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Niki neatly sheaths the last of her daggers, she thinks six will be enough, but just in case she quickly slips a small blade into the hidden pocket of her right sleeve. This is an important mission, and she needs to be ready.
Stepping out of the cramped, but clean and well-lit, closet-like room she notices Wilbur, or Apollo in uniform, with his bow slung across his back and his utility belt stocked, leaving his own closet-like room.
"Ready?" she asks, receiving only a slight nod in return.
Together they walk down the familiar red carpeted halls, Niki idly counts the lights embedded into the walls, watching how as she walks by she can see barely a shadow from how much their warm golden glow lights up the room. Kinda impressive. She thinks, looking to the almost 12-foot ceiling and how, even at the very top, the shadows are chased away by soft light.
Looking back down, she runs through her checklist of gear, six daggers, a small secret blade in her sleeve, eight throwing knives, a retractable staff, a pouch of sleeping powder, five smoke bombs, a lighter, some mixed red, purple, and gold glitter, and a handgun loaded with knockout darts. They couldn't afford to be cocky or under-prepared, the other revolutionary groups were taken out within a month of appearing, and this was why they had lasted three years. This won't be the mission they fail. She fails. She thinks, glaring down at the floor.
"What'd that floor ever do to you?" Wilbur says, breaking the comfortable silence. She looks over quickly, pulled from her thoughts, and her glaring contest with the floor, to see his face curious, but the corners of his eyes crinkle in a way that promises mischief. "Just the mission." she replies, quickly continuing when she sees him roll his eyes and open his mouth to speak "I know we've prepared well, and gone over the plan as many times as we could without a mutiny," which they had, they'd gone over it until Sapnap jokingly said he was "gonna either cause a mutiny or throw myself out the window if I have to hear this stupid plan one more time!" quickly turning to smack George in the arm when he pointed out they were underground. "but it never hurts to be over prepared, and the Commission is really keen on protecting this, whatever it is, we need it away from them."
She finished just as they reached the intricately carved oak door leading to the common room. She opened the door, allowing it to fall closed once both she and Wilbur had stepped through. The common room had a living room feel to it, with the same red carpet floors, lights, and dark mahogany walls as the hallway, couches placed around the TV in one corner, a table with chairs surrounding it in another, and pictures of their team scattered along the walls.
"Hey guys!" Bad, or Kratos in uniform, called, causing Niki to flinch. "Hey, Bad!" Wilbur called back. "Are you guys ready for the mission?" he asked while the two walked over to where the others were standing "I think so." Niki said turning to look to Wilbur, who scoffed saying "I was ready before we did the billionth run-through of the plan this morning, I'm more than ready now." "You can never be too careful mate." Phil chastised lightly, walking up behind them to survey the room.
"It looks like almost everyone is here," he continues as Wilbur rolls his eyes with a smile "we're just waiting on Karl and-" "-you it's a soup!" was heard as the doors burst open to Sapnap and Dream arguing "Literally how?!" "It has everything! Some water, salt, meat, greens what else does it need?!" Dream screamed out, with Sapnap replying in an equally screeching voice "So now I suppose a hot dog is a taco?!" "Yes!"
George calmly walked in after the two towards the group and ignored the pair who were screaming about something in the background. "Morning" he said after reaching them. Phil raised an eyebrow "It's nine o'clock at night mate." he pointed out. George just shrugged, causing Phil to let out a fond, but exasperated sigh while everyone else laughed lightly.
The doors opened again, much more softly this time, to reveal Karl, or Chronos in the field, quietly stepping into the room and over to the group. Amy scanned the room, doing a role-call in her head. There was Wilbur (Apollo), Phil (Zephyrus) Techno (Ares), Bad (Krato), Skeppy (Aite), Karl (Chronos), Quackity (Poseidon), Sapnap (Prometheus), Dream (Hermes), George (Hypnos), and herself, Niki (Nemesis). All of them geared up and equipped with lightweight backpacks for anything they might find while on the mission, and earpieces to keep in touch with each other.
Phil loudly clapped his hands, quickly gaining everyone's attention "Everyone ready to go?" seeing nods around the room he walked over to the door, plain metal, and opened it. The door opened up to the sewer at a point where, just ten feet to the left, they could leave the cement tunnel through a manhole into a dingy alleyway. As they walked the ten feet they put on their masks and, after looking back to make sure everyone had theirs on, Zephyrus opened the manhole cover, everyone quickly leaving before Chronos, being the last one out, closed it.
Once out everyone climbed into the nondescript black van they had parked next to the alley an hour prior, with Ares taking the driver's seat, and drove off. As she waited for them to arrive her mind drifted.
They were headed to just a few streets down from the tower, where there was a mall so that they could leave their vehicle in the parkade. The tower was the headquarters of the Commission, the government that had been in control for the last 18 years. The Commission was voted in fairly for it's first 10 year term, but during a recent heist, they found out that the second election was won through fraud, unfortunately they were intercepted and weren't able to leave with the files. Their mission today was to steal a weapon the Commission was holding close, and hopefully find some other stuff to steal. They had hacked into the Commission's telecomunications, and noticed several emails discussing an "important asset", though they found nothing on where it was located. So, when they started seeing requests for an abnormally large amount of protection at the tower, they knew they hit the jackpot. With the floor plans they had stolen a while ago, they were able to locate the three joint labs and vaults it would be in. The only problem? They had no clue which one it was in, and each lab-vault was several floors apart.
"Everyone know the plan?" was called out by Hermes to be met by an orchestra of groans. "Yes," sighed Apollo "me, Nemesis, Zephyrus, and Ares are going to the lab on floor twenty-six. You, Hypnos, Krato, and Aite are going to floor ten. And Chronos, Poseidon, and Prometheus are going to the underground level, negative three." Hermes sheepishly nodded and turned to talk to Hypnos, while everyone else resumed the conversations they were having before until they arrived. Quickly spilling out of the van the group began to head to the tower via swinging from rooftop to rooftop with grappling hooks. Once they were close enough, they all began executing the plan they had spent weeks on.
Her group and the group going to floor ten swung through the highest windows they could reach, those being the ones on the fourth floor, while the group going to the basement stormed the front door and began working their way to the elevator. Her group immediately started going for the elevator, distracting them enough for the group going to ten to get to the stairwell unhindered, except for having to dodge a few stray bullets. Nemesis quickly put her grappling gun away and pulled out her staff before descending into the chaos. She easily fell into the rhythm of fighting, jabbing one guard in the stomach before sharply turning and knocking another out with a precise blow to the temple. When they were able to, they bolted to the elevator and pressed the button for floor twenty-six.
As they rode she pressed the button on the side of her earpiece and began addressing the other teams "This is team twenty six, we've reached the elevator. Where're you at, team ten?" "Almost at floor nine." came the static infused reply from who sounded to be Hermes. "Nice!" she enthused "Team negative?" "Thinking we really need better team names." the snarky reply was probably from Poseidon, as he had complained that they should have "mejor" names since before they even had the plan fully figured out. She would never understand why he had chosen to learn spanish. "You know what I meant, Poseidon." she sighed "Yeah, yeah. We're on the other elevator around floor negative two ish?" came the response "Alright, check in when you've reached your floor". Not ten seconds later there was an affirmative that team negative had reached their floor. The elevator chimed, signaling they had made it to floor twenty-six. She quickly pressed the button again and told everyone they had reached their floor, before reaching into her utility belt and grabbing a smoke bomb.
The moment the doors opened she threw it in. The room erupted in smoke, giving them an advantage as they all wore goggles for this very reason. They began picking off each of the guards off one by one, team ten speaking up a minute later to confirm they had made it to their floor as well.
Once the smoke settled they could see they had around twenty guards left, with roughly forty being already knocked out on the ground. They quickly changed tactics and pulled out their knockout guns. While they were working they heard a very excited Poseidon call out over comms "Guys, we found the weapon! We're grabbing all the files we can, and then we're heading out." so she quickly responded with an affirmative before continuing to shoot at any guards she saw. When all of them were down they put away their weapons and pulled out their glitter, their calling card, to let the Commission know exactly who broke into their most secure base. They spread it around the room as quickly as they could before putting it away again.
They all jogged over to the room, Nemesis and Apollo checking the vault to find stacks of money, which they quickly started stashing into their backpacks, while Zephyrus and Ares shoved every file they could see into their's. As they worked Nemesis let the others know they were in and what they'd found over their comms. When they were almost done, they heard a very hesitant and confused Hermes say "Uh guys? We made it to the vault...and there's a...child?" Nemesis stilled for a second, before pushing her confusion aside to say "Bring the kid and any files with you, and let us know when you're outside." When she was hoping to find some other stuff to steal, this was not what she had in mind. They quickly finished up and left the same way they came in, grapling until they were back at the car, while Nemesis confirmed that all three teams were out.
After driving home and changing, and getting the child fed and put to sleep, they all gathered in the meeting room. The meeting room was a large room, with paintings along the walls, and a massive dark oak table with matching chairs that nicely complimented the same lights, carpeted floors, and walls as the other rooms in the base.
The moment everyone was seated, Niki spoke up "So, we're keeping the kid right?" the stunned silence that followed wasn't reassuring "...just so we're all on the same page." the silence lingered a few seconds more before Sapnap exclaimed "Page?! We're not even in the same library!" and with that, everyone began speaking "I'm with Niki-" "Thanks Phil!" "why don't we keep the kid?" "Wha- THIS IS A REVOLUTIONARY BUNKER!" "Which is exactly why we should keep him," the monotonous voice of Techno chimed in "Where could he possibly be any safer?" "Somewhere he isn't going to be a hindrance?" George chimed in before quickly being interrupted by Wilbur "I'm with them, the Commission wanted him, and for that reason alone we should keep him." "Not you too Wilbur." Quackity groaned. Chaos descended upon the room. Not a thing could be understood except the volume of it all. It suddenly went quiet, however, when the door squeaked open and a small, blue-eyed head topped with golden hair peaked in.
"Um, I wanted to help," he whispered "I'm Tommy." with that, a series of introductions went around the room, before the child, Tommy, somehow got into a paper ball fight with Skeppy, who was very much an adult. Everyone quickly chose sides, and it became an all-out war in a matter of minutes. Though it ended quickly when Tommy shot a blast of red energy from his hands at a paperball headed for his face. He didn't look very surprised, more proud than anything else, everyone else was very surprised. It was more silent than a graveyard in a matter of seconds. "So...are we all on the same page now?" Niki smugly asked the open-mouthed room. The only response she got was vague nods from Karl and Skeppy and a surprised "Heh!?" from Techno.
Later, they would go on to read the files and discover Tommy's powers came from an accident from when Tommy's father was making the weapon. Later, they would celebrate Tommy's fifth birthday with cake and presents. Later, they would find out what the weapon was and figure out a game plan. Later, they would continue to fight a revolution for freedom. But for now, Amy was content seeing Tommy open up to each member of the Syndicate and give each of them a high-five when they finally said goodnight to each other.