This is a short tale of the Becoming Monsters Universe by AiLove.
The idea for this was pure fun. My wife, who puts up with me every day and alpha reads everything you see, has three characters. One you've seen before, two who are new to the universe. All three star here.
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Story 3: Mission Impawsible
The security guard walked his usual night patrol. Long ago, when he'd been trained, the people doing it had told him to vary his routes and timings. That it would not do to become predictable. He'd even listened to the instruction... for all of two weeks. After that, he'd figured out the quickest way to get his mandatory patrols done and stuck to the plan. It gave him more time to keep up with the stories he liked to read and the phone games he liked to play. This was twice as true today, some unknown benefactor had given the area a temporary loot bonus, so he really wanted to get back to it. After signing the last actual sheet of paper on his route, he decided that maybe the far back part of the building didn't need to be looked at directly this one time.
He didn't spot the pair of bright blue eyes watching him cut his route short. Blue eyes belonging to a golden-blonde Fox, one who he had recently been referring to as "unknown benefactor." To be fair to him, he hadn't been looking up at the air vent Cara was hiding behind, which made it harder. To be unfair, he wasn't exactly being thorough about his job.
The Fox pulled the grate of the vent back and to the side, almost silently, then carefully lowered herself to the ground. She briefly made sure she was prepared, her tools were in the pockets of her brown cargo pants, her long-sleeved black shirt was straight. She touched her plain black choker with her left hand as she adjusted her glasses with her right. "Alright, I'm in and the guard's distracted," she spoke in a quiet but firm voice. "Now what?"
"Lea here, all clear from here," over her earpiece came the motherly voice of the Corgi positioned at the roof of an adjacent building. "Reina?"
"I have your location." This woman's voice was smooth and level, accompanied by some taps at a keyboard. Reina the Otter rarely came with them on these ops, a strictly work-from-home kind of girl, but she never let that hold her back. "Assuming the map's correct, there should be an office two doors down the hallway to your left, room 124. What we need is in there."
"Got it." Cara turned and took a few more silent steps then tested the door. It was locked, which was expected, but since the lock was a physical one she had a few options in her pocket to deal with it. One quick examination, one pair of lockpicks properly selected, and about thirty seconds of effort and she was inside what turned out to be a fairly lavishly appointed office. At an ornate desk was a computer. Cara knew that was more than likely the target. Walking softly over, she powered it on. "Looks like the computer's locked."
"So unlock it!" Reina's level voice got a tinge of humor in it.
"That's a skill I didn't pick up, princess." Cara was looking around the room for anything else which might be the file they needed. Maybe, for once, it would be an actual file folder.
"Just because you're the one with abs doesn't mean you get to skimp on spycraft."
No luck looking around, half the bookshelves weren't even real books. Just false fronts with a couple of entertaining knicknacks behind them. Cara wished she could swipe them, but no telling who would be looking for what tomorrow so she settled for taking pictures. "I don't see YOU out here."
"Because you're the one with abs. Don't get your tail in a knot, plug in the USB drive and I'll take it from here."
Lea giggled over the coms as Cara reached into a different pocket to pull out the drive in question. It had a picture of a rat drawn on it, something that made Reina giggle but which meant nothing to Cara. Still, as soon as she plugged it in and the light came on, it only took fifteen seconds or so for Reina to say "I'm in."
Cara listened at the hallway door. Nothing, but for some reason she was feeling on edge. She had long since learned to listen to these gut feelings, they had saved her life and her mission more than once. Something was saying that time was short. "Hurry it up, please. I need to get clear. Lea, anything?"
The Corgi took a look through her sniper scope. "Looks like two guards are talking in the office by the front window. One's playing on his phone. You sure you need an extraction?"
"I don't know, and that's the problem. I'm calling it, get in position. Once you are, I'm yanking that drive and booking it one way or the other." She started to look through drawers rapidly, hoping something would stand out.
"Ninety seconds on the download, trying to be thorough in case they have any canary tokens." Reina sounded focused, the sounds from her side indicated a lot of action happening very quickly. "Haven't hit any real security, and given the kinds of missions this team goes after that's concerning."
Cara found a manilla folder in the top drawer of the large desk, a red label reading "Milk Freeze" on the front and several tabs throughout. "I might have found something else, taking some pictures then getting clear. Either of you ever heard of a Project Milk Freeze?"
Lea was on the move, getting to where her minivan was parked. "Nope, sounds like someone's making popsicles for a summer barbecue and was too cheap for ice cream."
Cara didn't pause to read the pages. Flip, focus, snap, flip, focus, snap. "Well, whatever it is, it took fifteen pages of plans."
"Big barbecue, then." Lea reached the van in a dark corner of a parking garage that didn't charge, and therefore didn't track who came in or out. "I'm in position. No movement out here. Reina?"
"Got the data and left a present, we can search it later."
Cara put the file she had just photographed back where it was when something hit her. "Lea. Did you spot any hidden rooms?"
"None."
"How many guards did you say were in the front office?"
"Two, why?"
