4

The First Heist

 

The first heist was about to begin and everyone was in position. They made it to the building by driving in Aurora’s van, where Melody would remain parked a few buildings away with her laptop. Aurora was on the roof of the library while Luna and Chloe, who was wearing her cat mask again, were on the roof of an adjacent two story building, waiting for when Melody would temporarily shut down the security. Melody’s Ai was also accompanying Aurora.

“Hello!?!? Can you all hear me!?!?”

“L-loud and clear, Melody,” Chloe said, wincing at how loud the audio initially was.

“Okay good! Just making sure the earpieces work. You like them, Moon Girl?”

“Why are you also using that nickname for me?”

“We all have code names when on a heist so I figured I should give you one too.”

The code names were explained to Luna. Chloe’s was Cat, Aurora’s was Sunlight, and Melody’s was Dawn. They sounded more like silly nicknames than anything, but they did the job in disguising their names. 

“If we’re going to give me one, I’d rather it be something other than Moon Girl.” Luna never thought much about having any sort of nickname. She’d always been somewhat protective of her name. The thought of having that name messed with or replaced with a name she wasn’t comfortable with was an irritating one. 

“I have one! How about we called you Eclipse? That sounds cool, doesn’t it?” said Aurora.

“Hmmm, I suppose we could work with that.”

Eclipse was a pretty whatever name. It didn’t sound particularly goofy and it hid Luna’s real name. Maybe she could use it as a name if she wanted to be the kind of thief that left her mark everywhere she stole, but she wasn’t interested in those kinds of theatrics. If she was, she might’ve tried being a superhero with her powers. The thought is cringeworthy.

“We still haven’t thought of a name for our team yet have we?” asked Chloe.

“We haven’t had anything solid yet. Ooh! How about you name the team, Luna?” asked Aurora.

“M-Me? I guess I can try to think of something…”

Chloe began flipping around her bat, “Are you done shutting down the security yet, Melody? We’ve just been killing time here.”

“I’ve finished hacking the exterior alarms! They’re gonna be off for five minutes while the security cameras will be off for an hour. Go in and don’t mess up!”

For now, the girls turned off their earpieces in order to focus on their different goals. Aurora entered the fifth floor through a vent connected to the roof while both Luna and Chloe would have to enter through a second story window.

Luna used a grappling hook and zipped towards the window and used her knife to pry it open. Stepping inside the room was as simple as that. She had no idea how Chloe was supposed to get across, but she surely had her own method that Luna didn’t need any involvement in.

Chloe began getting a running start as she yelled, “Get out of way!”

Is she about to-? 

Chloe began running and made a leap through the air as she flew straight into the window, and in the same room as Luna. Luna made sure to move out of the way, lest she be hit with the full force of a girl capable of making such a ludicrous leap. Luna’s cursed abilities did give her some physical enhancements, but it was strange seeing someone that wasn’t connected to her Curse be capable of such feats. 

“Let’s get this over with,” said Luna.

“I should be the one saying that.”

Luna and Chloe landed into an office room, but exited into the main library. While every floor above the third was their own distinct level, the first three levels were connected through a square shaped spiral. The second and third floors consisted of the perimeters. The center was this hole where falling down would mean falling all the way down the first floor. This allowed for the girls to easily ascend or jump down floors however they wished.

“The mainframe is directly across where we are. There are only two drones on the first floor that we can ignore” said Chloe.

“I think we should take them out. If our presence becomes known, it’s better to have nothing come after us.”

“You’re saying we’re gonna get caught?”

“This is simply an extra measure we should take. With Dawn’s hacking, traces that we were here are gonna be made regardless.”

“If we don’t have to deal with them, I don’t think we-”

“No worries. I can take care of them myself.”

The two drones were on opposite ends of the first floor moving between bookshelves. Instead of hovering, they were moving on wheels, likely to reserve energy.

Clone Activate!

Luna formed a clone of herself that shot her grappling hook at the second floor railings. Holding onto the rope, she jumped off the floor and swung down towards the first floor and kicked herself right at a drone. It crashed straight into a bookshelf to which this clone of Luna stabbed her knife into the drone’s eye before it could get back up. With that, the clone vanished along with all the tools she used.

The real Luna had done nothing but stand on the second floor. She turned towards Chloe who witnessed the whole thing.

“That’s one down.”

Luna saw that as quick and simple, but based on Chloe’s clenched fist, she did not share that view.

“You are so-!”

The other drone heard the noise and rushed over to the location of its destroyed comrade. 

“I’ll handle this one too-”

“No way! You stay right there!”

But I was technically doing that already…

Chloe jumped over the railing and fell to the first floor. Before she hit the ground, she swung her bat in a downward arc that completely smashed the remaining drone. She hopped on top of the remains of the malfunctioned drone and used it as footing to jump high enough that her arm could reach the second floor and lift herself up.

Luna looked rather stunned to see Chloe was capable of performing such a maneuver.

“That was actually impressive.”

“You don’t get to say that! C’mon, let’s go already.”

Luna and Chloe progressed towards the mainframe. Chloe’s anger made it awkward, but Luna saw no issue with her actions. All her logic added up, and she was going to fulfill her task before Chloe decided to jump in.

“Earlier, why did you take down that drone yourself? I had it handled.”

“And I tried to tell you we didn’t need to, but you didn’t bother listening to me!”

“This is not something worth arguing about. The outcome was fine.”

“That’s not what I…! Ugh! You clearly have no clue how to work with anyone.”

“Like I said, I can do my part and offer my help. In the end we’re all here with a job to do and that’s it, right?”

Chloe stopped moving after being asked this, and so did Luna as a result. “We’re all here for reasons greater than a job, and I know the same goes for you. I get you care about Aurora way more than any of us, but if you’re gonna cut her off from your life after this, at least try to trust all of us for now.”

The two stared at each other for a few seconds. There was a lot Luna could take away from everything Chloe said, but her mind chose to narrow down on the implications of that last sentence.

“You listened to our conversation.”

“What?” 

“Everything I talked about with Sunlight last night. You were eavesdropping the whole time, weren’t you?”

“I might have heard a few… everything.”

Luna was frustrated, but unfortunately, not too surprised. That meant Chloe also heard about the Curse that Luna and Aurora share, and the deal they made. That’s probably what this was all about. 

“You don’t have the right to judge my life! You don’t know anything about what we’ve gone through and it’s going to stay that way! That’s not something a complete stranger like you gets to know!”

This was one of the reasons Luna was so content with isolating herself. If there was one thing she despised, it was people she didn’t care about learning any personal information without her consent. 

Unless they were someone close, they would always be kept at a distance. How would Luna ever be able to get close to anyone with this mentality? She wouldn’t. That was the point.

As Luna stared Chloe down, she noticed a red dot appeared on her arm. Actually, it was more like a light…

“CAT GET DOWN!”

Chloe immediately ducked after Luna’s yell. The sound of a sniper firing blasted both of their ears right after. Instead of hitting Chloe, it hit the nearby railing. 

Luna looked up at the third floor to see where the shot came from, but whoever fired it had vanished. She dropped a smoke bomb to the ground which exploded on impact. 

“There’s a sniper here! We need to take cover.”

The two girls ran behind bookshelves where a shot from above wouldn’t be able to reach. While it looked like Chloe needed time to calm down, Luna was rather collected. She was already used to being shot at.

The two turned on their earpieces to alert the rest of the group.

“This is Eclipse. We have an emergency. There’s an unknown assailant with a sniper rifle on the floor above us.” 

Aurora answered the alert, “A sniper!? Are you two alright!?”

Chloe chimed in, “We’re unscathed thanks to Eclipse. Who the heck was that!? I thought there’d only be a few droids!?”

Melody finally answered the alert, “Whoever you’re referring to is currently in a call of their own! I just picked up the feed! I’ll connect you all to it so you can listen.”

After some static, the girls were able to hear the assailant’s voice. However, they weren’t able to hear whoever this person was talking to. The assailant’s voice was that of a woman who spoke delicately.

“This is Katherine, reporting in. I’ve identified two trespassers in the Eterna Library. It’s like I deduced based on the theft regarding the head of security. The two appear female and seem to have superhuman abilities. They both have supernatural strength and agility, but one also has the ability to duplicate a clone of themselves.”

Chloe became stunned from hearing this. “Is that…Kate!? What’s she doing here!?”

“You know who this is, Cat?” Luna asked.

Before she could question Chloe further, Melody hushed them so that they could keep listening.

“Yes sir, one of them cloned herself. She may be able to make multiple clones for all I know… Wait, prioritize killing her?”

Those words were haunting to all the girls listening in. Why would killing Luna be a priority for this enemy?

“A-And kill the other one too? Couldn’t I just subdue them and wait for back up to arrive after? B-But-! ”

The only audible noise for a minute was the assailant’s deep breathing. If more security were to arrive now, Luna and Chloe would be cornered.  

After one more deep breath the assailant said, “Okay, 20 minutes. I’ll have them both taken care of at that time. I promise this as a member of the Void”

Did she say “The Void?” Luna thought to herself. Suddenly, the reason for why they’d want her killed specifically became clear in her head. Afterwards, the call disconnected.

“Oh no, oh no, oh no! This is bad! You have only twenty minutes until more soldiers arrive! What do we do!? Do we retreat!?” The panic in Melody was apparent in the cracks in her voice.

“If we retreat, that’ll only make infiltrating this place impossible the next time,” Aurora said. “But I also don’t want Eclipse and Cat to be in this much danger. Maybe I should go down there to help you two?”

“No, don't!” Luna objected. “I don’t need you to risk your life for us! Besides, there won’t be enough time for you to enter the hidden floor if you came. Cat, how do you know this person?”

Chloe didn’t form a solid response. She became lost in her mind with her panic beginning to grow. There was, however, a mumble Luna heard that put into perspective what was going on with her.

“My own sister…?”

This was a perplexing situation for all of them. They assumed that the only threat would be some drones and the security already in place. A Void soldier threw off all of their plans and put them in a perilous situation. Luna looked around and thought about how this team was clearly stumped. If things kept going like this, this whole operation would fall apart, and she wasn’t about to let that happen.

“We can’t risk going after the mainframe as long as this sniper is active. Cat and I will have to take care of this threat ourselves.”

“Are you sure about this, Eclipse?” Aurora asked.

“Positive. I can- I mean, we can handle this ourselves. It’s just one person against the two of us. We’ll get her out of the way quickly.”

“But still…” 

“Sunlight, it was you who said that I can protect you all I want. I plan to hold you on that for as long as possible.”

Aurora was reminded of the very words she told Luna when they made their deal. A little giggle could be heard through the earpiece. 

“Yeah, if that’s how it’s going to be, then I’m putting my full faith in the two of you. I’ll be ready when you shut down the security!”

“That conversation took at least a minute of your precious time, I hope you’re all aware,” Melody said. “I’m closing this communication before you waste any more time!”

With that, the discussion between the four ended. Only Luna and Chloe left their earpieces on to talk to each other. Chloe’s composure seemed better than it was before, but it was still far from acceptable for the challenge they were about to face..

“I can do this…I can do this…I can do this…!”

Luna was surprised to see Chloe act like this. It’d been years since Luna  had to console someone, so she was pretty clueless as to what'd be the right thing to say. But even so, the clear stress Chloe was going through had an effect on Luna. It acted as a hammer that slammed through the barriers of Luna’s distant nature. I can’t turn away from this.

“Cat, listen to me. We’re gonna get through this perfectly fine.”

“I can do this… I can-”

“Cat!”

Luna’s voice finally got Chloe’s attention. She turned her head to see that Luna was staring her dead in the eyes.

“This may be a tense situation, but I’m going to need you focused. If you’re concerned for her life, we’ll just leave her unconscious, and nothing more.”

“Yeah… not bad…”

Yes! My logic is helping! This is good!

It was clear that Chloe’s confidence was not fully regained, but Luna had an idea.

“From what I’ve gathered, you’re fairly strong, and Sunlight seems to think so too. You’re not about to prove that her trust in you is wrong, correct?”

Chloe recognized these words and relaxed as she let them sink in, “Haha, you really had to pull that, didn’t you?”

“It’s only fair I’d say.”

Chloe’s laugh was far more pleasant than Luna could’ve ever expected. She had only seen Chloe as a snarky girl with a mouth, but maybe there were more sides to her than Luna realized. Actually, of course there had to be. People were never so simple. Maybe Luna had forgotten that a little bit.

“Before we do this, sorry about the whole y’know, listening in on your chat last night.”

“I’ll get over it over time. At least that’s what I hope. It’s not like everything you’ve said has been wrong…”

“We should uh… probably have a better talk about this later.”

“Not a bad idea. Maybe a bit of honesty wouldn’t be so bad.”

“Look at you actually listening to me! Guess you’re not as stiff as I thought!”

“This conversation is over.” Nevermind. Still a snarky girl.

“Got it. We have a job to do after all!”

Perhaps they spent a bit more time talking than they really should have, but having them both be in the right mind was important if they were going to work together. Luna focused so much on merely doing her part, that she didn’t anticipate having to ever engage in a deeper conversation with someone she barely knew. Well, that wasn’t correct anymore. Even if only a little more, she was beginning to know someone other than Aurora and Serene. The significance of this was not weighing on Luna’s head, however. She and her teammate had a job to do, after all.