminine, but it was towards her…back? Her sides? Something was sprouting out from her in two wide shapes. It wasn’t normal and at first, he was sure that whoever they were they must’ve been a Meta…but a hero? He wasn’t sure. He was almost ready to call it in when the figure came into view.

It was a woman, and in his opinion, not a bad looking one. She wore a vest, under which she only wore a small top, and pants that clung to her nicely. Her dark raven blue hair certainly stuck out a bit, catching the eye, but what was more eye-catching was the things protruding from her back. Wings, covered in feathers the same color as her hair. They were folded in on themselves, but they were unmistakably wings. She walked with a confident strut, her eyes forward until…they drifted over to him.

And then she smiled at him. A pleasant, warm smile, and he couldn’t help but smile back.

She was an attractive woman and he felt no guilt in it. But then something processed for him. A lone woman, with wings, in the middle of a bad neighborhood by the warehouse? The word hero came to mind and again, he was ready to call it in, but then she did something he didn’t expect. She leaned against the fence right across from him and gave him a small nod. She followed with a small salute before she spoke, her voice smooth and dripped with the same confidence that she had walked with.

“Well, howdy good looking.” She said with a wink.

His hand hadn’t left his ear, still ready to make the call, but he gave her a weird look. “Can I help you, ma’am?” He tried to keep professional. He would at least try and seem like a normal security guard, keeping the area safe. That meant polite but authoritative. He couldn’t afford to flirt, as much as he wanted to.

She giggled, almost cutely, at that, and he wanted to kick himself in the butt. “Ma’am? Well, aren’t you polite? I almost feel bad about all of this.”

“Wha-” He started, but he was quickly cut off.

“I no hero if that’s what you’re worried about.” She said with a slight wave of her hand. “Nothing like that, no.” She straightened herself, then stretched her arms above her head, “Nope! I’m just here to rob you and your friends.” And that was the last thing he heard. Something hard impacted against the back of his head and slumped to the ground; the call never going out. She looked over his body for a moment, making a face. “Yeah, not even after a few drinks, buddy.”

Her wings finally unfurled and with a few flaps she was up in the air, whistling once more as she got a quick look of the area. She had seen maps of this place, got a good layout, and even managed to bum a patrol schedule off a drunk associate of theirs. Still, she wanted to get a good feeling of the area before she just flew in head first. It all seemed pretty tight, but she had cracked tighter.

Against the night sky, hard to see and barely casting a shadow, she flew overhead, looking for a safe enough place to land. She needed to get close, find access on the roof, and then make her way in. She had a good idea of what she was after, the only question left was what security was left guarding it. That would have to be improvised.

Either way, she was the world’s greatest thief and this job would be easy so long as there weren’t any other intrusions.

___ was silent and precise. With a few quick breaths and he shot 3 nearby guards with a dart to the neck, meant to quickly flood the body with specialized neurotoxins that should cause them to fall unconscious after 5 seconds. He was aware the sudden fall might hurt them severely, but he figured his character might not have had such foresight. One of the guards was next to the door itself, so he grabbed the man’s hand and placed it on the fingerprint scanner. He also took the liberty to take the semi-automatic handgun hidden in the man’s pocket.

After pocketing the knife, he walked the hallway as casually as he could, so that his presence there would be less suspicious to any other individuals here. To his pleasure, the doors had regular locks within the building. It took him no time at all to open the doors to what he suspected were the offices. Once the door opened, a woman turned up to look at him in surprise. She spoke to him, in Russian:

“Who are you? What are you doing here?”

___ responded with a nervous chuckle, “Ah sorry, my name is Arsenii. I’m here to repair some light fixtures. The men in the front let me in, would you like to see the Work Order?”

“We were supposed to know about this in advance, I need to call the bo-“ She barely finished her sentence before Arsenii, swung a metal weight stuck to a metal chain at her, hitting her square in the jaw and knocking her out instantly.

He put his foot in the door before it closed, and stepped through. In front of him, were three men with guns with a look of confusion about what had just occurred. They likely hadn’t seen him and only saw her fall as she was at the entrance of the door. Without hesitation, he swung the chain to knock away the gun from the holster of the man in front of him as he fired a dart from his mouthpiece. Then, dropping the dart blower, grabbed the gun he knocked away as it was in the air mid-rotation, and threw it squarely on the forehead of the other guy.

Then he swing the kusari fundo in the other direction, smacking the disarmed man nearest to him in the face with the full brunt force of a condensed punch of metal. He could tell it had a great effect as he heard the crunch of bone and the loss of momentum from the weapon. The only man left was dazed from the direct concussion he was given, so Arsenii, threw the chain and it wrapped around the neck of the man. He struggled to breathe and clawed at the chain, still too disoriented to think properly. As he slowly drifted into unconsciousness, Arsenii walked closer to him and loosened the chain.

“Don’t worry, you will not die. No one deserves such a fate.” He spoke in Russian, in a hushed manner. He stared at the man’s eyes with a wave of deep anger and hatred, as if he could indeed kill him with a simple stare.

“Tell me where your product is and I promise you will see your family again with both your legs.” The man collapsed before he could respond, however. Arsenii knew this but acted as if he hadn’t. “Shit-shit-shit. Fuck me, a bunch of pussy men can’t even take a hit. It’s an insult to the Ivanov name they killed them with these men. I promise you all will be avenged.”

He looked around for the computer in this office and used the code obtained from his intelligence-gathering a week earlier. After opening the desktop, he inserted the flash drive that would download all the data on the computer. Granted, it would take too long to actually do so. What he was actually doing was uploading a contagious, undetectable virus meant to change a few documents. A shipment of maglev tech would now be redirected to an abandoned warehouse for him to build some more advanced equipment.

He stood there with a nervous tapping of his foot, as if impatiently waiting for the download. then grabbed a lighter from his pocket to smoke a cig (had to commit to the part) when he thought he heard something. He moved to quickly hide behind the desk, although opting to continue to smoke to sell that he was more incompetent than he was. Whoever was here was likely the other guards from the roof. He took out the pistol in preparation and shook, pretending to not be ready to take a life despite how often the world was a kill or be-killed reality... hah, imagine thinking all life was sacred.

He muttered further, in russian. “blyat… (shit)”

Her wings took her to the top of a stack of crates, and as she landed she did so softly, barely making a sound. It was dark below, but her eyes had adjusted to the low light. She could make out of the shape of something on the ground, just out of view.

A body.

Always a good sign...

As she stared the shapes gained more definition, a clearer image being drawn. That was a guard. A guard had been knocked out and left behind. Gears quickly clicked into place. She wasn't alone here. Another was here and taking out guards. An enemy to the guards, but that didn't mean they friendly. Potentially a hero or maybe...someone else after something. There was a lot to be after here, though she knew the real prize was on that computer inside.

She bit her lip, thinking it over.

Not good...

She let out a small sigh and took off to the air again, coming closer to the main building, this time quicker in her flight. She landed in front of the door, surprised to see that trail of "destruction" continued onward. That was sloppy. At least it worked out in her favor.

She strutted over to one of the bodies laying unconscious and wrapped her hands under his armpits. She dragged it towards the door, straining a bit from the weight of the man and his gear, but managing all the same. She undid the guard's glove and pressed the hand against the scanner, and after a moment the door would open. With a sigh of relief she dropped the body carelessly and moved inside.

More bodies...more carelessness. This was an amateur. Leaving so many bodies behind. It was work like this that made her stomach turn, that there could be such people in the industry that gave professionals like her a bad name. You might as well leave a sign that says "Hey, enemy this way! Come and get me!". Of course, that might've been the intended message, but still...why go to the trouble when you could just as easily shout and fire a gun up in the air. It's not like the guards wouldn't start shooting when they found you.

She was getting heated again. That would do her no good here. It was just...so...

No. She had to stop herself. She was going go off again if she started thinking on it. She had to use it to her advantage and she if that would take her where she needed to go. At the very least, she was curious about whoever went this way. If they ended up leading her to what she needed, great. If not, then her curiosity would be sated.

She continued down the hall, passing a knocked out woman who had a bruise starting to form up on her mouth. They would need a lot of makeup for that one. Then she passed a few more knocked out guards...again, just...just so sloppy.

She gave the bodies a quick once over, seeing if there any indication of what happened. This was a brawl of sorts...someone good at martial skills. She knew a bit, but nothing here seemed...super. She'd have that edge going. Feathers as strong as steel could carry her in most fights. Even still, it didn't bode well to have someone skilled ahead of her. Well, skilled was a generous term given what they left behind, buuuuut....

She slowed herself a bit as she entered into the next room, moving quietly as she went. Already, a few feathers had slipped from her wings and glided behind her,; they were poised to strike if they needed to be. She poked her head around and into the office where she saw the glow of a monitor and...a trail of smoke rising from behind a desk. She considered for a few moments and then let out a very audible sigh.

"Hey buddy, behind the desk. I'm not with these folk here, but I am wondering what you're doing here." As she spoke her wings took a bit more of a defensive position around her. The feathers that had trailed behind her now moved across the floors and walls, about ten of them, dark purple in color and blending in with the shadows. Hard to see. They were moving towards the computer that had the display on. Her job was the information on the computer. That she could be a bit more...direct with how she extracted it.

"I'll be honest with you. I am just a thief." Not the best thing to admit to, but given that he wasn't here under good intentions either...

"So, if possible I'd like to do with without having to you know..." She pointed a thumb over her shoulder, not sure if it could be seen from behind the desk and with her wings covering her like this. "So, I am just gonna grab some info from that computer there and you can continue with that smoke break of yours. Sound good?"