____________________________
Builds up towards Episode 3
____________________________

"Rose, you almost at the objective?"

"Almost... security's getting tight here. I need those skills of yours, C0mrade. Time is running..."

"Yes, yes, I know. We're right on schedule anyways!"

Come on C0mrade, Ghost we need the lights out soon....

________________________

Oct. 31st, 8:30pm.

It was Operation: Blackout, we were robbing the wealthy. I was a trouble maker, it was fun, and we were all desperate for money. You see, it was simple, the victim: Marko Tolentino was throwing a party. He has a set schedule, being a very organized man he is, he lives in one of those high towers. He's rich because of the dirty money he has been piling up in a secured, secret vault-type of thing. A Drug Lord to sum it all up. He had a perfect family and life, truth be told, his wife was a whore. And his 17-year old son? He was a type of jerk you would want to shoot. Really. Marko was selling things in the back room, you know, illegal...poker...mafia...and business.

While he is doing that, one of my friends are disguised as a cooker. The kitchen was the quickest alternative for a shortcut without being suspicious, if guards are in the way. Knock 'em out. I was doing some acrobatics and sneaking into vents. The only bad part was that the vents has a special alarm or sensor. That's where my hacker comes into play, he was also hacking into their systems for the cameras. We had our cameras keeping watch too, before this event, I planted small cams that can scan heat signatures, I used vents, which resulted into him using sensors this time around.

The others are to watch, they were dressed as guests when they snuck in from the balcony, once the lights are out, they use smoke grenades. As a distraction to keep them confused, to buy more time for me and Nightshade in the vault. We had codenames, rule was: no information about each other. Not even our names. We hung out a lot at the bar, so, we're good friends.

________________________

"Ready when you are!" C0mrade excitedly called out on our ear pieces. We were used to it....

"...Now."

The cramped, metal tunnels were now filled with screams and hysteria. Nightshade behind me was chuckling, I smiled. We were wearing masks, all of ours were from a Halloween store, I really need a real protective mask...

"A'ight, the flowers are moving. How are your guy's sides holdin' up?" Nightshade asked with her usual carefree tone. The bubbly person in our group.

"Me, Diamond, and Joker here are just fine. We used the smokes and are already in a game of flying lead." Wolf, one of the 'guests' replied through my device. He's normally the one with the cool attitude.

"Ghost here, I had a little encounter, but it wasn't a problem. I hope I wasn't too delayed on your order Rose." We continued crawling. Ghost, she sometimes has the famous remarks that's dripping with sarcasm, not as much as me though.

"Not everything goes as planned, it's still flowing through flawlessly. Everyone, be careful." I warned.

"Roger that Rose."

We opened the vent and found the sealed goal. Nightshade pulled out the flash drive, it looks like one. However, it's to connect the system to C0mrade's computer. The numbers changed rapidly until landing on the right one, digit after digit. He said 'done' then she had a device on her arm that measures sound wave levels as she pulled out a wire and sticked  it to the door. I moved and rotated for combinations. Everything in this room was white, the floor was carpeted with gray, and guards were buzzing outside. With one last number down we opened it and opened our bags.

____6 1/2 Min. Later...____

"You got all you can carry? We're running out of bullets here..." <Joker>

"Yeah, the power's gonna be up soon, they headed for a backup generator and there's too many men there for me to sneak in without making a fuss." <Ghost>

"One more bag for the road." I informed.

"Well, the more the merrier y'know!" She agreed with me.

Just as we were finishing up...

...

"You there!"

"Shit." <Rose>

"You can say that again!" <Nightshade>

https://youtu.be/EuAzPR0ACVw

(Cowboy Bebop OST 1 - "Bad Dog No Biscuits")

He shot and fired as he was calling for backup, we rolled out of the way and we kicked him square in the face. We grabbed the stuffed bags made a run for it with the money, a few dollar bills were leaving a trail like some kind of cartoon. "Time to bail! Out and outta here!" She shouted while laughing, I joined in, well... Everyone did. We ran down the stairs at godspeed, the two of us rode the railing and glided all the way down to the next floor. C0mrade was giving us info. which was directions and the heat signatures to avoid trouble, we came to pick Ghost up. We tackled the door open, almost startling her, we handed one of our heavy bags to her. Our stomachs growled, I wonder why...

"Man, I'm HUNGRRRRRY!" <Nightshade>

"Why don't we help ourselves for a little snack then?" <Rose>

"Yeah, for crashing parties it sure doesn't leave me famished." <Ghost>

There was cookers running and getting in the way, I slid under them, Night skid over the stainless steel counter, and Ghost, she just harshly pushed them. All 3 of us skimmed over counters for food, I took a juicy apple, Night got a delightful peach, and Ghost stole a delicious orange. We headed for the main room where the party of flying lead is at, there was smoke grenades being thrown. "It's the Band of Thieves!" Bellowed one of the guards. We darted swiftly to take down the guy as if we were lightning bolts on shoes, I ran towards a expensive display of extravagant wine bottles. I grabbed a few and shoved them into one of my sacks. "I'll save those for later." Marko was panicking about his vault, "Sucks to be him." I commented.

Nightshade threw her bitten peach at his face across the room, he tumbled backwards. "Bullseye!"

"Come on! Lets go guys!" Diamond yelled at us.

"We gotta live up to the story, (chuckled) so why don't we give them our parting gifts?" I mentioned, me and Night left flowers, Diamond and Joker hurled poker cards, lastly, Wolf tossed a mask. The gray smoke was dissipating. We leaped from the balcony as bullets whizzed past us, it sliced through the air. Everyone used grappling hooks as flashes of red and blue was slowly heading this way, illuminating the night. We came in from the shadows and out to the darkness, simple as that.

Mission Success.

___Back at the Safehouse...___

"Hooray!" Even though Nightshade is professional, she's still full of beans.

I took a wine bottle, "Another satisfying success, great job. For that *pop!*, let's have a celebration! Cheers!"

"Cheers!!! *tink!*" Everyone was having fun, laughter enveloped the whole atmosphere, wine was everywhere, and so was the stolen viridian-colored dollars.

https://youtu.be/cpbbuaIA3Ds

"It's raining money!" <Night>

<C0mrade> "Please be quieter! I'm trying to count them!"

"Who gives a shit? We're rich man!" <Diamond>

It was raining green confetti everywhere, it really was party for us. C0mrade suddenly furiously wipes all the neatly stacked cash onto the floor, "Fuck this!" He stands on top of the desk. "I'm GOING IN!" He jumps. "AHHHHH!!!" *THUD!* "AGH! I think I threw my back...." We laughed. Almost everyone was drunk, they were snickering over each of themselves, or whoever was making a fool of themselves. Wolf and I drank the most, he was three sheets to the wind though...

"Rrrrose... Howcome...your not ass drunk as...ussssss????...." Joker slurred over his own words.

"Iknow....right? She canlike....." Nightshade fell. "Beeee ssssstone...cold s-silver..." Nightshade dramatically did hand gestures while messing up her sentences. She squinted at my face as if she needed glasses.

As the saying goes... "One Tequila, two tequila, three tequila, floor tequila." I guess.

"You guys are way too drunk...remind me not to do this again..." I had a sudden urge to facepalm at their stupidity in their intoxicated state. We were all boozed up, when I'm drunk, I'm just on edge. Dammit, I just described myself as how I would describe that animal....

________________________________

"Good times huh."

"I agree Rose, the good old days..." Old memories of my thief days, when I genuinely and really smiled back then. Those guys, everyone...that was my family. It was like a wonderful dream, but dreams have a horrible habit of transforming into bad nightmares. The second you look away, it turns into something twisted, you'll find yourself regretting it as you go through it in complete misery.

We veered off the topic, I didn't call him for a trivial talk. "C0mrade, how's the research going?" My tone was now serious.

We were speaking to each other on the phones, "No dice... I only found one thing about your killer..." I stayed silent, he took it as 'go on'. "He's been missing for years, no one has found him... One night, he just....vanished..."

'Vanished?' I thought.

It doesn't sound like my killer would do that. It was a bad sign, a gut feeling. "Vanished..."

"May I go and crash the hay Rose?"

I would've giggled. "There's no need to ask me, you can whenever you feel like it." I changed my whole demeanor and voice, it was much softer and kinder. I put back my home phone and looked at my dusty alarm clock.

It read: 5:35am

I have 10 hours of patrolling around the city, my injuries are annoying without painkillers. At least I'm not stuck doing desk jobs unlike last time, I headed to the police station at 6. Someone told me that the chief wanted me, maybe it's about my new partner. I wandered and took my time heading to his office, I saw one of the cops talking to someone.

"...Right, we found you, out of it on drugs, covered in blood, burying pieces of your wife and the pizza guy under a rosebush in the backyard. There's a bloody chainsaw in the bathtub, by the looks of it, they have been shot on your bed. The murder weapons have your fingerprints all over them, and you say you didn't do it." The male police officer spoke.

"Hell no! I'm a fall guy, I've been framed, it's a setup. I was getting too close to the truth, so they had to get rid of me."

He muttered, "This should be good." Then he continued. "Your wife and the pizza delivery guy had to get rid of you?"

"No, no-" The clearly clean man interrupted himself. "Yeah, yeah, they were gonna whack me." There was a pause. "Motherfuckers! They were gonna whack me, steal my money. It was self defense."

"Right, your wife and the pizza guy were 'trespassing' in your bed. And you killed them."

The 'victim' started again. "No! I didn't kill anyone, it's a frame up, weren't you listening?"

The cop was taking a sip of his coffee and sat with his arm as a support for his head, his hand holding his face. "Okay, now I get it. Your wife and the pizza delivery guy deviously conspire to set you up. They killed themselves in your bed with your gun, proceed to chop each other in pieces in your bathtub with your chainsaw, and finally lure you to the backyard while they patiently wait under a rosebush to inject you with drugs, and when you were helpless they leak blood all over you and called the police."

He took a sip again. "Anything else to add?"

"See, that's just it. Wish it was that easy, I know this sounds crazy, but they weren't in that alone, it's much bigger than that!" He crossed his arms trying to act casual. "Basically everyone who does home delivery is on it, the mailman...and that means the government is involved! The mailman told me all about it."

"So all we have to do, is get in touch with this 'mailman' and to get the proof."

"See, that's not going to work. He's dead. The mailman's dead." He thought he looked smug. He thought extremely wrong.

The cop scoffed, "I'm sure the D.A. will go easy on you if you'd just come clean right now and told were you buried his body, I suppose it's not under the same rosebush."

He still denied. "See what I mean, this is what I'm talking about, you're not listening! You fail to grasp how serious this is!"

"Okay. So how would you like to take this forward?"

"Give me a gun and set me loose,  and I'll get this mess sorted out in no time." He smirked.

The cop was starting to get irritated. "Okay wiseguy, comedy hour is over. Just shut up for a while, so I can write all this crap down."

I left, I would've laughed if I remembered how. I knocked on his door, I heard a 'come in' and walked in. "You called?" He asked me about being a detective.

"Officer Payne. There's spots open, and I've seen you in your work, do you want to get promoted in being detective? You can be an undercover cop like a movie." He smiled with a cigar in his mouth.

"Pfft, movies.... Sure, I'll take it."

________________

When you watch movies about detectives or people that has sad pasts, it's entertaining to watch, not be that person you're watching. Talk about free will. I never chose to have this kind of life. But, life decides to be a bitch. We had a call in a bowling place, another murder.