The morning after coming home felt all too familiar to Ashley and Damian, almost like nothing had changed at all for the past three years. Damian woke up first and headed towards the bathroom to take a shower, while Ashley tumbled sleepily over to the kitchen to begin to prepare breakfast. The strange smell of the artificial chicken eggs quickly spread through the small apartment, almost forcing Damian out of the shower with a grimace on his face, "Fuck, Ash. Those things really smelled that bad? I had forgotten", the bunny girl let out a giggle "Yeah. Dunno what they put in these, but it sure as hell ain't as natural as they claim. It's all we can afford before our first paycheck..." she replied.
A bit later, Damian sat at the table, turning the TV on, the news anchor smiled radiantly as always, though the news were the same as they had always been: traffic accidents, gang fights, people dying from infections from not caring after their Mecha Enhancements. Suddenly, Damian remembered something, "Hey, Ashley? Where'd you get those eggs from? I thought we had nothing in the fridge" she dramatically pointed towards a window and said "Finally figured what the sensor window was for. Drone deliveries, apparently. Ordered some groceries for our breakfast today. Last one in this good old place, ya' know? so I felt like we needed the most premium brands of eggs and cereal to celebrate!" she exclaimed, "Like eggs and cereal are premium at all..." Damian murmured as he directed his attention towards the TV again, "I hope they serve us better food at the Control Crew Headquarters, I'm done with eating this 3D printed slop from Vivendi Goods." complained the dragon with a sigh, Ashley cackled "Of course they're gonna serve better stuff! I heard they give you ACTUAL eggs and REAL milk!" she said, bringing the plates with the plastic-looking fried eggs on them to the table. They ate in silence, consuming the mystery substance the artificial eggs were made of with the same blank expression they'd always had during meals.
It didn't take them long to finish their food, Damian got off the table and grabbed the plates, he looked at Ashley and said "Get ready. We're leaving in ten minutes.", she stared confused "Where? The job begins tomorrow?", Damian turned back and headed towards the sink, "To our old workplace. We need to pack everything up and leave the space free. While all the food should not be there anymore, we have lots of junk to get rid of before we can call in and say we don't need the space anymore." he said, as he scrubbed the plates with his back turned towards Ashley, "No fair! I thought we wouldn't go there anymore after getting our places in the Control Crew, you promised!" she whined, leaning back on the chair. "I know what I said, but if we don't get rid of everything, we're paying a fee that'll eat our first check up, and you wouldn't want that, would you?" just the thought of losing money made Ashley's sweat run cold, she sprung up from the table and ran to the room screaming, "Sure! I-I'll get changed! See you down in the parking lot in ten!", the automatic door slamming closed behind her and locking with a mechanical noise.
Surprisingly, Ashley was ready at exactly the proposed time, waiting right beside the run-down van, "Wow. You're on time to go to work? Who are you and what did you do with Ashley?" Damian sarcastically said, Ashley, annoyed, replied "Haha, real funny. When it's about money, you KNOW I don't mess around." She climbed inside the passenger's seat and fastened her seatbelt, while Damian did the same on the driver's seat. He turned the van on, and drove off from the underground parking lot beneath Tower 9 towards the highway. They headed towards the east side of the city, the side most people preferred not to visit, be that out of genuine fear or just prejudice, and parked their car on their designated spot right outside the Cyclone Market. The place was what one might call cozy-ugly, as the first thing to greet you on the entrance was a small food court where impatient cooks served their various recipes to customers sat on faux-wood tables. Memories of eating here flooded their memories, sitting down every day to have a meal during their lunch break or when customers weren't coming in. They navigated the narrow hallways with the same precision as always, walking past other stores that they'd memorized as landmarks, like the old electronics store or the herbs and spices stand of questionable legality. Soon enough, they arrived at their own space, the locked steel door greeted them with the built-in verification AI voice they had somewhat missed in their time away, "PLEASE IDENTIFY YOURSELF VIA ID, FINGERPRINT, OR ANY OTHER MEANS." said the machine, expanding the verification panel.
Damian pulled his wallet from his pants pocket and showed the machine his ID, it beeped in approval and opened the door, also lighting up the "Beexpress Convenience Store" sign, even though they technically didn't have the license to use the name of that franchise anymore. Ashley stepped into the store and frowned, "Well, crap, you were right -she said, looking around- all the food is gone, was hoping I'd find a snack somewhere in here. Did they come to take it or what?" she asked, turning to look at Damian, "Yup. Received a message on my phone a while ago about it, those bastards forgot to come immediately after we left for the training camp and came like a year and a half after, apparently. Forced me to pay up for the destroyed food." he replied in an annoyed tone. Ashley jumped, "What?! Why didn't you tell me?" she yelled, Damian didn't flinch though, he limited his reaction to sitting down on the register desk, turning the computer on and replying "Apparently military insurance covered nearly seventy-five percent of it. Dunno why they'd WANT to cover it, but hey, I told you signing up for that plan was going to help.", Ashley sat on one of the counters and whined once again, "Yeah, but when I told you signing up was useless, I was not aware we would get into one of those 'fraudulent financial situations' they warned us about!". Damian didn't reply to her, instead focusing on the computer, checking for the entries to the store. Two of them were correct, them three years ago, then the corpo people that came to dispose of the food, but a third one that seemed out of place basically screamed for his attention. Logged at 11:12 P.M about six weeks prior, the entry lasted about nineteen minutes, and even reported that the auto door system was opened with legitimate credentials. Confused, Damian checked the electricity usage registry, finding the lights had been used for exactly the same amount of time, but with a massive surge of power about fifteen minutes in, the cycle continued every week until that precise day, too. "What the...? Hey, Ashley? Think these systems could fail?" he asked, turning to look at Ashley, who had started to check the soft serve machine for any leftover ice cream, and finding none.
Defeated, she left the table and walked towards her friend, "Why? Do any weird activities that shouldn't be there show up?" she replied, Damian nodded, getting off the chair and leaving space for her to sit and inspect the data. "Huh, that's definitely insane. It shouldn't say anyone came in at that time, obviously. Let me try something.", she opened the command prompt, typed in the calibration order, and reset the "Store Status" app. Upon reopening it, however, the suspicious activities remained in the log. "Well, shit, looks like we have ourselves a break in. Do I call the police?" asked the bunny, clearly confused about why someone would break into a completely empty convenience store, "I say we stay overnight to see who comes." replied Damian, Ashley jumped from her seat, "What?! Are you nuts?! First, I don't want to stay in the parking at that time, what if The Arachnids come? Second, what if the break-in is one of The Arachnids?!" she shouted, Damian however was not amused, "Nah, can't be them, -he said, turning to look at the door- if it were, the door would be torn, not opened. Someone else forced it open to try and take something. I want to see why they kept coming back after finding the store empty though." he answered with a semblance of determination in his voice, confusing Ashley even more, "Why would you want to figure that out? Didn't you use to hate working here?" she continued to interrogate Damian, "It's not about the place. What if this rando keeps returning after we leave? We're gonna look suspicious, and they could get us fired outright if your theory is correct. And if it is, we don't engage, we just leave. Pretty good plan, right?" he said, Ashley held back a giggle, "Oh, right, riddle me this one, if it is an Arachnids member and we find em' with their hands on the prize, what the fuck are we doing? Think the good ol' peashooter we've got at home can harm one of those guys?" she asked, smugly, "Nope, but we don't need to fight the guy. We just watch him in silence, then bolt outta here as we phone the cops, and done. No need to get ourselves involved with gangs before out first shift with the Crew." he explained confidently, Ashley sighed, defeated, she took her phone from her pocket and checked the Danger Level report, "Well, if it's going to help us save money, then fine. I'll do it, but we NEED to go back home to pick up the gun before we do anything, don't wanna have ourselves in unnecessary danger, dude." she said. Damian smiled, "I knew the adventurous Ashley was still in there, don't worry, things are not gonna go badly, I promise" he said holding his fist out for a fist-bump, "I hope so. Don't wanna become rabbit stew" she said, completing the gesture as she head out the store. Damian followed, shutting the lights and systems off, and closing the door behind them.
A few hours passed before they returned to the market, they had a whole day to burn before they could catch the supposed criminal, so they headed to do a few things beforehand. First, they headed home and got their self-defense pistol from the safe drawer it had been collecting dust on for a few years now, an old Nova Arms Pilot-XXIII, a single shot pistol chambered in .44 Magnum, bought by the two of them way back in the day to protect themselves from potential robbers that could have assaulted their store. Truth is, the weapon had never seen action, the singular bullet it came with remained in the chamber, waiting for the time to defend its owners. Right after, they finally headed off to the Monster Control Crew registry office, and checked in to receive their updated citizen cards, which came built-in with a Medi-Unit premium package, "Damn! That meant those nimrods can pick us up if we get shot, don't it?" Ashley asked, the antelope lady at the booth didn't even look at her, instead choosing to keep her attention on the monitor to her left, "Yes. This package is the highest tier available, and means you get a 3 minute response time at the slowest" she said in a monotone voice, as they walked away from the booth, Ashley frowned and whispered to Damian "Oof, that lady looks pissed off, dude. She doesn't even need to serve that many people and she's THIS mad? Wonder what she would think of working like we did", Damian did his best to hold back laughter, "Dunno. She'd probably throw herself off Thunderclap Mall if she tried, though" he joked, Ashley laughed loudly at this, the lady staring at them as they left through the front glass door, "Hm. It's sad to see two young ones like them join the army. Wouldn't want the other to come to register their friend deceased..." she muttered.
The rest of their day was spent practically loitering around the city center, Ashley impatiently shifting in her place, "What's up with you? Weren't you against investigating the mystery break-in?" Damian asked, Ashley blushed slightly and replied, "Well, dude... Truth is I wanna use the good ol' peashooter on someone already! We had it for like, two years on standby and NEVER used the damn thing! Even if it doesn't kill the guy, it's still gonna leave a mark!" she exclaimed, doing finger guns and pretending to shoot invisible targets, "I like the way you think, but remember we don't have to shoot them." Damian scolded her, Ashley looked visibly bummed out, "FINE! But it's not gonna be my fault if something happens." Damian sighed as he looked at his watch, showing 6:22 P.M, "We have to get going. We'll have to sleep in the van, but we'll be there before eleven so the guys don't suspect a thing, we'll look exactly like the other people who sleep in their cars" he said, heading towards the parked vehicle, Ashley scoffed and headed towards her seat, she opened the door and sat on the passenger's seat, shifting around it, reclining it back, "I don't like this." she declared, "Take it. It's less than one day you'll need to do it." he said, turning the key on the ignition and driving away.
They were in the parking lot by 7 P.M, and Damian was already sleeping by 7:30, meanwhile, Ashley was laying down on the fully reclined seat, staring at the ceiling and using all her willpower to not look at her phone, since the noise could alert anyone coming by to check, she drifted off to sleep slowly, fantasizing about putting a bullet through the metallic skull of an Arachnids member. She was then suddenly woken up, many hours later, by the sound of an extremely loud engine approaching...
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