The vehicle that had parked at the far end of the lot was an old, run down Basalt sedan, and judging by the lack of a license plate, the theory of it being owned by a gangster was terrifyingly plausible. Ashley quietly shook Damian awake, whispering, "Dude. Look, it's some... gang car! I'm sure of it!", Damian said nothing, instead straightening up in his seat trying to make out more details of the vehicle in the dark. They observed the vehicle for a short while, the tension slowly rising as no one seemed to step off from the vehicle. "That's not good. Are they hacking into the grid or something? Can't be. A Dataport needs to be plugged into a terminal to do anything." he thought. Ashley observed the vehicle even more closely, she reached for the gun inside the glovebox and turned the safety off, Damian stared at her in bewilderment, but neither of them had time to say anything in regards to this reckless decision, as someone stepped off the driver's seat.
From the driver's seat, a short, thin figure wearing a cloak emerged. They didn't seem to have any Mechas installed, and neither did they seem like an Arachnid. They looked around and hurried inside the market through a broken window. Ashley grinned widely, already reaching to open the door, Damian grabber her shoulder and watched his friend turn slightly to look at him, now annoyed, "Hey, they're getting in, don't you see? We NEED to go catch them!" she whined, "Weren't you scared of going after them a few hours ago? Besides, I saw them well, not blind y'know? But we can't go right after them just yet. I say we wait until they get busy. You've got the benefit of being a bunny, your paws are silent on stone floors. Look at me for a second." Damian said, dramatically pointing at himself, Ashley held back a giggle, "Oh. Yeah. They'd hear us coming from a mile away, wouldn't they? Besides, we'd need another way in, if there's someone else in the car they'd see us.". Damian suddenly froze; he had not considered that possibility, but it was true, there could be someone left in the car to act as a getaway driver, so finding another way to access the building far from their field of view was better than risking the intruder being alerted to their presence. "Okay, I'll need you to keep quiet until we have the guy captured, all right? We can't afford to be noticed unless being shot was on your plans for tonight" he said, stepping of the van, Ashley nodded and followed.
They looped the building to the side opposite to where the car was parked, looking for any access points. Shockingly, the previously shattered windows were now sloppily boarded up, and removing the blockages was an unreasonable choice. Ashley tried opening one of the multiple access doors, but as expected, it was locked from the inside. They were about to give up until Damian noticed the fire exit. The autodoor was supposed to only open from the other side, not from the outside, but this model was ancient and easy to bypass, he calmly approached the door. He identified the place where the two halves of the door met, and slid a claw in between them, and the mechanism gave way and miraculously slid open nearly silently, he smiled and signaled Ashley to go after him. As they walked from the emergency exit tunnel to the market itself, the first thing Ashley noticed was how unreasonably terrifying the red lights that illuminated the place were, she poked Damian and asked, in a whisper "Hey, why are the lights like that? Why would there be any lights? There's no one here." Damian stared at her, annoyed, and put a finger to his mouth. Ashley flinched, of course, she wasn't supposed to be speaking.
They stumbled across in the disorienting light, trying to make out the correct path to their old store. In this ambient, figuring out where to go was nearly impossible, which Ashley would quickly understand was the purpose of the security lights. They walked in dead silence, observing the completely transformed ambiance of the entire place, gone was the joyful and somewhat whimsical feeling one got if they visited the place during business hours, replaced by the aggressive aura of security lights and Automated Security Turrets that could spring out the ground at any second. Making their way through the narrow corridors, the duo reached the store, and found the metal doors swung wide open, with the back room lights turned on without a care. They quietly entered the store, and Damian signed Ashley to disengage the safety from the gun and to take aim. She nodded, firmly grasping the weapon as she walked up to the open back door, and took a quick peek. Sat on the floor, with a section of the panneling removed and a mess of wires poking out, a hooded figure sat tinkering with a strange-looking machine. They were murmuring, and Ashley made her best effort to listen. "Dammit... the power cells run outta juice too fast... just gotta bridge the main generator to it, and it'll be full lickety-split. Just gotta hope Solomon can get enough outta them..." said the figure, reaching inside their hood for a pair of pliers and a soldering iron. They were about to begin cutting wire when Ashley jumped from her hiding spot and yelled "Hey, you gangster scum! Drop that shit and hands up! It's the police!", pointing the gun right at the stranger's head.
Damian's heart skipped a beat as he sprint towards Ashley and wrestled the gun out of her hands, "What are you doing?! 'The police'? Are you going Netsplit?! If those cameras are working we're done for, impersonating officers is a goddamn felony!", he finally took the gun from her, putting it on his pocket. The figure suddenly cackled and stood up, removing his hood, revealing that they were a capybara. "Ooh, so scary! The shopkeeps of Trash and Garbage Store coming to get me with their peashooter! Oh, whatever will I do!" he said, holding back his laughter, Damian took a step forward, "Shut up. Just what the hell are you doing?! Listen, it's clear that you aren't a gang member. Can't see any face markings, or arm tattoos, and you ain't carrying weapons either. All we want is info bout what you're doing, okay? We won't call 'the blues' if you speak, aight?" said the dragon, the capybara laughed, "For real? What reasons do I have to believe you? Your friend the lettuce over there pointed a damn gun at me! Even if you bunch don't call the cops on me, you'll still fill me with lead, won't you?" they said.
Ashley was about to complain about her new nickname, but Damian once again gave her a death stare and then turned to the now very confused stranger, "Look, I... have no clue what your goals are. But whatever it is you need, we can give it to you without needing to do this. Let's begin with introductions, I'm Damian West. What's your name?", the capybara smirked, "Oh boy, I've been waiting for this chance. -he declared on an overly dramatic tone, clearing his throat, he continued- ...To save my people from destruction, and to break our chains and soar high... We are the Apostles, we fight to make our voices heard. My name is Eden, expert fighter and the best gunman there is.", then he concluded his introduction with a theatrical salute. "You can't be for real, dude! Are we in a Datascape? Are you hearin' this man? 'The Apostles'? What's that? A new gang or somethin'? You guys have an awfully long way to go if this is who you're recruiting!" Ashley laughed as she walked up to the device Eden was working on, and picked it up, "So this is one of your power cells, huh? What's it for? Don't think any Mecha augments need this big of a battery.", she inspected the device. The capybara scrambled to take it from her hands, hugging it as if it were a child, "Hands off my power cell! It's none of your business what I'm doing with it! As for the deal ya'll have for me, I'm in." he said.
"Well then! BUT there's gotta be something in it for us, too! What'cha think about sending Credits our way, like maybe one thousand? Whatever it is you need HAS to be worth that, if not more, right?", Ashley said, with a smug expression on her face, the Capybara sighed and almost instantaneously transferred the amount to the bunny's account. She flinched, not expecting the payment to come that quick, "Alright then, we got a deal. This is a heavy-duty power cell. Used in industrial equipment, but we have a homebrew use for it. If you could get me one of these brand new, along with a charger so I don't have to break in to your stupid store to use the main line power, I'll leave you alone, and you can go off to do whatever it is you need." Eden didn't seem quite excited to work with them, but by the looks of it, he had no choice. Damian walked towards the exit door, "Okay then, I guess we can help. A thousand creds definitely buys what you need. But as soon as you get that, you're out of our lives, got it?" he said, Eden silently nodded and followed him out of the store.
They exited the market as if nothing had happened, going out of the same back exit Damian had already opened, heading towards their van. Eden stared at the vehicle in disgust, "Are we going in... that? Are you sure it runs?" he asked, tapping the hood of the vehicle as if he expected it to be hollow, Ashley groaned, "Oh yes, Mr. I Own a Basalt, your rust bucket from twenty years ago is MUCH better than our car JUST because it's from a luxury brand! And you just can't be seen riding this! Oh what will happen to you!" she commented as she climbed into the passenger's seat. Eden looked at Damian, perhaps expecting him to defend him, but the dragon said nothing. Forced to ride on that old van, he opened the sliding door and stepped inside, sitting on the floor of the vehicle. Damian started the van and drove off, Ashley looked back through the window, observing as Eden's car stayed in the parking lot, "Hey, Eden? You leavin' your ride back there? What I said hurt'cha that much?" she asked, "Ha! Like I, the great Eden, would be so stupid! That car wasn't even mine!" he replied, in the initial dramatic tone he had used. "What? Stolen car? Didn't you say you weren't a gangster? Starting to doubt if not calling the cops on you was a good idea." Damian spoke without looking at Eden once again, but his voice was enough to cause a reaction in him, "Ah, no, no! It's not stolen! It's just not mine, I borrowed it from a friend of mine!" he hastily explained, Damian didn't seem to buy into the excuse, going back to the silent treatment once more.
Eden stared nervously out the window, watching as the vehicle merged into the highway, and head towards the commercial district. "What store do we go to?" Damian asked, dryly, Eden flinched once again, "Ah... I think they sell these at Hephaestus Hardware?" he said, Damian kept staring at the road, his hands firmly grasping the steering wheel. Sooner than later, they arrived at the store, and despite it being almost midnight, it was still open. "Stay here. Just tell us the product name and we'll get your stuff." continued the dragon, "It's a SDL987 heavy-duty power cell. Make... make sure it's high capacity." he said. The duo sighed as they stepped off the vehicle and left the capybara alone inside the old van. Exhausted, he drifted off to sleep, though he was suddenly woken by Damian and Ashley's return as they opened the sliding door and placed the boxes containing the power cell and the humongous charger. Damian was also pissed off, he could tell from the expression in the dragon's face, "Pay up." he said, "What the fuck? A thousand creds wasn't enough?" Eden asked, his voice shaky, "Of course it wasn't, asshole! Just the damn cell costed fifteen-hundred! We spent three THOUSAND creds on your bullshit!" Damian reached and grabbed Eden by the collar of his coat, the capybara was panicking and breathing heavily now, "Chill, man! I can pay! I just ain't got cash on me right now! I can take you to my team's base though! We can pay you there, I swear on the Seven Goddesses!" he was pleading and nearly crying now, Ashley then did something that no one, not eve herself, expected. She slapped Damian, a bright red mark left behind on his scales, the pain causing him to drop Eden. In shock, he turned to look at Ashley, she was staring at him with a concerned look in her eyes, "Dude, what the fuck?" she asked.
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