ACT II

Chapter 9 | Runner

There were few things that Fay Spaniel loved more than running. A thorough back rub, maybe. Definitely a good bowl of sticky rice and orange chicken. But other than those two things, you'd be hard pressed to find something that brought the same level of satisfaction to this small spaniel as the sound of her shoes tapping against the ground while her arms and legs pumped in unison, carrying her petite frame along recklessly fast. She let out a loud giggle as she slid around the corner of an air conditioning unit, pushing hard off the gravel underfoot so that she'd have enough speed to skid through a tear in a chain link fence that she'd cut a couple months ago. Fay dropped down to her knees while she was still running, curling up and letting momentum carry her through the tight gap in the metal barrier. A shadow was cast over her face as she passed underneath a metallic ventilation shaft, but she sprang back up to her feet once she could feel the sun on her fur again, resuming her sprint without ever losing an ounce of inertia.

She was getting close now, Fay realized when she looked down at the route highlighted on her communicator. Just a few more buildings, and she'd be in position to start the mission. Fay let out a series of admonishing tuts when she heard a loud string of cursing coming from behind her. The spaniel glanced over her shoulder, and sure enough, she saw the police officer that had been pursuing her for the past couple minutes caught up in the sheared metal of the fence, its points digging into his clothes and keeping him from chasing her any further. Fay didn't have many advantages in life, but one that she had always made the most of was her size. She only came up to most people's biceps on a good day, and when she was sopping wet, she still clocked in lighter than some house plants. Regardless, Fay had always seen that as an advantage. She'd harnessed and tamed her naturally boundless energy until she could run at top speed for hours without breaking a sweat. She glanced down at her lithe arms as she jogged. They were her most deceptive weapons. On the surface, she certainly didn't have the musculature that most people found appealing, but she'd found that she never really needed it. She could tire your average weight lifter out long before her heart rate had even risen an inch. And, of course, it meant that she could fit through tight spaces, which the cop behind her was still struggling with.

She shook her head with a lopsided smile, turning back to the task at hand. Now that she'd lost the pursuers chasing her on foot, she'd have to shake the drones that were still hovering over her like an overprotective mom. Fay shot an annoyed look up at them now, rolling her eyes at the handful of robots that had their cameras fixed on her from high above, their feeds surely streaming the footage back to some operations center in the Cornerian Heart. She stuck her tongue out at them. The drones were annoying, but they were easy to get rid of, if you knew what you were doing. In fact, the spaniel saw her opportunity coming up fast. Fay doubled down in her sprint, pushing herself to the limit to gain every bit of velocity that she could. The tempo of her feet hitting the gravel rose to a fever pitch as she felt a wonderful burning in her legs that let her know she was hurtling along at peak performance. In the distance, she could see a small white ledge approaching and growing larger in her vision. Each crash of rubber against stone brought it closer, each short huff of breath from her lungs made it more imminent.

Just a few more steps, and… Now!

Fay tucked her right leg in tight underneath her at the last possible moment, coiling the tendons into a stiff spring until her calves sang with stored tension. And then, with a single quick breath, she shoved hard off the ground, sending herself sailing through the air. As soon as her feet left the ground, she felt herself turn weightless. She'd given herself the launch she needed, and now, everything else was in gravity's hands. Fay glanced down, taking in a sight that still made her stomach do flips if she stopped to think about it for too long. Corneria rotated about its axis thousands of feet below her, the people just specks in her vision, the trees and plants and cars little more than splashes of color on a great grey canvas. Wind roared in her ears as the spaniel leapt between the rooftops of two towering apartment buildings on the edge of town. When she looked up, she could see her reflection in the tinted glass of the building she'd just flung herself towards. Her snow white fur rustled in the air, and her long ears hung suspended in free fall. Her arms circled at her sides to keep her balance, and her legs were stretched far apart, one still recovering from pushing off, and one anticipating the landing that was fast approaching. A giant smile was plastered to her face, and glee lit up her sky blue eyes. And of course, she couldn't ignore the bright red bow that flapped in the wind, nestled safely right on top of her head.

But of course, as she'd learned the hard way on more than one occasion, everything that goes up must come back down. Just as quickly as she'd pushed off the previous rooftop, she felt her leg absorb the impact of landing on the next. Her shoe dug into the concrete and her knee collapsed under her, giving the rest of her body ample time to move to the safety of solid ground. Once she was in position, she threw her weight forward, pulling herself into an acrobatic roll that distributed most her momentum into her back and torso, rather than into shattering her bones. Her arms pushed off the floor once the world had rotated back to its proper orientation, and again the spaniel was back off to the races. Now, she just had to ditch these pesky security drones.

The spaniel took a quick right, grabbing hold of an upright pole with her hand and redirecting her momentum so she was speeding towards a roof access door on the other side of the space. Drones were great a tracking people in wide open spaces, but their routines for trying to hunt people inside buildings left a lot to be desired. Fay picked up speed once again, but this time, she wasn't going to concentrate all that power in her legs. Instead, when she was only a few paces away from the sturdy metal door, she threw her right shoulder forward quickly, tucking her head down and bracing for the hit. She gritted her teeth as the entirety of her inertia, focused entirely in her tensed shoulder, slammed against the solid alloy of the door. Normally, a move like that would've done little more than rattle the doorframe and pulverize her collarbone. Believe her, it had happened before. But instead of leaving her whimpering and clutching her arm, she heard a small zap in her right ear, and instantly the door gave way, flying open until the door handle embedded itself in the drywall inside. Fay glanced over habitually as she sprinted through the forced doorway. She sighed with relief, seeing the blue glow of her personal shield, thankfully still intact, slowly fading back into transparency.

One of the first lessons Fay had learned as a runner was that she went through clothes faster than she did ice packs. All the sliding and jostling and abuse of her outfit tended to tear it to shreds, so she'd invested in a lightweight personal shield to help keep her bill for new athletic gear down at the end of the month. Of course, it had proved to be good for a lot more than fewer torn jeans. It couldn't stop a bullet or even a laser bolt, but it did protect her from the occasional underestimated jump or stumble when she was in a rush. And she hated scratching up her elbows and knees, so it was definitely a must.

The spaniel centered her vision once she'd busted down the door, seeing a narrow staircase leading down several flights. She took them three at a time, sidling herself over the railing every opportunity she could. Within seconds, she found herself in the middle of the apartment building's gym. Fay's smile widened, seeing that the place was packed on the weekend afternoon, and almost everybody was dressed in the same kind of running gear she was. She glanced surreptitiously out one of the large panel windows as she slowed her pace to a casual walk, and slipped the bow off her head and into one of her pockets. The drones that had been following her from the skies hovered outside, their cameras trained inside the building, scouting the area for any trace of her. A soft bloom of blue light scattered out from one of the drone's sensors as it began to scan people inside the building. The bots looked at a couple of different factors when they were trying to ID somebody, but the most important to fool was its gait sensor.

Cornerian security drones could analyze the way a person moved and walked, building up an identification that was just as unique as DNA. However, a gait test was much easier to fool than a blood test. Quickly, the spaniel grabbed a heavy weight off one of the nearby racks and held it in one hand. Fay had to lean to one side to carry it comfortably, which was exactly what she wanted. Soon, the drone started to scan her walking patterns. She laughed under her breath when it was thrown off by her unusual stance and timing, looking nothing like her recorded bearing. She'd tricked them.

Fay lugged the weight across the room to dupe any other drones' tests, only setting it down when she slipped through the exit door to another flight of stairs. Once the canine was out of the view of the robots, her shoes squeaked against the clean cement as she threw herself back into her sprint. She was making good time, and had no intention of forcing the rest of her crew to wait up on her.

Fay wove through a few more startled upper class Cornerians wandering around their apartment's halls, slipping through several breezeways until she was confident that she'd smuggled herself outside the police search perimeter. Fay headed back up for the rooftops, breathing the clean, fresh air into her lungs and allowing herself just a moment of respite before heading back into the tangle. She put her hands on her hips, glancing around her beautiful city from on high. Fay knew better than anybody how many problems it had, hell, that's why she even had a job in the first place. But as long as you didn't dig too deep, on its surface, Corneria City really was something out of a fairy tale.

Alright, that's plenty of down time. Let's go!

Hopping up to her toes, the spaniel took off again, the crunch of gravel against her rubber soles like music to her ears. Her target loomed tall in the distance, a transit repository owned by Space Dynamics that was holding the cargo she'd been tipped off about. Fay leapt between two more buildings, folding her legs up underneath her to gain clearance over a protective line of razor wire. The cargo she was after would only be stored there for about half a day before being shipped to a more secure bunker somewhere else on Corneria, so if she wanted to heist the payload, it was now or never. Fay came to a sudden scampering halt, letting her body fall limp over the precipice of the roof. The spaniel entered free fall for a moment before her gloved hands grabbed hold of a water pipe that brought her to a safe stop pressed up against the side of the building. She relaxed her grip slightly and began to slide down the pole. Friction heated up her knees and fingers wherever they came in contact with the rough tube. Fay shoved hard off the wall once she was close enough to the next rooftop, extending her leg out as far it would go and hitting the ground at top speed.

The spaniel traversed the skyline with dexterity and ease, vaulting between buildings faster than most people on the ground were walking alongside them. This was her city, and she knew its every facet like the back of her hand. She knew every shortcut, and she knew the fastest way to travel between any two points on the map without being seen or heard. Of course, she'd let herself be detected by the cops this time, but it wasn't just for a few extra difficulty points. She'd needed to raise a few alarms in the previous neighborhood so that the heat would be light in this district. It'd buy her a few extra seconds hopefully, and that was all she ever needed. Fay threw her weight against a wall just as she approached a longer gap, letting out a short huff as the air left her lungs and she passed into the void of a jump that even she couldn't normally make. However, Fay managed to scuffle her feet against the wall with the little traction her soles could grab, giving her the last bit of upwards acceleration she needed to safely clear the gap. The canine fell to her knees on the other side, sliding to a stop in front of her final destination. The warehouse.

Somewhere inside that building was her treasure. Somewhere in that building were answers. And she had every intention of getting them, for herself and her team. Fay glanced down at her communicator, brushing a few stray bits of dirt and dust off its screen. Sure enough, it seemed like some of the police security detail had left the building, reassigned to trying to track her down at her last known location. Little did they know, they'd taken the bait exactly like she wanted. Fay took a deep breath and bounced on her toes a few times, quickly glancing up the monolithic mosaic of navy blue windows that stretched well above her. It was time to make the leap.

With that, Fay, hit the ground with bent knees, and like compressed springs bursting free from their restraints, the spaniel's legs exploded out from underneath her — sending her hurtling straight for one of the windows of the building. The sun's glare reflected off the glass and hit her eyes, but her focus was on one track. When the spaniel was only a single stride away from the wall in front of her, she pushed hard off the ground, swinging her leg up in front of the rest of her body. She tensed her calves at the last second, gritting her teeth until…

Smash!

The spaniel's eyes opened, and all around her the world had morphed into a wonderland of twinkling lights and clinking glass. The heel of her shoe had shattered the window, cracking it into a million fragments. Each one was raining down to the floor around her, a hailstorm of razors and one small canine. She spun herself around in the air as she fell, craning her neck down so she could see where she was about to land. Her eyes went wide when she not only observed the ground rushing up to meet her, but two of the three police guards that were stationed in this room as well. Muscle memory kicked in, and the spaniel's legs bent so her feet were positioned directly over her hapless victim's back. The guard spun around in place to see what the sudden explosion over him was, but it was too late. With the dull crunch of broken bones resonating through her legs, the guard under her gave way, his torso and skull colliding against the tile and as the small spaniel pounced on top of him. The guard was knocked unconscious on impact. Unfortunately, the same couldn't be said of his partner.

The spaniel glanced to the side, seeing the second ripping his blaster free from his holster and begin to swing it around to face her. Fay wasn't about to let that happen. She slid forward on her back by shoving herself off the first cop's immobile body, the fabric of her top squealing grumpily against the floor. She flicked her leg out once more, and the guard's breath rushed out of his lungs when her heel connected with his gut. He doubled over in pain, his weapon clattering to the floor with his arms crossed over his stomach. Fay saw one more opening, her eyes glinting in gleeful strategy. Her forearms braced against the floor while her other leg stiffened beneath her, ready to snap forward at a moment's notice. In one fluid motion, Fay released that pent up pressure, and suddenly her foot was skyrocketing upwards at a breakneck pace. The point of her shoe connected with the guard's jaw, the solid blow jerking his head backwards before sending him crumpled to the floor. Her back arched upwards, and she used the momentum of her speeding foot to carry her into a quick backflip that landed her up on her feet, ready to take out anybody else that dared challenge the tiny spaniel's might. Unfortunately, there was only one other person still in the room, and they were going to be a little trickier to disable.

For a split second, her eyes locked with a sniper who was positioned on a suspended walkway high up in the room. He looked bewildered at the sight that had just unfolded in front of his eyes, unable to do anything than stare down in astonishment. The spaniel knew better than to push her luck, and she took his hesitation as opportunity to sprint for cover deeper in the room. He blinked once, regaining his composure and hefting the rifle up to his shoulder. With an immense bang that pained her sensitive, fluffy ears, the final guard loosed a bolt of plasma at her. Fay was too fast for him though, and his missed shot only left behind a charred scorch mark on the planter box she scurried behind. The spaniel wasn't about to lose her momentum, however. If she stopped moving, she was toast. She slid out the from behind the other end of her cover without missing a beat, covering the rest of the distance between herself and her foe before he could reset his aim. The cop let out one more shot, but her silhouette was too small and moving too quickly for him to land an accurate bullet.

Now that she had a few seconds to turn the tables on him, the canine clicked a button on her wrist, lighting up a thick metal and plastic bracer she wore on her forearm. She rotated her arm so that it was facing upwards at a metal vent, and with a gust of pressurized air being discharged, a small steel grappling hook shot out of the bracer. It sailed upwards until it collided with a ventilation duct on the ceiling, flattening on impact and magnetizing around a support rail. Another advantage of her small size was that almost everything could support her teensy weight. Fay clicked one more button on the bracer just as the final guard's head peeked over the edge, but his eyes went wide and he scrambled backwards when he saw his tiny opponent sailing through the air, being dragged upwards by the sturdy cable. He regained his balance once the canine had disengaged the grappling hook, leaving her feet firmly planted on the same platform as the sniper. The officer blinked once in bewilderment when he saw the earnest smile lighting up Fay's face, but it didn't faze him. He snarled back at her, tossing his rifle away and ripping the combat knife off of his belt.

The guard took a couple calculated swipes at the spaniel, but she sidestepped each one easily, backpedaling, ducking, and shuffling so his blade fell an inch short of its target each time. A deep growl hit Fay's ears, originating from an annoyed rumbling within her opponent. She saw a brief glimmer in his eye, thinking he had the upper hand because she was backed up against a locked door. The guard pressed his advantage, lunging forward with his knife pointed right for her chest. The confident look on his face morphed into alarm when he saw the spaniel leap up into the air, but it was already too late for him to cancel out his momentum. Fay grabbed his attacking arm by the elbow, yanking down on it hard so he would stumble underneath her as she leapt over him. Fay heard two thuds back to back: the first a quiet sound as she landed gracefully on her feet again, and a second as the guard's face slammed unceremoniously into the metal door. She did a few stretches while waiting for him to struggle back to his feet, giggling a little when he muttered a few curses and fumbled to pick his knife back up off the ground.

Murder was in the officer's eyes now, a look of hatred in his expression for making a fool out of him. Without thinking, he threw himself into a hasty offensive, his careful swipes now morphed into rage fueled, wild swinging. He brought his arm down fast, aiming right for the spaniel's shoulder. Fay realized that his blow was moving too quickly for her to deflect it again, but in his fury, he'd left his bottom half totally unprotected. Seeing her opening, Fay dropped down onto her side, perching herself up on one arm and coiling her legs up underneath her. Before the officer could react, she turned them loose, kicking his shin with as much force as she could put into her heel. He stumbled when his feet were knocked out from underneath him, and Fay saw panic written all over his face as he started to fall down directly on the spot where she was now lying in ambush. Fay grabbed hold of his uniform with both hands, springing to her feet while simultaneously flinging him face first into the floor. In a single motion, the spaniel grabbed the shock baton she had holstered on her belt, and clicked a hidden button at its base that brought sparks to flaring into existence up and down its surface. The guard tried to scramble to his feet when he heard the telltale electrical crackle and hum of her weapon, but it was too late. Fay brought the baton down in a shower of sparks, connecting hard with the vulnerable space between the guard's shoulder blades. His muscles spasmed for a few seconds, locking up as his body went rigid on the floor. And after a few seconds, the guard went limp, out cold. Fay shrunk the weapon down and clicked it off, stashing it away on her belt, grinning with victory. She prodded him with one foot to make sure he was really out, but he barely budged at all.

Fay let out a short breath, putting her hands on her hips and looking around the room. Now that the heat had been taken care of, she needed to find a way to her true target. Several floors above her was a large room, used for processing Space Dynamics deliveries. The package she was after had been locked down while it was in transit, but here in this package center, security was considerably lighter, especially now that most of the cops were out looking for her in the previous neighborhood. The spaniel turned around, scanning the wall at the back of the walkway, and saw what she'd been searching for. She jogged over towards the door that the officer's face had been mashed against a few moments earlier, but this time, she was more interested in the vent that was above it. Fay sized it up quickly, nodding to herself when it looked like she could probably squeeze into it. With another rush of air, her grappling hook embedded itself into the slots of the vent, and in one quick motion, she ripped the cover off its hinges. Fay let out a little yip when she saw the vent hurtling towards her, barely ducking in time for it to zoom over her own head… and land with an uncomfortably shrill clank on the now definitively unconscious guard behind her. Whoops.

Fay shrugged it off, focusing her thoughts back on the mission and scrambling up into the ventilation before another officer could walk in and witness the mess she'd made. The thin metal around her reverberated and wavered as she crawled, but it never gave out under her weight. Score again for her diminutive stature. She pulled up building plans on her communicator when she reached a crossroads in her path. To the right was just a dead end after a couple more twists and turns, but the left hand vent would take her deeper into the building, and closer to her next target: the central routing shaft. After a couple more minutes of worming through the cramped close quarters, she had to catch herself from toppling over the end of her path after an abrupt turn.

Fay peered out of her little ventilation shaft, and was almost carried away by the strong gust of wind that was hurtling upwards. She was in a giant cylinder, almost like a chimney stack. Instead of carrying smoke or exhaust out, however, there were dozens of drones all zipping through the air, riding the wind currents up. Each one was carrying a package on its underside, the small drones only holding small boxes or envelopes, but a couple of the largest bots were burdened by massive crates that easily could've weighed several hundred pounds. Each of them was traveling upwards at different speeds, some of them obviously better equipped to handle their weight than others as they carried their deliveries to their next destination. Fay squirmed inside the vent, negotiating her limbs until she was sitting on the edge, her legs dangling out over the mile high drop to the ground. That wasn't what her attention was fixed on, however. Instead, Fay's eyes were focused on a drone about a hundred feet below her, the gap closing fast as it buzzed towards its destination. She shuffled forward another inch, feeling the sharp edge of the metal digging into her thighs. Fay braced her arms on either side of the exit, taking a couple quick, deep breaths. The familiar tingle of anticipation pricked in her veins. Now it was only about fifty feet away…

Forty feet… thirty… twenty… now!

In a single fluid motion, Fay arched her back and shoved off her final remnant of solid ground, swinging her legs forward and throwing herself into the void. Wind whistled in her ears and whipped through her fur as she fell, arcing downwards in the wind tunnel. However, just when it seemed like she was going to end up as little more than a grease stain on the ground below, she collided with the drone that her eyes were still affixed to. It was a rough landing, and only years of practice kept her from having the wind knocked out of her when she landed in the back of the gargantuan drone. She still had to scamper a little to maintain her grip on the slick plastic, one of her feet slipping and dangling back over the plummet without a safety net. Once the spaniel was sure that she wasn't about to turn into the world's lamest and shortest shooting star, she tentatively risked getting her feet beneath her, cautiously bringing herself into a low crouch on her hijacked ride. She couldn't help but laugh in astonishment a little, marveling at the feeling of surfing in midair, the breeze like a spray of seawater, the wobbly, steadily rising drone her board. Fay's heart pounded in her chest, exhilaration painted all over her face.

Before long, Fay was standing upright, rising floor by floor up the tunnel, sailing past layer after layer of security and police up to her final goal. The hitchhiker peeked over the edge of her ride when her current drone began its docking procedures. She still needed to get higher than this, and this one wasn't going to get her there. It only took her a second to spot another large drone rising quickly nearby, but her window to make the jump would be slim. Not wanting to be served up on a silver platter to a group of surprised guards by her docking drone, Fay positioned herself near the edge, ready to leap to the next platform. Legs coiled and tensed, a glimmer of elation sparkled in her eyes as she leapt back into the chasm, ready to pounce.

Unfortunately, those same eyes went wide with panic when she felt her feet slip underneath her. Her stomach dropped like a stone when the drone was pushed backwards by her jump, as if she'd tried to vault on a bed of ice, leaving her to topple into free fall. Suddenly, the wind in her ears wasn't pleasant and refreshing, but roaring and enraged. It tore and whipped at her fur and clothes while her heart lodged itself in her throat. Acting entirely on instinct, Fay shot her hand out just as her landing drone raced by in her vision… and her reach connected. Her hand closed around whatever grip she had earned with steely tenacity, knowing her life depended on not letting go. A series of shaky, rapid fire breaths escaped from her lungs as she dangled from one arm above the vertigo-inducing drop. She rocked back and forth in the air, but by some miracle, it seemed as though she was safe for the time being. Glancing up, Fay saw that her fingers had missed the drone entirely, and were instead clutched around the long, rectangular package that it was carrying. Quickly, she threw her other hand around the box so that she wasn't just dangling by one hand. When she did that however, she heard the wood and cardboard of the box begin to groan and bend. Realizing that she might have just found the one object in Lylat that couldn't support her weight, she decided to bug out before gravity decided to assert its dominance again.

Another drone was rising rapidly only a few feet in front of her, and she decided it would have to do. With as much care and caution as Fay was capable of producing, she slowly began to swing her legs, rocking back and forth, wincing every time she heard her support complain. Fortunately, when she finally let go on her final oscillation, her handholds didn't snap, and she flung herself out towards her new platform. Thankfully, she had learned from her first and second hard landings, and made sure to expect the bobbing and jostling of the robot once she touched down on its back. She bent down into a low crouch with her feet positioned in a wide stance, both her hands splayed flat against the white plastic. She stayed stock still for several second, glaring suspiciously at the drone beneath her feet, just waiting for it to get feisty with her like the other two had. Eventually however, it became clear that this one wasn't going to act up immediately, so she rose back up to a stand, brushing the dust off her knees and shoulders.

She was able to catch her breath for about a minute as her lift continued to rise up higher and higher. A couple times the bot she was riding would pull into a new dock, and each time she got a little better at jumping between them, sometimes running up the cylindrical wall and shoving off its firm surface for leverage, other times hopping delicately between support struts crisscrossing the room and tightrope walking across taut cables until she could ambush a new drone. Eventually, Fay let out a sigh of relief when she saw the bold text FLOOR 134-C stenciled in red paint on the wall. This was her stop. She grinned as she skipped gracefully between three rising drones like stepping stones, having gained her sea legs and grown accustomed to how much each would give whenever she used them as a launch pad. On her final step, she threw herself into the wind tunnel one last time, almost regretting that she was already done with her platforming challenge. It had been fun, even if it had nearly killed her a couple times. Her gloves squeaked when she grabbed hold of a horizontal bar right above the docking door she was aiming for, swinging herself forward and using her forward momentum to catapult herself into the dark opening. She skidded along her legs and backside when she hit the ground, sliding forward until she entered her final destination. It was a big, brightly lit room, with a series of metal catwalks around the perimeter, presumably meant to be used for defending what was sitting alone in the middle of the space. It was the entire point of this mission: a small, black data sphere perched atop a clear pillar, just asking for somebody to come and whisk it away. Fay cracked her knuckles, putting her hands on her hips. As much as she'd love to take its tempting invitation and heist it right away, she knew Space Dynamics well enough to know that it could never be that easy.

With a quiet sound of fabric shuffling, Fay undid a velcro pouch on the front of her running vest, pulling a small cable out of her pocket and sticking one end of it into her communicator. The other end plugged into a small screen embedded in a nearby wall, and Fay quickly jogged over and linked her communicator up to the building's computer. She swiped past a few old files, and ran a program that one of her teammates, Haley, had cooked up just for this occasion. She was a whiz hacker, and by methods that she could only guess at, Haley had a disturbingly comprehensive knowledge of the security systems used by almost every major corporation used in the system. Her communicator thought for a second, and eventually, the loading wheel on it ceased to spin and gave her a bright green checkmark. She looked back up, and saw that the screen was no longer just displaying Space Dynamics spinning logo, but had pulled up some kind of old fashioned command prompt, complete with blinking white bar on a black background. Haley had groaned when Fay asked for instructions past this point, grumbling something about being able to pull up a shell through four dimensional address randomization and hardware encoded canaries, but had ultimately obliged and somewhat sarcastically scribbled down a numbered set of commands that she now needed to type in.

Carefully, the spaniel entered each command line by line, and while she may not have understood all the tech talk that Haley had jotted down, it seemed to do the trick. Once she had hit enter on the last command, all of the hidden security systems around the room revealed themselves. There were laser tripwires around the pillar, pressure sensors on every other floor tile, cardiac registers aimed at the sphere, and much more. However, with one click on her communicator, Fay made all of them disappear before her eyes, the once red tripwires turning green with authentication, the cameras on the wall shutting their lenses. Fay smiled. She was in.

Rolling her shoulders and cracking her neck, Fay stepped up to the pillar. She needed to check for any remaining hidden traps or sensors now, just to make sure she wasn't going to get chased by a giant rolling boulder once she slipped it into her pocket. Her shoes squeaked against the shiny floor with each step as she lowered her face down close to the sphere's surface, her breath fogging the shiny black plastic. She couldn't see any obfuscated pressure plates or lasers. When she switched her communicator over to receive short range signals, she couldn't find anything out of the ordinary emanating from the pillar. With a click, Fay flipped her wristcom back up. She was in the clear.

Or at least, Fay thought she was, shortly before a blinding light detonated at her feet.

Fay felt like a cannonball had slammed her in the stomach. She hurtled through the air for only a split second before colliding with the back wall. A blow like that normally would've left her crumpled and broken on the floor, but thankfully, she saw her shield flare blue in her peripherals, absorbing most of the bone shattering blow. Even with her barrier's help though, the spaniel was still left coughing and gasping on the floor, supported by shaky hands and knees. Her heart was thundering in her chest. Her muscles were vibrating, singing with tension. And now, she was pissed.

Fay's head shot back up as she scanned the room, her mouth pulled back in a snarl. There, she found a lone figure standing on the opposite end of the room, their stance defensive, carrying some kind of launcher that was aimed directly at her. Her assailant was wearing a full suit of power armor and stood more than a foot taller than her, and clearly had no intention of letting the spaniel get anywhere near that sphere.

"Stay down," a metallic, filtered voice came from her suited opponent, too robotic to make out anything other than their intimidating voice. "Next time, it'll be worse than an airblast grenade." So her attacker had used a non-lethal explosive the first time. Fay let out a sharp growl, zipping back up to her feet in the blink of an eye. They should've shot to kill the first time. Fay wouldn't give them another opportunity.

The power armor's servos whirred as her aggressor braced her feet against the ground and pulled the trigger, sending a rocket hurtling for where the spaniel was standing. Fay grinned when her opponent looked visibly taken aback, however, when Fay cleared the explosive radius with ease, already nearly behind them by the time the rocket detonated with a shredding roar. The suit hissed and clanked as they struggled to keep Fay in view. The spaniel saw a few crates stacked near the wall, and saw her opening. She needed height. The canine used the boxes as a springboard, shoving hard off the first and then the second and stretching her hand up, reaching for the catwalk railing. Her fingers locked around it as another rocket obliterated the crates she'd just been jumping off of, peppering her shield with pinpricks of blue as the rubble bounced off her. In one motion, she hefted her legs over the barrier and took off sprinting. Her opponent's hunched posture indicated that they weren't pleased with how much of a nuisance she was being, but then, she didn't really care what they thought. With her sensitive ears, Fay heard the telltale sound of a metal sliding against metal, and sure enough when she glanced over, she saw her attacker pulling back the launcher's loading compartment. They clicked one more rocket off of their belt and began to jam it into the entrance. This was Fay's chance.

Fay cut loose any restraint that she was still holding onto, and like a bullet, she dashed for the opposite catwalk. One rocket clacked into place. She wouldn't give them time to load the second. Fay rounded the corner by cutting across it, vaulting over the empty air where the two paths met and hitting the ground at top speed. The second rocket clicked as it came off their belt, but Fay grinned. She'd already won.

The spaniel scampered along the wall before kicking off it, sending her careening for the middle of the room — directly on top of where the person in power armor had dug in and fortified. They glanced up when they heard Fay launch off the metallic grate, but it was too late. All they could do was raise their unloaded launcher defensively across their body as they saw the small canine sailing through the air, a wild look in her eye, her shock baton held high in both hands. In a cacophony of fiery orange sparks, Fay brought her weapon down as hard as she could on the launcher. A shockwave blasted them both with smoke and air as the launcher shorted out, the force of the impact alone leaving a dent in the weapon. Fay rolled away quickly, still holding her recharging baton in one hand as she eyed up her opponent, waiting for their next move. The assailant twisted back around once they had recovered, frustration clear in their wide stance. They pulled back the trigger of their weapon a few times, but to no avail. Fay's shock baton had totaled it.

The spaniel heard a dissatisfied grunt come through the suit's voice modulator. As if it were just a toy, the armored attacker tossed their cannon away, and Fay heard it crumple in a shriek of metal as it hit the wall. Now that Fay had a moment to breathe, she realized how peculiar her opponent's power armor was. The parts that weren't gunmetal were painted in a dull orange, a far cry from Space Dynamic's usual color scheme of cherry red and royal blue. Clearly they weren't the company's security, so who were they? Another thief come to try and steal the priceless data she was after? Unfortunately, they didn't seem eager to give Fay more than a second to mull the question over. The white dog was brought back to the scene in front of her by the jarring sound of crunching concrete as the person in armor lifted their leg up, and then slammed it back down into the floor with the force of a jackhammer. They took a few lumbering, aggressive steps towards her while smashing their fists together, the chilling sound of titanium crashing against titanium echoing against the walls and into her ears. Fay wouldn't be so easily intimidated, however. She grinned her trademark smile at her attacker, raising her fists and crouching into a mobile offensive posture. She threw an incendiary wink at them, beckoning for them to bring it on with one hand. Her taunting worked.

Fay barely managed to roll to one side as a giant metal fist slammed into the floor directly where she had been standing. It left a hollow indentation behind when they ripped their embedded hand back out of the floor in a shower of debris. There would be no wasted time in their brawl though, and as soon as Fay's adversary was back on their feet, she found a titanium heel rushing straight for her gut. Fay sunk to her knees fast to dodge the blow. When they tried to bring that same foot back down on top of her now that she was on the floor, Fay spotted her opening. Instead of letting her ribs be pulverized into powder, Fay grabbed hold of their calf and pushed hard off the floor. She used the extra momentum stolen from her opponent's leg to propel her upwards, and before they could react, Fay was perched atop the suit's shoulders, her thighs locked around its neck. Before she could be bucked off her rodeo ride, Fay slammed the end of her baton down in the narrow region between the helmet and shoulder plate of the power armor, feeling it connect with soft plastic and flesh underneath. The spaniel braced, ready to evacuate when her opponent would inevitably topple in pain at the precise strike.

Fay felt a sinking feeling brew in her gut the longer she stayed nestled atop her opponent's shoulders, however, feeling like a kid being carried by their parent at a theme park. The spaniel gulped and tried to scramble away when she heard a low, amused chuckle rumbling from inside the power armor, but it was too late. Whoever was under this armor was much tougher than she had given them credit for. Fay yipped in alarm when she felt two Herculean hands clamp down on her shorts and vest, and ripped the spaniel off their back like a pesky fly. She was suspended in the air for just a moment before being hurled away, landing hard and smashing a few wooden containers in the corner of the room. Her shield fizzled again as it took the brunt of the weight, but this time, it didn't glow blue as it rebounded back to full power. This had been the last straw for it, and with a small snap, she heard the shield generator break under the effort. Fay brushed off her clothes as she rose back up, her mouth in a thin line. Without her shield, she couldn't afford to let this fight go on any longer. She wouldn't get any more second chances. That meant that she needed to finish this engagement as soon as she could. It was now or never.

Fay broke out in another sprint, but this time she wasn't going to try and circle her adversary. Fay needed to disable them now, before either she got herself tossed out a window or police backup inevitably busted through the door. So, instead of running away, Fay ran straight for her deadly opponent. This caught them off guard, and their reactionary blow proved to be too slow, whiffing the air where she had been a fraction of a second earlier. That was exactly the opening that Fay needed. As she was sliding underneath their swinging arm, Fay aimed her wrist for the suit's foot, and pulled the trigger on her grappling hook. With a burst of pressurized air, the metal hook shot out of its prison, flattening and magnetizing to their heel. When Fay flipped back up to her feet, she saw her adversary staring down at the hook in confusion, already bending down to try and rip it off. Before they could, however, Fay threw herself back at her aggressor, and moments before they could remove the hook by brute force, she dove over their arched back, winding the cord around their arm and legs, and yanking it taut. The armored hand flew wide, shoved out of the way by the new loop Fay had made around her attacker. In that moment, the spaniel knew that her opponent had figured out what she was trying to do.

The armored fighter desperately tried to break free of the ropes Fay had binded them up with, but each time they reached to try and break the cable, Fay tangled them up in another layer, ducking and rolling and weaving around them as they slowly lost all mobility. Finally, with one last burst of effort and a loud pant of breath, Fay drew the rope tight once more. She stood at the ready for their next round, but her enemy was helplessly immobile. She could see them struggle against the meters of cable wrapped around them, but all it did was cause them to slowly start to lean and fall to the floor with a satisfying thud, now just a harmless ball on the floor. Fay stood back up shakily, still breathing heavily from exertion. She had done it. The armored stranger still jostled on the floor, loosing an expletive every few seconds, but they wouldn't be going anywhere until the cops showed up and hauled them in. Fay had won.

She let out a victorious cry, bounding up and down and pumping her fist a couple times. "Suck it, jerk!" she laughed, sticking her tongue out at them as she celebrated. Fay turned back around the face her prize, a wide, goofy grin plastered on her mouth. She readjusted her bow as she stepped up to it, admiring the sphere for just a moment. The spaniel has thought it looked good before, but now that she'd kicked this wannabe's ass for it, her winnings looked so much better. She picked it up in one hand, feeling its solid mass weigh down in her fingers, rolling it between her palms a few times. When she turned it over to look at the bottom, she saw the calligraphic M emblazoned on the bottom that both inspired a spike of sadness in her heart and let her know that this was the real deal. She was about to pocket it, however, when she heard something whirring behind her.

When Fay turned around to see what it was, her stomach turned to lead. Instead of seeing her defeated opponent still struggling on the floor, she saw them slowly rising up to their full height, the once tight ropes now slipping away and falling to the floor, slashed to ribbons. Fay put two and two together when she saw the full gleam of a hunting knife in the stranger's off hand. They must have cut the ropes with a hidden knife while she'd been busy gloating. And, unfortunately, the news only got worse. The white canine groaned and grudgingly raised her hands above her head when she saw the barrel of a gun protruding from the suit's wrist, aimed right for her center of mass.

"Put the sphere down," the robotic voice commanded. Fay had no choice but to oblige. She couldn't find a way out of being held at gunpoint, especially without her shield or grappling hook. With a short huff, Fay set her loot back down on its pedestal. "Leave. I don't want to kill you," they continued. The spaniel wanted nothing more than to charge and lay a fist right to their face, but she knew that would neither hurt her adversary and would only end up with her earning a few bullets to the chest.

"Fine," Fay said, starting to sidle over towards her escape route while facing forwards the entire time. "But I'll be back for round two. I hope you're as ready as I am," she said in a raised voice. It only made her more steaming mad when the stranger said nothing, ignoring her and moving towards the sphere that only moments ago had been hers. Fay wanted so badly to throw down with this stranger one more time, but even if she thought that she could win, she knew that she was already cutting it close to when cops would be busting that door down. She shook her head, changing gears to survival instead of retrieval. It was time to evacuate. Fay got a running start, kicking in a vent near the floor and starting to slide herself into it. However, before she could slip out of view, she took one last long look at the person in the power armor. She would see them again soon. Fay shoved off the ground, sliding down the steep incline of the cooling vent. This wasn't over.

The stranger heard the clatter of the small canine vanishing as she escaped the building. They glanced over their shoulder briefly to confirm she was gone, but most of their attention was focused on the sphere they held in their hand. They reached one hand up to their neckline, hearing a hiss of pneumatics as they took their helmet off to get a better look, revealing the face of a serious looking lynx to the empty room. Miyu Lynx held the sphere a little closer, to her eyes, investigating. Of course, all its secrets were held under the surface, and they weren't really her problem in the first place.

"Why do so many people want you?" Miyu murmured quietly to herself, enraptured by its sleek simplicity. "What are you hiding?"

Her questions were interrupted by the sudden sound of pounding at the large metal doors, quickly followed by a stream of sparks flying inwards as welders began to work on cutting the gates open.

"Cornerian Special Forces! Come out with your hands behind your head!" an amplified voice yelled out from behind the door, sounding resolute, and just as cookie cutter as every other law officer she'd ever encountered. Miyu stowed the sphere in her suit's backpack, and then produced a second machine gun barrel from her suit's other wrist. This had been a delay she wasn't expecting. Now…. she'd have to fight her way out.

/

A/N: New Brace for Impact chapter, and a new character! Enter Fay Spaniel, runner extraordinaire and total cutie. Looks like more people are after these data spheres than just Star Fox! And don't worry, we'll be getting back to Fox and Krystal in the next chapter. Act 2 just means the introduction of a lot of characters that will make this story especially juicy :) I hope you guys enjoyed, and keep your eyes peeled for more stuff from me soon! Bye!