September 27, 2014
9:54 PM

Rainbow turned on the TV and put in the video tape that Bain had sent her. After watching it for about a minute, she turned away. “Alright,” she said. “I’ll do it.” She picked up the bottle of midnight-blue hair dye and the Shadowbolt flight suit that had apparently been made by one of the Dentist’s patients. She couldn’t imagine why, or how, but if he expected her to go out in the field at least once with it, it was probably a good idea to.

She had been struggling with her morality in helping the Payday Crew before, but against these people, she had no questions at all. She’d be on the front line, just like the Red Baron. Heading into the next room, she could still hear the dialogue from the news clips coming through the wall.

...this shocking footage shows a mercenary in Afghanistan entering a civilian’s home on suspicion of terrorist activity, and leaving with ‘evidence’ worth a hundred thousand dollars...

...more war crimes in the War on Terror reported, but few are from the U.S. military itself, rather from ‘private security contractors’ in the region...

...Murkywater fires one of its employees for the first time on record. Jared Stone, formerly a Navy SEAL, was convicted of abusing a child earlier this week, and though many among Murkywater have denied the allegations, there is little they can do in the face of a conviction...

“These people give a bad name to our country and our cause. Will somebody please get these corn-fed crooks out of our nation’s arsenal?”

~~~

About an hour later...

The van pulled up across the street, slightly around the corner from the warehouse. Looking almost entirely unlike herself, Rainbow stepped out first, adjusting her goggles. Dallas followed, carrying a briefcase. Hoxton screwed a silencer onto his pistol, Wolf took out his knife and ran his finger along the flat of the blade, and Chains carried a briefcase of his own, which Rainbow recognised as containing his sniper rifle.

“Okay... I’m getting the live feed from your goggles, crystal clear,” Bain said. “Everything you can see, I can see. And if we set it up right, the cameras shouldn’t even be in your way. Gotta love modern technology, huh?”

“Yeah, I guess. Suit’s pretty tight, though, especially since I still need my necklace on to fly,” Rainbow replied, recalling the tests she’d done towards learning that. “What’s it even made from?”

“I dunno, but it should at least help you blend in more in the dark. It might also protect you if you get caught, though I’d rather you avoided that. In fact, there’s something I need to tell all of you about the job.”

Wolf and Hoxton stopped talking to one another, and the five of them bunched up together, though it wasn’t really necessary to. “Murkywater are dangerous people to cross, and they probably have actual soldiers on-site as well. If the alarm goes off, there is no Plan B. You have one minute exactly to get back to the van, or it’s a long walk home.”

“So that’s why you had me leave my guns in the van?” Wolf asked.

“Exactly. I know you’re not really one for the silent approach, but this is even bigger than that time we stole the server from the FBI. We cannot let this go loud.”

“Alright, we get it,” Chains cut in. “Though truth be told, I wouldn’t mind putting down a few of these guys. Give soldiers of fortune a bad name.” Before Bain could tell him off, he said, “Only if it comes to that, I know. Alright, see you guys at the safehouse.” He headed for a building next to the warehouse, climbing up a fire escape to the roof to take up a spotting position.

“Don’t forget to set up the zipline while you’re up there, Chains,” Bain called out. “It’ll help us get the loot out once we’ve bagged it. I know the helipad is risky, but it’ll be faster to get the bags out from there than taking them all the way back.” Everyone sent out an acknowledgement, with varying degrees of enthusiasm.

Dallas set the briefcase down on the ground and opened it, pulling back a secret panel to reveal two unmarked canisters. “Thermite,” he explained. “Bain looked through the plans for this area, and he reckons we could get in through the sewers if we burn through the grates. Gage could only get us a couple of packs without raising suspicion, though.” Hoxton and Wolf each took one. “They’ll go in through the sewers while we get the side door,” he explained to Rainbow.

“What about the gate?” Rainbow asked, pointing at it.

“Too many people watching. Gotta be another way in, though. Let’s go find it.”

The crew started moving down the street, with the main gate on their right. Past it, there was a manhole just above the dead end of the road, and Hoxton and Wolf slipped down it as Dallas and Rainbow continued around the side of the concrete wall, through an alley. At its end, a left turn and a flight of stairs down led them to the waterfront. There was a chain link fence on their right, from which Dallas quickly cut a hole large enough to get through.

Along the waterfront, there was an open door leading into the basement of the warehouse. A guard was standing just outside the doorway, smoking a cigarette under a fluorescent light on the wall. Without missing a step, Dallas pulled up his pistol and shot the guard twice in the head. The small-calibre bullets punched two neat holes through the skull, leaking blood onto the ground. Rainbow quickly averted her eyes from the sight, comparatively tame though it was.

The pager on the guard’s belt beeped once, but Dallas was already there, expecting it. “Nothing to report. Thought I saw something before, but it was just a rat.” As the pager beeped off, he put the body in a dark blue bag and tossed it into the water. “C’mon, let’s take a look around.” Rainbow was still looking at the patch of blood on the ground, but snapped out of it quickly and followed Dallas inside.

There wasn’t much in the basement except a crate that they couldn’t get open. “We’ll probably need a crowbar for this or something,” Dallas said. “Maybe there’ll be one here. Keep looking.” They headed up a flight of stairs into another room. Dallas quickly set upon a black case that contained a set of guns. As he bagged it quickly, Rainbow started poking at a package of a white powder.

“Don’t get that up your nose,” Bain warned her. “Cocaine. I hope they weren’t giving that ‘marching powder’ to any real soldiers... Bag it up. I’m sure we’ll find a buyer.” Confused, she nonetheless pulled out a duffel bag of her own and packed it in.

A cover underneath them slid open all of a sudden, and Dallas pointed his gun at it until he saw Wolf coming up. “Geez, Wolf, give me some warning next time. I nearly shot you!” he said, lowering his gun and sighing. “Anyway, we’ve found some weapons and some cocaine. Pass a bag down to Hoxton and carry one yourself. Get them secured as soon as you can.”

“Okay... I was hoping to get into the warehouse myself, but—”

“Guys, quiet down! I can see a guard coming!” Bain suddenly cut in. Wolf grabbed the bag full of weapons, and Dallas kicked the cocaine down after him, closing the cover and running through an open door behind it. Rainbow followed, shutting the door. “Wait a minute. Turn around, Rainbow. There’s something behind you, and I want a better look.”

As she turned around, she saw a massive vault with a panel on each side. “That’s one big vault. And with two keycard readers. Probably have to be inserted simultaneously. I bet there’s something pretty special in there...” Bain said. “But we need the keycards, first. Keep searching, and stay low.”

Dallas peeked through the keyhole of the door they’d come through, and seeing it was clear, led Rainbow back through it. Rainbow went down the stairs to where she’d come through as Dallas stayed on the same floor, looking for a security room. She continued down the path she’d come inside from, taking another look at the drying bloodstain on the ground and gingerly stepping around it. Wolf reported that they’d gotten their two bags back in and were heading back through the sewers to get some more.

“Don’t forget to keep an eye out for cameras. You don’t want to get spotted,” Bain reminded her. She looked up and quickly pushed herself flat against the wall, seeing a camera above. “You... probably don’t have to be that careful. Just keep an eye out.” Sighing, she waited for it to turn away from where she was going before moving on.

Around another corner, there was a room with stairs leading up, out to the yard. “Hey, Rainbow, how you holdin’ up out there?” Chains asked all of a sudden. “I know it’s weird to ask now, but I know you get edgy when you’re out too long—”

“I’m not a child. I can handle myself out here,” she snapped back, looking around at the yard. There were a few containers piled up right in front of her, and down the makeshift path she could see more piled up. “Uh... Which containers am I looking for?”

“The red ones marked ‘Murkywater’ on the side. They’re the most likely ones to be carrying the loot, anyway. Don’t bother searching the others.”

“Thanks.”

“Don’t mention it. If you need any more help handling yourself—”

“Shut up, Chains.”

There was one like that against the wall on the right, but nothing was inside except a piece of bent metal painted red in the middle. She was about to turn around and leave it when Bain’s voice came in through her earpiece. “Nice find there, Rainbow,” he suddenly said. “That crowbar will definitely come in handy when we get to searching the warehouse.”

“Uh, okay...” She tucked it under one wing and headed out of the container, suddenly noticing the camera above her. “Crap, camera up there... What do I do? It’s got me trapped in here...” She huddled down in the back of the container, staring up at it.

“Breathe, kid,” Chains told her. “Just breathe deeply and focus. You’re not in any trouble yet. Wait until it turns around, then get out.”

“No need,” Dallas cut in. “Uh, yeah, no problems at all here. Must have been on your end.” After a pause, he continued, “I just killed the guy on the cameras. Nobody’ll call it in even if a camera does catch you. I don’t know how long that pager guy is going to keep believing me, though. Be careful with killing any more guards. Oh, nice,” he suddenly added, and then went quiet.

Everyone sent back a confirmation note. As Rainbow stepped out of the container, she came face to mask with Hoxton. “If you want to keep searching the yard, I’ll use the crowbar on the boxes inside. It’s probably easier out there with Chains spotting for you.” Rainbow wanted to tell him off for patronising her, but she decided she probably wasn’t up to the indoor area, and gave him the crowbar. “Alright, looks clear out there.” He pointed down the path between the containers, and she headed out into the main yard.

“Got eyes on you, Rainbow,” Chains called out. “Civilian coming your way. See that container above you?” She looked up, seeing another of the red containers. “You can probably get it open before he gets to you. Hide in there, quickly!” She jumped up to the container, flapping her wings a few times to jimmy open the lock and hide inside.

She didn’t hear anything from the civilian down below, who walked straight underneath her without even glancing up. Wiping her brow and failing to remove any of the sweat from above her flight suit, she started looking around the container. Bain stopped her as she passed over a box of money. “Looks like used foreign banknotes. Difficult to trace, so they’re perfect for us. Bag ‘em up.”

She pulled a second bag out and unfolded it, piling the notes inside. It wasn’t quite full, so she slung it over her back and started searching for another container. Hoxton called out that he’d found a server inside one of the crates. “Wonder what’s in it,” he mused. “Bank account numbers, FBI data, the President’s e-mail address, the passcodes for Area 51...”

“That’s entirely possible,” Bain agreed. “It’ll take a while to decrypt, but for now, just get it out of there.”

Rainbow dropped down to the ground again, slinking along towards another container with the Murkywater logo on the side. There was another box of the same kind of cash inside, which she used to completely fill the bag. With the bag slung over her back again, she flew up to the roof and attached it to a zipline, watching it travel across the yard. “Bag coming your way, Chains. Get ready for it,” she reported.

“Roger that. Oh, and you might wanna get off the helipad. I can see a chopper coming in.”

“Wait a minute,” Bain said. “My flight plans don’t say anything about a helicopter coming in, at any time tonight. Something’s not right here. You’d better hide somewhere, Rainbow.”

She quickly got off the helipad, hiding behind a door that someone had left open for roof access. As the helicopter passed by her, though, she called out, “Wait a minute. It doesn’t look like it’s landing here. It seems to be carrying something...”

“Is that a shipping container underneath?” Chains asked. “If they’re flying it in after dark, then they don’t want anyone knowing about it... Must be pretty valuable, like whatever’s in the vault.”

“I’ll go check it out as soon as the helicopter’s gone.”

“Damn, Hoxton, that gold is quite a find. It’ll be heavy, though.”

“Don’t worry, I can take it,” Wolf said. I’ll just need a little while—Shit!” The line went dead for a few seconds before he started up again, in a slightly different voice. “You’ve reached... Steve. He’s unavailable at the moment. Please leave your message after the beep.” He made a beeping noise before adding, “Nah, just kidding, it’s Steve. Everything’s cool.”

Another pause followed, then Hoxton said, “I can’t believe he bought that.”

“Hey, the helicopter’s moved on. You said you wanted to check out that container; now’s as good a time as any.” Still slightly stunned by how stupid Wolf’s excuse was, Rainbow didn’t sent back an acknowledgement right away, but did drop down over the rail just as a guard came up through the roof access.

Inside the container was another crowbar and a large crate. Under Bain’s directions, she cracked the crate open, finding a set of armour like the one Chains wore. She was about to just close the box and leave it when Bain cut her off again. “That looks like some kind of prototype armour. Definitely not just run of the mill. Bag it up. We’ll check it out later.” Shrugging, she pulled out another bag and started to put the armour pieces inside.

“Freeze!” someone suddenly shouted beside her. She started and turned, seeing a man in dark green body armour and a brown helmet, pointing a very large rifle at her. “Whatever you are, don’t move a muscle!” She nodded, which led him to pull his gun up again. “What did I fucking say?” She didn’t move again after that. He reminded her too much of the man in black who’d attacked her a couple of weeks ago.

He stepped closer and pulled out a pair of handcuffs from one of his ballistic vest’s pockets. “I usually save these for my wife, but I think this is a special case.” He handcuffed her front hooves together, then pulled out a pager. “HQ, I’ve found—”

A bullet burst through his head from behind, followed by several more. As his body fell to the ground, she started panicking, but Hoxton placed a hand over her and shushed her. The pager beeped again, and someone on the other end said, “What have you found, two-five? Report in immediately!”

“I’ve found that this is an extremely boring job most nights, unless a spider as big as my goddamn hand appears,” Hoxton replied, trying to imitate the voice of the dead man that Rainbow was still staring at. Facing away from the pager, he whispered, “Please work, please work, please work...”

“A spider... right... Okay, you’re clear. Just don’t call in for stupid shit like that again, you hear?”

Rainbow and Hoxton breathed a sigh of relief in unison, and the latter began searching through the dead man’s pockets for the key to the handcuffs. “They were in that one,” Rainbow said, pointing her nose at one in particular. He pulled the key out and uncuffed her, pulling the body further into the container as she finished filling her bag with the armour.

As he dragged the dead body further into the container, he poked around in the remaining pockets, eventually finding a keycard in one of them. “Hey, I’ve found a keycard,” he said. “Bain, didn’t you say somethin’ earlier about a vault that needed two of these?”

“I found the other one in the security room before,” Dallas said. “Meet me at the vault, and we’ll get her open.”

“So that’s why you said ‘oh, nice’. Good to know. Wolf, Chains, get over to the vault. Chains, drop off that money bag on the way. We’re not gonna need any more spotting for the yard.”

“Roger dodger.”

Hoxton helped Rainbow get down into the sewers, leading her back to the entrance inside the warehouse near the vault. Wolf and Dallas were already there, and Chains arrived a few seconds after. “Alright, you ready?” Dallas asked, and Hoxton nodded. The two took up positions next to each of the card readers. “Three, two, one, now.”

They put their cards in at the same time, and the readers beeped and turned green. Slowly, noisily, the vault began to open, and everyone started glancing around, hoping that nobody had caught them. Rainbow was the first to see inside, and her jaw dropped at the sight of the armour inside. The black mail, flower symbol on the breastplate and the angry mask all confirmed that it was from an entirely different culture to that of the Americans. The mystery of it got to her, and she let out a small noise, murmuring “So awesome...”

“The armour of Oda Nobunaga?!” Bain exclaimed. “That’s... Everyone, bag that up, no matter how many bags you need. If that’s genuine...” Nobody had to be told twice. All in all, it fit into four bags, which the crew immediately started moving out. Rainbow stayed behind in the warehouse, wanting to check out a few more crates in the area around the vault.

There was nothing in the first two crates, but the third contained a painting. “Can’t believe that Murkywater would steal something like this. Only fair we steal it back, right?” Rainbow found herself reluctantly agreeing as she rolled it up and fit it into another bag.

She was about to start heading out when she heard someone call out behind her. Without thinking, she turned and bucked him straight in the sternum, and he fell to the ground. Then she heard the beep from his pager, and gulped. “What’s going on out there? Respond!” the operator said.

“Uh... I didn’t see anything, just tripped over... heh heh...”

“Hey, something’s not right here. I didn’t think we had any of our female personnel at Murkywater. Identify yourself immediately!”

“I, uh...” She immediately started sprinting away from the body, trying to retrace her steps back out into the yard. “Guys, I blew it! Better double-time it back to the van!” The alarm suddenly went off behind her, the loud klaxon seemingly pushing her harder.

After scrambling around in a few rooms full of lockers, she made it to the yard, getting airborne to take a look around. More of the guys in the dark green armour had burst out of the path in front of the clowns, but were quickly cut down in a hail of gunfire. Rainbow met up with them at the van, throwing in the painting as they added the armour to the stockpile.

She was about to get in when she heard the helicopter returning. “Guys, that helicopter is going to follow us as soon as we leave, and I don’t know if the van can shake it. But I might be able to.” She flapped her wings twice on the ground to prove her point.

“Rainbow, we can’t let you do something this dangerous on your own—” Dallas started.

“It’ll be easy! Don’t worry!” she replied, before darting off into the air, hovering in front of the helicopter. “Hey, you want to chase someone down? Try this on for size!” She darted off across the yard, away from the van, hoping the helicopter would follow.

“The gunship’s firing! Get outta the way!” Bain shouted, an instant before rapid gunfire filled the air. Rainbow started a barrel roll just in time, and the bullets grazed past her, far too close for comfort.

Trying to get away, she turned upwards and ducked through a cloud bank, only for the helicopter to shred the clouds above it as it rose to follow. The gunfire started again, and she turned around, trying to get over the rotor blades without being torn apart by them. It rose to catch her, cutting off part of her tail before she made it over.

As it started to turn around, she flew underneath it as well, hoping to catch it facing the wrong way. She’d gone too fast, however, and they saw her again, launching a missile. It chased after Rainbow like a Timber Wolf, and she pushed herself as hard as she could to get away. It wasn’t enough. The missile kept closing in on her.

Out of options, she tucked in her wings and dropped straight down, back through the clouds. As she fell, she quickly gained speed again, making a turn to level out and cut through the streets. The missile crashed into a billboard behind her, the loud explosion making her cringe. That, in turn, made her fall out of the sky, landing roughly on a rooftop below.

“Holy shit, Rainbow Dash, are you okay?!” Bain shouted through the earpiece. “That was one hell of a fall you just took!”

“I’m okay...” she managed to croak out, pulling herself up to her hooves. When that failed, she resigned herself to sitting on her haunches, which she could manage if she sat against a nearby AC unit. “I’ll be okay. Probably pretty sore tomorrow, but I’m okay.”

“As long as you’re sure. I’ll send the van around as soon as I can. Looks like they’re in the clear; your distraction worked, perhaps a little too well.”

“Good to know the guys are okay, too... I’ll just hang tight, then.”

~~~

“So, what’s the final score?” Dallas asked as the crew laid the bags out, opening them one by one. “A whole lot of dinars, some gold bullion, a few AK-47s, several bags of cocaine. We can probably just fence all of those right away.”

“That painting Rainbow took will have to be verified for if it’s real or a forgery first,” Wolf said. “But we can probably afford an art expert to check on that.”

“And Bain should have plenty of decryption programs for that server,” Hoxton continued. “We can’t really sell the box itself, but information is a commodity too.”

“That armour you found in the container is pretty damn high-tech,” Chains added, nodding at Rainbow. “I reckon I’ll keep it. Useful for assault jobs.”

Bain cleared his throat as his voice crackled into life. “And that just leaves the armour. That’ll be a lot harder to verify, or find a buyer for that won’t bring down any unnecessary suspicion. Still, our total score for the night’s work is a whole damn lot. And even though the alarm went off at the end, we all made it back here scot-free. Nice work, folks.”

“Probably worth bringing Rainbow out on more jobs, too. She performed pretty well tonight. Maybe we should get her a proper mask,” Dallas said. In response, Rainbow curled up a bit. “What’s wrong?”

“That helicopter... I very nearly died tonight,” she said. “And it was my own stupid fault, for hanging around in the warehouse and trying to take on the helicopter alone. I don’t think I’m cut out for field work. I might still be able to spot for you, but...” She couldn’t finish the sentence, overcome by visions of herself falling out of the sky, torn apart by bullets or a missile.

Everyone was silent for a little while, and the other three robbers looked at Dallas. “I didn’t know she would react that way,” he said, raising his hands. “But if you don’t wanna go out again, that’s fine. Still, we appreciate your help for tonight’s job.” He crouched down and stroked her mane, pulling off the latex glove when he saw the dye come off on his hand.

“Wow, that stuff didn’t last nearly as long as it should’ve,” Wolf said.

“Maybe because ponies’ manes work differently after all.”

“I wouldn’t really know. I don’t know much about human hair, and it’s not something that comes up much around you guys.”

“In any case, we’d better all get home. I’ll hook up some buyers and fence everything. The money gets split even four ways, like always. Nice doing business, gentlemen. Lighting a cigar for you right now.” With that, Wolf, Chains and Hoxton stood up and left.

“We’d better get some sleep,” Dallas said once they were out of sight. “Though, after tonight’s excitement, it’s gonna be hard...”

“Yeah, you got that right, Dallas. G’night.”

~~~

The police arrived at the scene too late to do anything about it. They’d been expecting a mess, so it surprised them to see that the Payday Crew had long since been and gone, leaving only a few patches of blood and, strangely, one guard merely unconscious with two broken ribs. That didn’t fit their MO at all, as far as any of the police knew.

As Wilson arrived at the scene, he looked back at ‘John’ as he stepped out of the car. John was still a complete mystery to him. With only a given name that could easily be a pseudonym to go on, there wasn’t much he could dig up. He also couldn’t find much under facial recognition scans, leaving him entirely at a loss for just who the bounty hunter was that was being given not only the approval, but the full support of the FBI.

As another van pulled up outside and a few urban-camo-clad soldiers piled out, he caught sight of their massive leader. Unlike John, a simple database search for Jared Stone had turned up more than enough. Formerly a Murkywater employee, he’d been suspected of steroid abuse and possibly even illegal drugs for a long time. However, the only crime he’d ever convicted of was the abuse of a young girl in Iran as an unidentified soldier filmed it.

In the face of the video evidence, Murkywater had had no choice but to fire him. How he was back out in the field after that, he couldn’t be certain. Clearly, he’d been hired under the table, but by who, and for what purpose?

“Fuck. They’re gone,” Stone said, growling. “Pity. Hope they haven’t gone fully to stealth, or I won’t get another chance to take ‘em on...” Wilson didn’t say anything, not wanting to set off a ‘roid rage incident, but the clue was there. There were only a couple of groups that had frequent enough contact with the Payday Crew that he’d not only expect, but look forward to encountering them.

He turned to face Wilson and John, immediately passing over the FBI agent. “And who are you?” he asked John, looking him up and down. “Another bounty hunter after the twenty million?”

“Something like that,” John replied, doing the same behind his sunglasses. “But then again, I wouldn’t want you to fall behind on your alimony payments.”

“What the—Nobody disrespects me like that!” Stone shouted, raising a fist. One of the others in the urban camo grabbed his arm, saying something Wilson couldn’t make out through the mask, and he lowered his arm. “Ah, you’re not worth it. But if you fuck with me again, I will fuck you up. Mark my words.”

They all got back into the van and drove off, and Wilson sighed. “Are you trying to get killed, John?” he asked.

“No. I just wanted to size him up. I don’t doubt we’ll be seeing him again. C’mon, there’s not much else we can do here. The actual police have it under control.” Wilson could only nod as he got back into the car.

Author's Note

For the record, I did actually get the armour once, on Death Wish. And we even cleared all 12 bags, though the alarm went off as we were moving out the last set. The group I did it with isn't even that great at stealth missions, usually, so that was a hell of a night.

If you think I'm lying, proof.