Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

It was night. A silence echoed through the Hermitdale Museum, undisturbed by any sound.

Well. Almost any.

The whispers of quiet squabbling split the silence like a knife.

“He said to go left!”

“No he did not!”

A pair of figures in black outfits were glaring at each other in the main room of the Museum, both arguing about something.

“The most expensive items are this way!” One scowled, pointing left. They were a short man with big brown eyes and brown hair that stuck up in a quiff at the front, kept out his eyes by a red headband.

“No, Top said it was the other way!” The other hissed, gesturing right. They were much taller, probably about 6ft, with scruffy raven black hair streaked with grey which he pulled at now in frustration. His eyes were blue and filled with annoyance.

“You never listen!” The brown haired one retorted.

The blue eyed one snorted, “Hah! That’s rich coming from you, shorty!”

“I AM NOT SHORT!”

“You’re literally 5ft 6.”

“YOU TAKE THAT BACK OR I’LL-”

“That’s enough.”

Another voice made them both fall silent.

And a third figure walked in.

They were fairly short but still seemed to tower over the other two. Their red eyes and blonde hair shone in the dim moonlight shining in from the windows. They were in a slim, form-fitting black jumpsuit with gadgets and gizmos hanging from a belt and sticking out of pockets. They walked with authority and were clearly the group's leader.

“If you talk any louder, they’ll hear and then we’ll all be fodder for the fuzz,” They snapped, “I clearly said it was straight ahead. If either of you had been listening, you would have known that.”

“Sorry Tango,” The first person apologised.

The leader, Tango, rolled his eyes, “Come on. We don’t have all night here.”

The three of them sprinted through the room and into another. It was huge, and lined wall to wall with precious artifacts and treasures.

“Jackpot,” Tango grinned, flexing his gloved hands, “Alright boys, let’s get to work!”

They set to, grabbing what they could carry and stashing it in sacks, wrapping the more fragile items in bubblewrap before they were stowed away.

“Where’s Etho?” Tango asked as he examined a particularly pretty chalice.

“Grabbing some of the smaller stuff up the other end of the museum,” The blue eyed one said.

“And our ride?”

“Impulse is ready and waiting for the signal,” The brown eyed one said.

Tango nodded, “Signal him now Bdubs, this should only take us a couple minutes. I’ll call Etho when he shows up. Skizz, give me a hand with this painting.”

Bdubs (brown eyes) nodded and tapped something on a small tablet he was holding, then went back to stealing. Skizz (blue eyes) helped Tango carry a huge painting across to the window.

It was a few minutes later when suddenly a fourth person came sprinting in, breathing heavily, with a bag full of stolen items. A black mask covered their face and their hair was shaggy and dyed white, kept out of their face in a bun at the back of their head. One eye was grey and the other was red and scarred.

“Etho!” Tango greeted, “You ok? You got the goods?”

“Yeah,” Etho nodded, handing Skizz his bag, “But security caught me in the act. They’re on their way here right now. I downed at least seven but there are more coming.”

Tango groaned, “Fantastic. Bdubs, what’s Impulse’s ETA?”

Bdubs checked the tablet, “Three minutes.”

“Three minutes isn’t good enough!” Tango yelled. He growled and grabbed a knife from his belt and then went running back into the corridor.

“Where are you going?” Etho asked.

“To go buy us time,” Tango shouted back.

“Don’t do anything stupid!” Skizz called.

Tango stopped and spun around, grinning.

“Come on Skizz,” He smirked, “It’s me we’re talking about here. Stupid is what I do best!”

He turned and ran down the hallway.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tango heard the guards before he saw them, stopping and pressing himself up against the wall before peering round a corner and taking in the details. Five of them, all armed with what looked like tasers. One hit from those things and he’d be toast. But he still had the element of surprise.

He grinned. He could work with this.

He pulled a gadget from his pocket and pressed a few buttons on it before rolling it like a bowling ball around the corner.

It stopped at one of the guard’s feet.

“What the-” One of them started.

The thing exploded.

It burst into a huge cloud of smoke, leaving the guards coughing and blinded. Tango slid his visor down over his eyes and pulled the bandana around his neck over his mouth and nose before running around the corner, sinking the knife into one of the guards’ arms. The guard let out a cry and slumped to the floor. The other four still standing were panicking and shouting, “Where are they? I can’t see!”

Tango kept low to the ground and stabbed another guard in the leg, watching as they fell too. By the time the smoke had cleared, all five guards were unconscious on the floor and Tango was standing over them, spinning his knife between his fingers, bandana removed, showing his satisfied smile.

Despite being a criminal, Tango hated killing people, and only took lives if it was absolutely necessary. His knife was specially made to be used to incapacitate but not kill. It was tipped with a sedative that would leave the victim out cold for a good few hours, but never end them.

Tango checked his wrist watch. Three minutes. Impulse should have just shown up, but they’d need more time to load it all into the van.

Footsteps came sprinting down the hallway towards him and Tango steeled himself. More guards.

They came around the corner.

There were six.

And they all had guns.

Wonderful.

Tango held the knife tightly in one hand and switched on his wrist communicator.

“Etho, do you read me?” he spoke into it.

“Yes, what’s up?” Etho responded.

“I’m about to do something and I’m gonna need you to come bust me out,” Tango explained.

He heard Etho audibly sigh with annoyance.

“What are you going to do?” He asked.

“Just signal me when everything is loaded up, then come find me,” Tango said, “I’ll see you in a minute.”

He switched off his communicator before Etho could complain and then readied himself as the guards ran at him, surrounding him, not shooting yet but resting their fingers on the triggers. Waiting for him to make the first move.

Tango frowned. He didn’t like that. He preferred to fight on his own terms.

“Surrender!” One of the guards barked, “There’s nowhere to run!”

“Drop the weapon, raise your hands above your head and come peacefully, or we will shoot to kill!” Another guard yelled.

To their surprise, Tango slid the knife back into his belt, pushed his visor back up and raised his hands.

“Alright,” He said, “You got me.”

“You aren’t going to fight?” A third guard asked, seemingly surprised.

“I can’t beat odds like this and I’d rather not die,” Tango reasoned, completely rationally.

The first guard took his hands and clipped them behind his back in handcuffs, then they led him back down the hallway away from where the others were. Tango was whistling cheerily as they walked, until one of the guards jabbed the handle of their gun in his side.

“Ow! Now that was just uncalled for,” Tango glared. The guards made no response.

After a few moments of silence, Tango turned to the guards and asked, “So, how’s your evening going then?”

“Fine until your little gang of thieves showed up,” The third guard said. Another guard gave him a dig in the ribs to tell him not to respond. He was clearly new at this, poor guy. Tango almost felt sorry for him.

“Well, we’re only doing our job, you understand,” Tango mused, “The same way you guys do yours. It’s just such a shame we don’t see eye to eye about things. I’m sure we’d get along well if it weren’t for our occupations.”

His wrist com buzzed slightly and a smile slid across his face. He discretely clicked a button on it and then went back to talking, “It’s just that there’s so many things you don’t understand.”

“Oh?” The third guard retorted, “Like what?”

The second guard clipped him around the ear.

Tango could hear the footsteps running down the corridor behind them that the guards hadn’t noticed yet and grinned, “Lots of things, but one thing in particular: Team Best always wins.”

A tranquiliser dart went flying into one of the guards shoulders and they fell to the ground. More darts came soaring through the air and in a few seconds all the guards were passed out on the floor.

Tango smiled as Etho stepped over them to get to him, “Nice shot. Your aim’s getting better with that thing.”

“That was a stupid idea, Tango,” Etho glared, freeing Tango’s hands, the handcuffs falling to the ground with a clink.

“That was all part of the plan,” Tango said breezily, massaging his wrists, “Everything’s loaded up?”

“All ready to go,” Etho nodded, “Impulse says he’s got a five minute window before the fuzz shows up.”

“Then let’s get moving,” Tango said, grabbing one of the guards’ guns just in case he needed it before the pair went running down the hallway.

But just before they reached the room where the others were loading the van, something caught Tango’s eye and he stopped.

It was a gem in a display case in a separate room, glittering in the dim light. It was huge, almost the size of Tango’s hand. The kind of things you see in cartoon heists.

And it probably cost a fortune.

Tango was almost salivating at the thought of how much it would sell for.

Etho noticed and stopped, “Dude, we’ve gotta go.”

“But it’s so shiny!” Tango cooed, sounding like a kid in a candy store, “And think how much money that’s worth!”

“We’ve got to go,” Etho pressed, firmly, “Impulse can’t wait forever.”

Tango paused, then said, “Go. I’ll catch up.”

“Tango-”

“You tell the others to go. I’ll find my own way out and meet you out there.”

Etho huffed angrily, “Fine! But if you get caught, I am NOT bailing you out again.”

“That’s why I won’t get caught!” Tango grinned, running into the room, shooting Etho a mock salute. Etho growled and headed through to the other room.

“Is everything loaded?” He asked as he ran in.

“Yep,” Bdubs nodded, “Where’s Tango?”

“He’s… preoccupied,” Etho sighed, “He said to get going and that he’d catch us up.”

“You know what he’s like,” Skizz shook his head, smiling, “Alright, I’ll let Dippledop know.”

He jumped out the window and onto the pavement and Bdubs and Etho followed suit.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tango slammed the door of the room shut and shoved a pedestal in front of it, stopping it from opening. That would buy him a little extra time should he need it. Then he walked up to the glass case and gazed inside. The gem was even prettier from this angle, and he could identify it now as a diamond.

“Alright, pretty little baby,” He whispered to it, “Come to Tango.”

He took a look at the case. Breaking it would make too much noise. He didn’t need to worry about getting seen; he’d hacked into the security cameras a long time ago and they were down for the count, but the sound would draw way too much attention. Fortunately, the maintenance lock looked easy to get into. He pulled out a lockpick and a screwdriver and fiddled with the lock for a few seconds, his gloved fingers working nimbly, before it fell to the floor. He pushed the door open and carefully took the diamond off the pedestal.

But there had clearly been a weight sensor for the pedestal since the moment the diamond was removed, a loud alarm blared throughout the building.

Tango flinched as the lights went red, “Oops.”

He got to his feet, stashing the diamond away safely in his bag before looking for a way out. The whole room was on lockdown with bars having been dropped down over all the windows.

But there was nothing over the skylight in the middle of the room.

Tango looked around and in the end spotted a statue of… something and grabbed it, then threw it at the skylight.

“Get statued!” He yelled as it shattered.

He could hear footsteps coming down the corridor. He was almost out of time. He snatched something from his belt - an automatic grappling hook, a contraption he'd built yesterday and hadn't properly tested yet. If it broke, he'd be in big trouble.

He fired it and it latched onto the roof, holding firm. He smiled. Another gizmo to add to the list of successes. He’d thank Zed for the idea later.

He climbed effortlessly up the rope with a practiced ease that showed he’d done it hundreds of times and detached the rope just as the guards ran into the room to find it empty. Then he walked across the roof to the edge, taking a look at his surroundings. He spotted the van pulling out from the pick-up point and watched it drive past. He sprinted so he was parallel with it and then took a running jump onto it, tucking into a roll as he landed.

He walked to the driver’s cab and poked his head in upside down through the open window.

“Hi Impy!” He chirped.

Impulse gave a yell of surprise and the van swerved, almost shaking Tango off, who was laughing at Impulse’s reaction.

“Dude, don’t scare me when I’m driving!” He snapped, regaining control.

“Sorry,” Tango grinned, “Can I come in?”

Impulse flicked a button and the door opened, barely giving Tango time to move his head back out the window. He swung inside and into the passenger seat, slipping on his seatbelt and pulling the door shut.

“You got a pretty big haul,” Impulse said as they drove away, turning on the van stereo, which started blaring out some old tune from the 1980s.

“From what I could tell,” Tango nodded. He rummaged around in his bag, “I snagged this.”

Impulse looked to see him holding the diamond and whistled, “Wow. That’s a nice find.”

“She is a beauty, isn’t she?” Tango polished the diamond with his sleeve and held it up to the light, sending shimmering rays around the cab, before he tucked it away again. He kicked back in his seat, “So, where we headin’?”

“Zed’s waiting at HQ,” Impulse said, turning a corner, “Apparently the boss wants to chat. Oh, and Jimmy’s there too.”

“Cool,” Tango shut his eyes and rested his head on the headrest of his chair, listening to the music. He could hear Skizz, Etho and Bdubs laughing over something in the back, and Impulse was drumming along to the music on the steering wheel and occasionally singing the chorus.

Tango smiled. His life wasn’t particularly legal, but it was times like this that he felt he never wanted to be anywhere else.

Chapter Text

The van drove onto the road leading to the Headquarters and Impulse nudged Tango gently. They’d been driving for a few hours and Tango was currently asleep.

“Wakey wakey Tango,” Impulse said, shaking him gently with one hand. Tango groaned and rubbed his eyes, blinking.

“Wha?” He asked blearily.

“We’re almost there,” Impulse said.

Tango nodded, “Sorry, I dozed off there, didn’t I?”

“You were out late and it was a big job, I understand,” Impulse smiled back, “Can you let the others know we’re almost there?”

“Will do,” Tango grabbed the PA system wired up to the back of the van and spoke into it, “Alright gentlemen, we are reaching our destination. Please prepare to disembark the vehicle.”

The van pulled round into an alleyway and rolled up to a garage door that was currently open. A short man with curly blonde hair and indigo eyes was waiting for them, waving.

“Took you long enough!” He beamed as Tango and Impulse climbed out of the driver’s cab.

“Heya Zed,” Tango grinned, shaking his friend’s hand.

“Oho, is that sexy morning voice Tango I hear?” Zed smirked at Tango’s sleepy, gravelly voice.

Tango laughed and punched him playfully in the shoulder, “Shut your mouth before Jimmy hears!”

“Before I hear what?” A voice asked. The pair turned round to see another blonde walking towards them. It was Jimmy.

“Zed called my voice sexy,” Tango grinned.

“Did he now?” Jimmy raised an eyebrow, amused.

“You know I’d never steal your man,” Zed chuckled.

“I know,” Jimmy smiled. He wrapped his arms around Tango’s shoulders and pulled him into a hug, “Hello love.”

“Hi sweetheart,” Tango kissed Jimmy and then slipped out of his arms, searching for something in his bag. After a few moments, he pulled out a necklace and handed it to Jimmy, “A little gift from the heist.”

“Aw, darling, that’s so sweet of you,” Jimmy examined the jewels on the necklace and then kissed Tango’s forehead. Tango took the necklace and clipped it around Jimmy’s neck.

“It suits you,” Tango said, “Although you are far more beautiful than it is.”

Jimmy blushed at the compliment and pulled Tango in for another kiss-

“Ugh, can you two get a room?” A voice asked. The pair turned to see Bdubs watching with his tongue out, fake gagging into his hand, and Skizz standing against the truck with his arms crossed and a grin plastered on his face.

“Seriously, Double-Down is right,” Skizz said, “You two need to stop snogging in public, Top and Jiggles.”

Tango laughed at the nicknames and Jimmy giggled, letting go, “Sorry.”

“It’s fine, it’s kinda cute,” Etho said, coming from the back of the van and dragging the huge painting along, “Could really use a hand here though.”

“Coming,” Tango ran to help him carry it. In the end, all seven of them pitched in to get the van empty. Seeing it all laid out across the floor made Tango realise how much of a good haul it had been.

“Nice work guys!” He smiled, “How much do you reckon this is all worth Zed?”

“It's a pretty impressive outcome,” Zed nodded, “I'll take a look and let you know.”

Tango's bag bounced against his knee as he nodded and he remembered the diamond.

“What about this?” He pulled it out and handed it to Zed.

Zed's eyes practically fell out of his head.

“Woah!” He took it carefully and examined it, “Where did you find this?!”

“Just in a glass case in a room,” Tango shrugged, “I grabbed it as I was leaving. No biggie.”

“No biggie?!” Zed stared at him, “Tango, this is probably worth $200,000!”

Jimmy gasped and Skizz exclaimed, “What?!”

“That much?” Etho asked with wide eyes.

“At least, yeah!” Zed was bouncing up and down in excitement, “This is the best paying job you've pulled in a while!”

“Told ya I was right to go back for it,” Tango nudged Etho in the ribs with a smug smile.

Etho rolled his eyes.

“I'll evaluate everything and get back to you as soon as possible, hopefully by tomorrow,” Zed said, “Then I'll send it out to be sold and we'll cash in the big buck!”

“Thanks buddy,” Tango smiled.

It's my job,” Zed patted his shoulder and walked with Impulse back to the van, “I'm always happy to help.”

“I'll make sure you get a raise for this one!” Tango called after him. Zed grinned and shot finger guns at him.

“Tango,” Jimmy's voice drew Tango's attention away from Zed, “Can we have a chat?”

“Sure thing love,” Tango nodded. Jimmy took his hand and led him to a small store room out the back of the garage. Tango shut the door as he entered.

“What did you-” He was cut off as Jimmy dragged their lips together. A small chuckle escaped from the corner of his mouth at Jimmy’s eagerness and he kissed him back.

Eventually Jimmy pulled away.

“I want to catch up,” he smiled, “I haven’t seen you for a week except for facetime when I wasn't busy with the business trip. I’ve missed you.” Jimmy smiled.

“Missed you too Rancher,” Tango beamed. ‘Rancher’ was one of Tango’s wacky pet names for Jimmy. Jimmy couldn’t even remember why he had come up with it, but it was his favourite term of endearment that Tango used.

“So, what were you up to while I was gone?” Tango asked.

“Well,” Jimmy paused, looking a little embarrassed at the floor, “I got a promotion.”

Tango gasped, “Jimmy that’s awesome! I’m so proud of you!”

Jimmy grinned, “Yeah. And this makes the whole thing even better.”

He pulled a pair of small things out his pocket and handed it to Tango, who took a good look at it and then stared in amazement.

“Are those-” he started.

“My boss’ favourite pair of earrings?” Jimmy smirked, “Yep. I swiped them off her desk. She had no idea. I just smiled politely and gave her compliments and she practically ate out of my hand.”

“Won’t she think you stole them though?” Tango questioned.

“What? Me? Jimmy Solidarity, the perfect employee she thinks can do no wrong?” Jimmy laughed, “Of course she won’t. I’m not a professional at this for nothing. She’ll probably blame one of the cleaners.”

Jimmy was not only Tango’s boyfriend but a professional pickpocket and conman. He could charm anyone whilst robbing them blind and the victim had no idea until the deed was done, and most of them didn’t even realise it was Jimmy even after they’d been stolen from.

Jimmy’s illegal occupation was actually how the pair had met. Jimmy had been at a nightclub, picking the pockets of rich ladies and gents too intoxicated to notice and had ended up trying to steal from Tango. Tango had caught him in the act and Jimmy had complimented him for how quick he was. Tango had thanked him and they’d exchanged names, before he offered Jimmy a drink. A few rounds later and the pair were making out in an alleyway round the back of the club. Somehow they’d both ended up at Tango’s house at the end of the night, and the rest was history.

“Well done love,” Tango cupped Jimmy’s face and pressed a small kiss to his lips, “My little pickpocket.”

“I’m literally taller than you,” Jimmy smirked.

“Yeah, but I’m older,” Tango argued.

“You’re impossible.”

“You know you love me,” Tango grinned dopily.

Jimmy smiled and pulled him closer by his hips, resting their lips together, “Yeah, I do.”
Tango ran a hand through Jimmy’s hair, tugging him even closer as they kissed.

Suddenly, there was a knock on the door and the pair pulled apart, both breathing heavily.

“Come in,” Tango called breathlessly.

The door swung open and Bdubs stuck his head inside.

“Tango, you’re-” He paused, taking in the scene, then asked, “Sorry, am I interrupting something?”

“No,” Jimmy let go of Tango with one last quick kiss on his hairline, “We were just talking.”

“Really?” Bdubs raised an eyebrow.

“Well, maybe not just talking,” Tango admitted, grinning sheepishly, “What did you need?”

“The boss wanted to speak to you,” Bdubs said.

“Got it,” Tango nodded, “I’ll head up there now. Thanks for the heads up ‘Dubs. See you later sweetheart.”

“Aw, I get a cute petname,” Bdubs joked. Jimmy laughed and Tango rolled his eyes good naturedly, bonking Bdubs on the head as he walked past him and into the lift at the end of the garage.

He pressed the button for floor twelve and tapped his fingers together as the quirky lift music played and the doors slid shut. He hated the music and had no idea why the boss had installed it, but he supposed it was better than dead silence.

Eventually, the lift doors creaked back open and he walked out and down a corridor, stopping at the door at the end. The sign on it read Mr. S. Goodtimes, Entrepreneur.

Tango knocked on the door.

“Come in!” A voice trilled.

He pulled it open.

A young man was sitting with his feet kicked up on his desk, stroking a grey and white cat. He had combed brown hair that had been tied up in a short ponytail. He was wearing a black shirt that was currently unbuttoned, showing his scarred chest. There was a red rose sitting in the breast pocket which he was fiddling with with his other hand. An untied red tie hung around his neck. His trousers were brown leather held up with a silver belt and a pair of black leather boots. His face lit up as Tango walked in.

“Tango!” He grinned, “My best and favourite employee!”

“Hi Scar,” Tango smiled. Scar was Tango’s boss and the leader of their crime faction, as well as an old friend. His name wasn’t actually Scar, but no one knew what his name really was so everyone called him Scar because of the scars on his face and body, none of which Tango knew the origin of. Despite being friends, he didn't actually know that much about Scar. He was a man who kept his cards close to his chest.

“Please, take a seat!” Scar swung his legs back down from the desk and gestured for Tango to sit, which he did.

“It’s lovely to see you, I’ve had a tricky day with difficult clients. You’re so much more competent than all of them,” Scar said, pulling out a packet of cigarettes and a lighter. He offered the packet to Tango, “Want one?”

“I’ll pass,” Tango said politely.

Scar shrugged, “Your loss. These are the best you’ll find this far downtown. Anywho, how are you, friend?”

“I’m hanging in there,” Tango replied, “How are you? How’s Jellie and her kittens?”

“I’m doing absolutely wonderful!” Scar beamed, “And Jellie is too. She’s acting like the queen she is.”

He scratched his cat behind her ears, “Isn’t that right darling?”

“You spoil her too much,” Tango chuckled, shaking his head.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about!” Scar argued, “Right, Jellie?”

Jellie mewed.

“I heard the job went well,” Scar continued, twirling a cigarette between his fingers

“You would have done better,” Tango muttered, rubbing his neck, “I fluffed up at the end, triggering that weight sensor alarm.”

Scar shook his head, “Nah, you've always been better than me. Always.”

A shadow fell over his face for a few seconds, barely noticeable but there, then he brightened again.

“Anyway, down to business,” he said, “I’ve got another job for you.”

“Another?” Tango exclaimed incredulously, “We’ve been at it nonstop the past few weeks.”

“Hey, it’s good business,” Scar countered, lighting the cigarette and slipping it into the corner of his mouth, “And that means more money for both of us.”

“Can’t we take a little break?” Tango groaned, “We’ve been working ourselves to the bone!”

“I’m afraid not,” Scar said, “This one’s on a tight time constraint.” He handed Tango a piece of paper with the needed intel on it. Tango read it over, eyes widening as he did so.

Eventually, he spoke.

“Are you serious?”

“I’m always serious,” Scar took a long drag from his cigarette before removing it from his mouth and tapping the end out on an ashtray.

“But the Goathorn Casino?!” Tango gawped, “That’s impossible!”

“Impossibility never stopped you before,” Scar shrugged.

Tango stared at the paper. Goathorn Casino. It was the most prestigious and well known casino in the entirety of Hermit City. Owned by the mastermind, Doc M. Trying to rob it would be a fool’s errand.

“It’s a suicide job Scar,” Tango protested, “We wouldn’t make it out alive! And I quite like living actually!”

“Stop making such a fuss,” Scar rolled his eyes, “It’s simple. Get in, get the money and get out.”

“But security there is impenetrable!” Tango slammed the paper on the desk, “After the poker scandal where that crazy guy held everyone at gunpoint until they gave him the winnings, they upped their security level. There’s no way we could get in undetected!”

He pushed the paper back across to Scar.

“I’m sorry, but I can’t take the job,” he said, “I can’t risk my teams’ lives like this. Find someone else to take this.”

He got up and walked to the door.

“Well then maybe we’ll have to reconsider our terms,” Scar’s statement made Tango stop dead, his hand resting on the door handle.

“What?”

“You know the rules, Tango,” Scar tsked, “I give you a job and you do it. No questions asked. You never had a problem with that before.”

He pushed the paper back across the table.

“That was because everything you asked of me was feasible,” Tango retorted, snatching it back up, crumpling it in his hand.

“And this isn’t?”

“No!” Tango glared at him, “It’s not!”

“If you don’t do this job, you can walk out this building and not come back,” Scar’s voice turned steely cold and threatening, “You’ve got a day to decide.”

Tango clenched his fists and nodded, leaving the room and slamming the door behind him. Jellie jumped a little at the loud noise.

Scar stroked her head, “It's alright sweetie, he's just a meanie. He'll come right, just you wait.”

He grinned almost evilly, “Just you wait.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The van had been reloaded up for transporting when Tango came back down from Scar's office. Skizz noticed him first.

“Hey Top!” He beamed, “You're back!”

Tango didn't say anything, just walked to the van.

“Hey, Tango?” Skizz's face turned concerned, “You alright?”

Tango still didn't answer.

“Tango,” Skizz's hand landed on Tango's shoulder, startling him out of his thoughts.

“You ok?” Skizz asked.

“Oh, um, yeah,” Tango nodded, “I'm… well…”

He sighed and sat down on a crate, “No, I'm not.”

“What's the problem?” Skizz questioned gently.

Tango wordlessly passed him the crumpled up paper.

Skizz unwrapped it and gave a whistle.

“Doc's Casino? That's a massive job!” He exclaimed, “No wonder you're so worried.”

“That's not it,” Tango shook his head.

“Then what is it?” Etho asked, who'd been listening to them talking.

“We're not taking the job.”

Everyone froze.

“We're not what?” Etho said.

“We're not taking it,” Tango repeated, staring at the floor, “It's too dangerous and I don't want you guys to get hurt.”

“But if you don't take it-” Bdubs started, joining the conversation.

“I know, I know,” Tango sighed, “I can wave goodbye to my job here. But I'm not putting you that far in harm's way. You mean too much to me.”

“Top, that sentiment is incredibly sweet,” Skizz knelt down to look Tango in the eye, “But think of how much money we could make on this job!”

Tango looked up, “What?”

“We’re doing this job,” Etho deadpanned.

“But I-”

“We can do this Tango,” Bdubs added, “We’re good enough!”

“It’s not that you’re not!” Tango huffed, frustrated, “I never said you weren’t! But I want to keep you guys safe!”

“Tango, love,” Jimmy sat down next to Tango, taking one of his hands, “We understand you’re trying to protect us, and we really appreciate you for it, but if the others think they can do this, I think it too.”

“Skill isn’t the problem,” Tango sighed, tugging at his hair with his free hand, “I know you guys are perfectly capable of walking straight in there and getting the job done, but the security there is impossible to get past. If one of you got caught, or worse, I’d never be able to forgive myself.”

“And we get that,” Jimmy nodded, “But I know that you trust your team's judgment just as much as your own, if not more so sometimes. Trust us on this.”

Tango took a deep breath, staring at the ground.

“Fine,” he said in a quiet voice, “We’ll do it.”

“Yeah baby!” Skizz fist-pumped in the air, “We’re going casino heisting!”

“But,” Tango raised a hand. Everyone fell silent.

“The minute something goes wrong, we get the heck out of there, ok?” He ordered, “No arguments. Understood?”

They all nodded.

Tango took the paper from Skizz and took a look at it again.

“Against my better judgment, this is happening, so we need to get as much intel as we can,” he said, “Skizz, that’s your job. Find out whatever you can about the casino, its weaknesses, anything.”

“Yes sir!” Skizz saluted.

Tango smiled dryly at him, then continued, “We’ll need some high tech weapons and explosives. I’ll work on those. Bdubs and Etho, you two are on supply duty. Anything we can’t make, you guys get. We can use the money from the museum to buy it.”

“Why supply duty?” Bdubs moaned, “Supply duty sucks!”

“Keep complaining and you can mop the van floor,” Tango threatened.

Bdubs shut up.

“Speaking of the van,” Impulse said, chuckling at Bdubs’ response, “I’ll give her a tune-up, just in case we need to make a quick exit. I think her oil’s running low.”

“Good idea,” Tango nodded.

“And Jimmy and I can be moral support!” Zed grinned, wrapping an arm around Jimmy’s shoulder (or at least attempting to. It was tricky when Jimmy was a good 5 or so inches taller), “Right Jim?”

“We’ll help in any way we can,” Jimmy smiled.

“We’re gonna need it,” Tango said grimly, “This job is going to be our hardest one ever. We’ll meet here in two days’ time to discuss plans. You can take tomorrow to rest. Goodness knows I need one.”

At this, he stifled a yawn.

“We should probably head out,” Zed agreed, “Should I tell Scar about the job then?”

“Yeah thanks,” Tango said, “That’d be appreciated. I’ll see you guys later.”

“See ya Top!”

“Night Tango.”

“Bye Tangy!”

Tango waved and smiled as he and Jimmy walked to where Jimmy had parked the car. Tango slumped into the passenger seat and slammed the door shut and Jimmy climbed into the driver’s chair.

There was a second of silence, then Tango said, “This is a bad idea.”

“You’re really against this, aren’t you?” Jimmy turned to look at him.

“I’m just worried,” Tango sighed, “Maybe I’m being paranoid, but I have a gut feeling that something is going to go badly wrong.”

“I’m sure it’ll be fine,” Jimmy said breezily, turning on the ignition and pulling away, “What could possibly go wrong?”

Tango stared at him, “You’re seriously saying that?”

“Are you suggesting I just jinxed us?” Jimmy grinned, “I didn’t think you were that superstitious.”

“I’m not,” Tango pinched the bridge of his nose, “But this is not something to be made fun of.”

“Alright, sorry Rancher. I was just trying to cheer you up.”

“I know,” Tango touched Jimmy’s arm with a smile, “And I appreciate it.”

Jimmy smiled back, “Anything for you sweetheart.”

Eventually, they got home, and Tango immediately crashed on the bed upstairs, not even taking off his shoes.

He heard Jimmy chuckle as he walked into the room.

“Tango, I know you’re tired, but you can’t sleep like that.”

“Says who?” Tango’s voice was muffled by his pillow.

“Both common sense and me,” Jimmy pulled both of Tango’s shoes off for him, “You need to get ready.”

“I don’t wanna!” Tango complained.

“You’re acting like a child,” Jimmy rolled his eyes. He grabbed Tango’s ankles and dragged him off the bed. Tango squawked and landed with a thud on the floor.

“Jimmy!” He glared at his boyfriend, who had stuffed his hands in his mouth in the attempt not to laugh. It was unsuccessful.

“Sorry,” Jimmy giggled, “But you were too stubborn for me to do anything else.”

Tango couldn’t stop the amused smile that tugged at his lips from showing as Jimmy laughed. Jimmy’s laugh was so infectious.

“Fine, I’ll get ready,” he muttered begrudgingly, getting up and heading to the bathroom.

Jimmy ruffled his hair, “That’s my rancher.”

Chapter Text

Tango woke up later that afternoon, feeling much more well rested than earlier. After Jimmy had dragged him off the bed, he’d pulled off his jumpsuit, pulled on a pair of pyjama trousers and then fallen asleep before he’d had a chance to put a shirt on, and so he woke shirtless and feeling a bit sore and achy from the heist.

Jimmy was sitting on the bed next to him reading a book when he sat up, yawning.

“Afternoon sweetheart,” Jimmy smiled.

“Afternoon? What time is it?” Tango mumbled.

“It’s about 3:00pm,” Jimmy said, putting his book down.

Tango nodded and stretched, wincing as his back popped.

“That sounded like it hurt,” Jimmy grimaced.

Tango shrugged, “I tried to lift that massive painting by myself and my back really didn’t like it. This is the result.”

“Here, let me see if this helps,” Jimmy gestured for Tango to sit in front of him on the bed. Tango shuffled over and Jimmy started massaging Tango’s back. Tango gave a relieved sigh as he felt the ache in it start to disappear.

“Better?” Jimmy asked, smiling as Tango slowly melted into the touch.

“Yup,” Tango nodded, his eyes closed. Jimmy’s hands were cool and soft on his skin and soon all the pain had gone.

“Thank you,” He turned a little and nuzzled his face into Jimmy’s neck. Jimmy giggled as Tango’s hair tickled his chin. He kissed Tango’s head and rummaged for something in his pocket, pushing it into Tango’s hands. Tango pulled away and unfolded it. It was a shopping list.

“Hey, could you run to the grocery store for me?” JImmy asked, “I’ve got some important errands to run around the house but I really need to grab some stuff for dinner tonight.”

“Sure thing,” Tango got up and grabbed a black shirt from the wardrobe, pulling it on along with a jumper, before he pecked a kiss on Jimmy's cheek.

He sprinted downstairs and grabbed his coat on the way out the door, “See you in 10!”

“See you later, love!” Jimmy called down.

Tango locked the door behind him and strolled down the street. It was surprisingly empty for a Friday afternoon, and Tango was the only one there. He frowned. That was odd. Maybe there was something happening that he wasn’t aware of.

He walked down the road, whistling, the sound echoing into the emptiness. A cold wind flicked up his hair and the grey clouds above foretold the rain that was forecast to fall later.

And then he heard footsteps.

Not behind him, or next to him. Above him. Tango stopped whistling and cast a discreet sideways glance at the rooftop of a building to his left. There was someone following him, dressed entirely in black. His heart dropped. An assassin. After him?

He kept his composure, cool, like he hadn’t noticed, but he gripped the knife he always kept hidden up his sleeve tightly.

He heard the footsteps stop.

And then someone landed behind him.

Tango drew the knife and swung, sweeping round with it. It met another blade with a clash of iron. The assailant parried and leapt back, dodging the blade.

“You thought you could get the jump on me?” Tango growled, “You obviously didn’t do your research. I’m a bit quicker than the average person.”

“I know what I’m doing,” the person spat. Their voice was robotic, talking through a voice changer.

“Clearly not!” Tango made another swipe, driving the person back further. He didn’t have to kill them, just cut them. Then the sedative on the knife would do the rest of the work.

The assassin threw a knife from their belt at Tango, who dodged it with ease.

“Pathetic,” he snarked, “Why send someone to kill me when they can’t even scratch me? You’re a terrible assassin.”

The person made a frustrated noise and swung at Tango. Tango parried with his knife, and they fought like knights with swords for a few moments.

“Just stay still and let me kill you!” The assassin was losing patience.

“How about no?” Tango lunged, trying to make contact. The assailant grabbed his wrist, stopping him a few inches short of pushing the blade into his chest.

“Huh,” Tango muttered, trying to pull free of his grip, “Maybe you're quicker than I thought.”

“Thanks,” the person twisted Tango's wrist hard. Tango cried out and dropped his knife and the person took the opportunity to slam him to the floor, pinning him to the ground by his arms. Tango struggled in vain as the assassin positioned his knife above Tango’s heart and drew back.

“Finally,” he spat, “I’ll make this quick.”

“You wish!” Tango kicked upwards with his legs, knocking the knife from the person’s hand with one foot and hitting him hard in the stomach with the other. The assassin recoiled, winded, and with his hands free, Tango snatched up the knife and sank it into the assassin’s chest.

The assailant choked, coughing up blood, eyes wide as the knife was driven deeper.

“I didn’t want to do that,” Tango hissed, “But you gave me no choice.”

The person had gone limp and Tango pulled out the knife with a grunt, pushing the person away. He stood up, rubbing his wrists which were sore after being pinned down, then took a look at the assassin. They didn’t have any badges or sigils that might show where he came from.

Tango hummed, searching their pockets. Nothing. He had no idea who had sent this assassin after him, or why. He just hoped they hadn’t tracked him from the house and that Jimmy was ok.

There was the sound of crunching glass shards in his coat pocket, and Tango frowned, rooting around inside it. He pulled out a shard and his face fell.

He’d had his heist visor inside his pocket and the fight had smashed it into multiple glass pieces. He tried to see if they could fit together and were able to be fixed, but it had been shattered beyond recognition.

“Come on!” He yelled, “That was a new visor too!”

He went to turn back to head home, muttering swears under his breath, when more footsteps came from behind him. Tango looked around to see another two people in black with knives running at him.

He groaned, “Seriously? More of these guys?”

He picked his knife and the other one the first person dropped and held them tightly.

“I’m really not in the mood for this today,” he shouted to them.

“Then let us get this over with,” one of the new people said.

“Did you not see what I just did to your buddy here?” Tango gestured to the dead body a few metres away. The assassins paused.

“Yeah,” Tango twirled the knives, “Maybe don’t mess with me.”

The two glanced at each other, then the second one said, “We have our orders.”

They jumped at Tango who dodged and met each blade. They fought furiously, Tango quick and elegant, the others looking clumsy compared to him. But they were stronger and soon resorted to using brute force.

Tango went for a swing at one of them but they dodged and the other managed to cut him in the arm. Tango made a pained noise and winced, trying for another swipe. Suddenly, he felt one of them grip the back of his collar and drag him back. He gasped as the fabric pulled tight against his throat as he was pulled towards the knife, positioned to plunge right into his back.

Tango summoned all his agility and sprang backwards and over the assassin’s head, landing behind him and slicing the collar of the back of his shirt, freeing himself. He took a swing with his sedative knife and finally made contact, cutting the person slightly in the arm. They collapsed to the ground with a cut off cry, out cold.

“That was way too much effort,” Tango huffed a breath, pressing a hand to his own arm to stem the bleeding, looking around for the second person. Where were they?

Suddenly a knife came flying at him from the side, scratching past his face and cutting his cheek. He gasped in shock and pain and spun round to see the other assassin running at him. They took a huge swing at Tango who ducked under their arm and managed to make a shallow cut on the assailant’s neck. They staggered a few metres and then fell to the floor.

Tango sighed and wiped his knives off on the inside of his coat. Finally, he could go-

Snkt!

Something sunk into his leg. He screamed and looked down to see a dart sticking out of it.

Fantastic. He wasn’t out of the woods yet.

He looked around and just spotted the next dart in time to dodge it as it skidded over his head. He started running towards town as more darts fell behind him. He saw another person in black on the rooftops, this one with a gun.

“Be nice if I could catch a break!” He yelled as he sprinted further into town.

Fortunately, the town, unlike the street, was fairly full of people and he found he could get lost in the crowds fairly quickly. He kept his head down and kept running in the hope the shooter would lose him.

His leg had started throbbing in pain and he was starting to lose feeling in it. He could feel himself limping and slowing down.

“This is just peachy,” Tango muttered, looking for somewhere he could go to find cover.

His eyes fell on a clothes shop and an idea crossed his mind. He smiled and hobbled inside the shop. If he had to guess, the sniper wouldn’t go inside and wait to shoot him when he came back out. Perfect.

The shooter watched him walk in the shop and stopped, increasing the range on their gun’s sight.

“I lost him,” they spoke into a communicator, “He headed into a shop. I’m waiting outside until he comes out.”

“Keep your position until he exits.”

“Yes sir.”

The shooter waited and waited, but Tango didn’t walk out the building. They watched a man in a blue hoodie with the hood pulled up and sunglasses limp out of the store and sighed.

“He’s not come out,” he said, “Should I move in?”

“Hold your position,” The communicator crackled, “He’ll come out eventually. Be patient. There’s no back exit, right?”

“No, I don’t think so.”

“Then he can only come out the front. Stay put. He can’t stay in there forever.”

The man in the blue hoodie smiled as he watched the shooter waiting on the roof, lifting his glasses just a little, his red eyes glittering. He’d needed a new pair of sunglasses, and he could just give Jimmy the hoodie. He’d guessed correctly that the shooter wouldn’t recognise him in a different outfit.

He pulled out a slightly bloody and screwed up piece of paper: the shopping list.

He sighed. Those groceries weren’t going to buy themselves.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Getting the groceries and getting back was fortunately uneventful. The assassins had all gone by the time Tango reached the empty street again.

His leg had gotten even worse, and his other wounds were sore and stinging, staining his clothes a dark crimson. He could hardly drag himself across the road and knock on the door of the house.

It opened, Jimmy standing behind it.

“Hi love! You got the-” He took in the state of Tango in different clothes and limping with what looked like bloodstains seeping through the fabric.

“Oh my gosh! What happened!” He exclaimed, concerned, helping Tango inside.

“I got attacked,” Tango panted.

“Attacked?!” The blood drained from Jimmy’s face.

“Yep,” Tango pulled off the new jumper and his coat, “I got jumped by some assassins. My visor got smashed too. Honestly that’s what I’m most annoyed about.”

“Assassins?” Jimmy went even paler, “Someone was targeting you?”

“Seems like it,” Tango nodded. He flinched at his leg, “I’m not in the best shape right now.”

Jimmy picked him up in a bridal carry, “I’ll get you cleaned up.”

“Thanks love.”

Jimmy placed Tango carefully on the couch and pulled Tango’s shirt off to assess the damage. A cut on his arm which seemed to have gone quite deep but was still fortunately a flesh wound, a shallower cut on his cheek and a sore wrist. Tango pulled up his trouser legs a little so Jimmy could take a look at his left leg. Jimmy gasped at the fact that Tango’s leg had turned purple and swollen.

“What did they do?” He whispered.

“Sniper with a dart gun,” Tango winced as Jimmy carefully prodded at his leg to see how sore it was, “I don’t think it was a knock-me-out kind of sedative so my next best guess is poison.”

“But then what’s the antidote?” Jimmy questioned, scared.

Tango thought for a second, then asked, “Do you have Zed’s number?”

“Yes,” Jimmy nodded.

“Then call him,” Tango said, “Zed’s an expert when it comes to poisons and antidotes and all that chemistry stuff.”

“Got it,” Jimmy grabbed his phone and walked out to call Zed. Tango waited, lying back on the armrest of the couch, staring at the ceiling. Today had been a complete trainwreck.

Jimmy came back in a few minutes later.

“Zed’s on his way now to come take a look,” he said, “He told me to monitor it and see if it kept spreading.”

Tango nodded and the pair waited, Jimmy playing with his hair and occasionally pecking kisses to his cheeks to keep him calm and comfortable. Eventually, there was a knock on the window and the pair turned their heads to see Zed waving into the living room. Jimmy got up and opened the door for him.

“Doctor Zedaph is here!” Zed announced as he walked into the living room with a big grin. Tango chuckled.

“Right, let me take a look,” Zed knelt down next to Tango and took a look at his leg. He made a sympathetic noise from between his teeth.

“Do you have the dart?” He asked.

“It’s in my coat pocket,” Tango said, “Jimmy, could you-”

“On it,” Jimmy rushed out the room and returned a few moments later with the dart, which he carefully handed to Zed who took a good look at it.

Eventually, he hummed and said, “It’s some kind of paralyzing substance but I don’t think it’s a poison, seems more like a type of very mild anaesthetic. The purple colour is your body trying to fight it off. I think. That’s my best guess. I’d need more equipment to be sure.”

“I trust your judgment,” Tango smiled, “Thanks Zed.”

“No problem,” Zed handed him a small vial of liquid from a bag, “This should help ease the pain and numbness, and hopefully stop you from looking like you stole a leg from Barney the dinosaur.”

All three of them laughed at that, and Tango swallowed the liquid. Sure enough, about ten minutes later, Tango’s leg looked a lot less like a fat aubergine and he could feel it again.

But Jimmy still looked pensive.

“Who attacked you?” He questioned.

Tango frowned, “I checked for an ID or syndicate symbol or something, but they had nothing I could identify them with unfortunately. I don’t know who came after me.”

Zed and Jimmy looked at each other, almost nervously.

“What’s the matter?” Tango asked, “I don’t like that look.”

“Well,” Jimmy sighed, “Maybe you were right.”

“About what?”

“About this job,” Zed said, “The casino. If you’re getting targeted like this, a big job may not be the best idea.”

“I can’t back out now,” Tango shrugged, wincing a little at his sore arm as he did so, “I’ve agreed to the job. Quitting would not end well for any of us. Scar really wants this done. I’ll be fine, don’t be paranoid.”

“It’s not paranoia if something is really out to get you,” Zed criticised.

“I agree with Zed,” Jimmy nodded, “Maybe we should rethink the job.”

“We’ll just cross our fingers and hope for the best,” Tango said, “I already said to the boys that if it goes wrong we get out, no arguments. It’s gonna be fine.”

The other two nodded, but Tango could tell that the worry was sticking to all three of them like glue.

He gave a cheeky grin to try and calm their worries, “Come on guys. What could possibly go wrong?”

Chapter Text

“You idiot!”

The assassin flinched as he was hit across the face.

“You had a perfect opportunity and you let him go!” A figure in pure black stood opposite them.

“He tricked me! There must have been another exit to the shop or something!” The assassin insisted, rubbing their face.

“It doesn’t matter, he still got away!” The figure spat.

“I was so close and he just slipped through my fingers! He’s just too good at this!”

The figure chuckled darkly, “Oh, trust me, I know. He’s a tricky one to pin down. There’s a reason he’s one of the most elusive thieves to walk the planet.” They took a deep breath from a pipe and blew smoke right into the assassins’ face, making them splutter.

“I can try again!” The assassin pleaded, “I-”

“And fail again?” The figure growled, “He’ll see us coming, he knows us now, or at least knows we’re looking for him. He’d have to trust us like a member of his team to-”

The figure paused.

“That’s it,” They muttered, “That’s it! We don’t have to do anything! We can hit him where it hurts and we won’t even have to get our hands dirty.”

He grabbed something and fiddled with an electronic device before he tossed it to the assassin, “Gather up a few other men. Head to this address and look for this man,” He showed a photograph with an address on the bottom, “Find him and show him that device. I’m pretty sure it’s an offer he can’t refuse.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Etho was the first to the garage. He’d walked there from his house and still beat the others. He hummed, smiling to himself and sat down on a crate, kicking his feet up on a barrel. Him and Bdubs had already managed to gather a tonne of supplies from a list Tango had sent them yesterday and he was looking forward to getting to this heist.

Eventually, Zed showed up, although not for the meeting. He was staring at his phone when he walked in, nearly walking into the side of the van. He greeted Etho with a mere wave and a quiet, “Hiya,” which meant he was obviously planning out some kind of new gadget for Tango and was already knee deep in ideas. Etho just smiled as he watched Zed shut himself in his workshop. He had a feeling - no, he knew - that none of them would see Zed for the next 6 hours. He chuckled.

Bdubs was the next to arrive, yelling something incoherent about traffic as he ran in, then stopping when he saw it was only Etho there.

“Where’s the others?” He asked.

“Who knows,” Etho shrugged, “You know what Tango and Skizz are like.”

“Well, they’re late,” Bdubs pouted, checking his watch and sitting down next to Etho. They lapsed into small talk, chatting about their days and other pieces of news they’d heard about.

Skizz came next.

“Sorry I'm late,” he sighed, straightening his hoodie, “Kevin and Drax got into a fight and I had to stop Snitch and Griff getting involved.”

“You have the weirdest names for your dogs,” Bdubs said.

“I do not!” Skizz glared, “Kevin is a perfectly normal name.”

“What's his full name?” Etho smirked.

Skizz turned red and stared sheepishly at the floor, “Kevin Bubbles Malone Refrigerator Mad-Eye Dugan.”

“Point proven,” Bdubs sniffed.

Etho rolled his eyes as the pair kicked off into an argument over names, “And you think ‘Bdubs’ is a normal name?!” “Well neither is Skizz!”. The pair bickered a lot, but it was all in good nature and never meant anything. Even so, Etho couldn't wait for Tango to show and shut the pair up.

Eventually Jimmy's car pulled up outside.

“Finally,” Etho muttered.

“He's the leader and yet he's the latest!” Bdubs complained.

But they were all surprised to see that Jimmy was helping a limping Tango out of the car. All three of them jumped to their feet and ran over.

“Oh my gosh Top!” Skizz exclaimed, concerned, “Are you ok? What happened?”

“We'll talk about it inside,” Tango said, letting Etho take over helping him and letting Jimmy get back to the car, “Have a good day at work Jim.”

“See you later Rancher,” Jimmy waved, climbing back into the car, “Be careful.”

“I will,” Tango replied, waving back.

Etho helped Tango over to sit him down on a crate.

“What the heck happened?” Bdubs demanded, face pale.

“I got attacked by some assassins yesterday,” Tango explained, “Took a dart to the leg and haven’t quite recovered yet. I should be ok by tomorrow but-”

“Wait wait wait,” Skizz raised a hand, “You were attacked by assassins?!”

“Yes,” Tango nodded, “I’m ok. A few scratches and a sore leg, that’s all.”

“But isn’t that a bit worrying?” Skizz countered, looking anxious, “Someone wants you dead Tango. That’s not a good thing.”

“It’s fine,” Tango dismissed, “I’m pretty sure they don’t know where I live or else they would have tried again. We’ve got bigger things to worry about.”

The other three all exchanged a worried glance but decided not to question it further. They helped Tango sit down on a crate and dragged up boxes to sit on.

“How’s the planning for the heist going?” Tango asked.

“Me and Bdubs have already pretty much finished collecting supplies,” Etho said, “It was surprisingly easy.”

“Yeah!” Bdubs added, “Who knew you could get explosives so cheap! I didn’t!”

Tango smiled, “You can if you know where to look.”
He turned to Skizz, “How did the information gathering go?”

“Poorly,” Skizz sighed, “I couldn’t find anything on that place anywhere! I checked online, in books, I even called a few people but I got nothing. Sorry Top.”

“You did your best,” Tango patted his shoulder, “We knew it would be tricky to find intel. I’ve got a few shadier contacts I can speak to and see what I can find.”

“Tango!” Zed’s voice came from across the garage, “Scar wants to see you!”

“What does he want now?” Tango huffed, staggering to his feet. Skizz went to help him but Tango brushed him off.

“I’ll be ok,” he said, “But thanks.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tango knocked on the door to Scar’s office, waited for the “Come in!” and then pushed it open. Scar was sitting at his desk in surprisingly formal attire, his shirt fully buttoned and his hair smartly parted. Someone in a suit and tie was sitting in a chair to the side of him that Tango didn’t recognise.

“Tango my friend!” Scar greeted, “Wonderful to see you, please take a seat!”

Tango pulled out the chair at the end of the desk and sat down, giving a slightly stiff nod to whoever was sitting next to him and a more cheerful one to Scar.

“I heard you wanted to talk to me,” he said.

“Yes, I did,” Scar poured the remainder of a bottle of some kind of alcohol spirit into a glass and pushed it across the table to Tango, before opening a new bottle and pouring another pair of glasses for him and the visitor, “I don’t think you’ve met Mr Albert Friar here.”

“I haven’t,” Tango eyed up the man in the suit. He looked nice enough, but Tango knew looks didn’t mean everything.

“He’s a new informant I ran into,” Scar explained, “Apparently he can help you out on your casino troubles.”

“Oh!” Tango said, surprised, “I mean, sure, we’ll take all the help we can get.”

“Fantastic!” Scar clapped his hands together, “Mr Friar, the table is yours!”

Mr Friar picked up the glass on his left and drank some from it, “Thank you, Mr Goodtimes. May I just say how honoured I feel to be meeting with such a high level thief.”

“It’s a pleasure,” Tango nodded.

“I heard you were looking for some information on a certain casino,” Mr Friar continued, “I bumped into your driver in a bar yesterday and he explained your situation. Oh don’t worry, he didn’t tell me everything, he was extremely vague,” he added, as Tango’s face turned stony at the thought of Impulse blabbing their secrets to a random stranger, “But I said I might be able to help. I happened to know some people who had some information that they were kind enough to share. I got into contact with Scar and agreed to hand it over - at a fair price, of course.”

“Fair price my backside,” Scar muttered under his breath, picking up and lighting a cigarette, slipping it into his mouth.

“So,” Mr Friar pushed something across the desk to Tango, “Here is your information. I hope this can suffice.”

“Thank you,” Tango took it. It was a blue scroll of paper. He unrolled it and gasped.

“A blueprint!” He stared in amazement, “How the heck did you find a blueprint of Goathorn Casino? I thought they all got destroyed for security measures!”

“I was just as surprised as you,” Mr Friar said, “If I knew where they found it I’d tell you. For an extra fee, sure, but I still would have told you.”

Tango rolled the scroll back up and smiled, “Well it’s much appreciated, thank you so much.”

“It’s no problem,” Mr Friar got to his feet, “Anyways, I must get going. You understand I’m a busy man.”

“Of course,” Scar nodded, “Thank you for the help, I’ll have my assistant transfer the money to your account.”

The pair shook hands across the table and Mr Friar left the room. He accidentally tripped over his own feet as he reached for the door handle.

“Clumsy me,” he chuckled, leaving and shutting the door behind him.

Scar sighed once he had left, taking a long breath from his cigar, “So. How’s the planning going?”

“It’s been ok,” Tango made a ‘so-so’ gesture with his hand, “But this blueprint is definitely going to help.”

“I heard from Zed about the attack yesterday,” Scar pressed a hand to his heart, “I was truly worried about you. I hope you’re ok.”

“I… thank you,” Tango was slightly taken aback by how genuine Scar sounded, “I’m hanging in there.”

“Don’t look so surprised. I know I’m your boss, but I’m still your friend Tango,” Scar said, “We always looked out for each other back then, and we still do now.”

“We do,” Tango smiled.

Suddenly, the door was slammed open and a panicked looking Skizz stood by the door.

“What’s up Skizz?” Scar asked, looking concerned, “What’s got you barging in like this?”

“I just got to the garage, but something’s happened. The informant you both just spoke to,” Skizz’s face was white, “I just found him dead outside.”

Tango and Scar exchanged a stunned look and jumped to their feet, running from the room, Scar in such a hurry that he knocked one of the glasses to the floor, smashing it. Soon all three of them were down on the street outside. The man lay face down on the pavement. He wasn’t breathing. Etho and Bdubs were already there, checking his pulse and arguing about giving him mouth to mouth.

“Who would do this?” Scar’s face was scarily pale. Tango cast a worried glance at him. He didn’t think he’d ever seen Scar look this terrified.

“I can guess,” Etho said, his expression grim.

Tango knelt down next to the body, looking it over.

“There’s no knife or gun wounds,” he said, “He wasn’t shot or stabbed.”

He rolled the man over to check for more wounds when he spotted something.

“Look at his neck!” He exclaimed. The others knelt down next to him to look.

The man’s neck was a horrible bruised purple colour, the veins looking sore and swollen.

“He was strangled,” Bdubs realised, “I thought I heard someone choking. That’s what made me check outside.”

“It definitely looks like he was strangled,” Tango nodded grimly, “But why go for the informant and not for me?”

“Maybe as a warning,” Skizz suggested, “They couldn’t get to you so they killed him instead. They’re warning you.”

“It’s a worry,” Scar said, “What if it’s not just a warning to Tango but to all of us?”

The thought left a bitter taste in all three of their mouths.

“Me and Bdubs will sort him out and call an ambulance and the police,” Etho said, lifting the man up. Bdubs rushed to help him and they carried him away from the garage.

“Maybe we shouldn’t go through with this job after all,” Skizz said eventually, after a long silence, “If they’re targeting us-”

“What are you talking about?” Scar looked up, “Yes we’re going through with this job! Do you know how much money this could make us?!”

“Money isn’t helpful if we’re dead Scar!” Skizz retorted.

“No,” Tango interrupted both of them, “We’re doing this job.”

The pair turned to face him.

“We’ve come this far,” Tango said. His face was determined, “We’ve put in money, got intel we thought would be impossible. Whoever this is seems to be trying to scare us, possibly out of this job. We’re not going to be intimidated by these low level thugs.”

Scar grinned, “Exactly! Well spoken!”

“I don’t know about this,” Skizz sighed, “But what Tango says goes, so I guess this is happening. It’s a good thing I trust you Top.”

Tango got to his feet with a little difficulty, “Honestly? I’m not sure I trust myself. But I do know one thing.”

He smiled as the three of them headed back into the garage.

“Those assassins messed with the wrong team of criminals.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Bdubs walked towards the bus stop, humming to himself and walking down a back alley shortcut, trying to calm his nerves. Him and Etho had sorted out the informant and now he was looking forward to a nice relaxing afternoon. Maybe he could go check on the horses, maybe-

“Hey!”

Bdubs stopped and spun around, then jumped backwards in fear.

A man in all black stood behind him. A belt full of knives was wrapped around his waist.

An assassin.

Bdubs gasped and turned to run, but stopped when he saw there were more behind him. He made a grab for his phone to call Tango, terror running through his veins. He had to tell Tango that the assassins had come back for him.

But the assassin threw a knife that knocked the phone out of his hand. The screen smashed

“We don’t want to hurt you,” they said, “We just want to talk.”

Bdubs’ fear turned to confusion, “Talk?”

“We have an offer for you,” the assassin said, throwing something at Bdubs’ feet. It was some kind of device with writing on it. He picked it up and read it. It had Tango’s name and an amount of money bullet-pointed down underneath a description. Bdubs’ eyes nearly fell out of his head when he saw how much money it was.

“5 million?!” He gawped.

“Yep,” the assassin nodded, “And if you get him for us, the money’s yours.”

Bdubs froze.

“Are you asking me to betray my leader?” he glared, “Because that’s not going to happen.”

“But it’s 5 million dollars,” The assassin argued, “We know you’re struggling with finances and this could be your lucky break.”

Bdubs paused. 5 million dollars did sound - no, what was he thinking?! He couldn’t betray Tango. That was out of the question.

“I can’t do it,” he shook his head.

“You don’t have to hurt him even,” The assassin pressed, “Just leave him for the police to pick up.”

Bdubs said nothing for a moment, then said his next words carefully.

“He wouldn’t get hurt?”

“No,” the assassin nodded, “At least not by our hands. You don't have to hurt him either. All we need to know is where your next job is, and you can't let him leave the building. But we swear we wouldn't kill him.”

“What happens if I refuse?” Bdubs asked, nervously.

“Then we let you go, but you keep your mouth shut,” The assassin shrugged nonchalantly, “We do know where you and your family and friends live. If you tell anyone anything, then they may pay the price for it.”

Bdubs froze, fear and indecisiveness seeping into his bones. If he didn't betray Tango, his family could die, but if he did, then Tango might get hurt.

But 5 million dollars…

He stuck out his hand.

“I'll do it.”

A huge smile lit up the assassin's face under his mask and he shook Bdubs' hand, “Wonderful! Make sure we get Tango and you'll get your reward and your family will be safe.”

Bdubs nodded, his heart sinking as they shook hands.

He picked up the device and ran for the bus stop, leaving the assassins grinning behind him.

Betrayal or not, he still had a bus to catch.

Chapter Text

<6 days later…>

Tango tugged at the corners of his gloves, a small smile playing at his lips. It was sunset and he was waiting for Impulse to arrive with the van.

This was it. Their most ambitious heist they’d ever pulled.

Tonight was the Goathorn Casino’s Anniversary, 50 years since it had opened, and they were throwing a huge celebration because of it. Security was going to be tighter than ever, but with the crowds, it’d be easy to slip in and out unseen.

“You got everything?” Jimmy walked out from the back room.

“Pretty much,” Tango said, “Just waiting for the others; Impulse is picking them up and bringing them here with some of the equipment.”

Jimmy nodded and stood there for a moment, then said, “Tango.” His voice was quiet and edged with something that sounded like fear.

Tango turned around, “Yes love?”

“I…” Jimmy sighed, “I’ve got a really bad feeling about this.”

“Oh sweetheart,” Tango smiled and leaned on his tiptoes to kiss Jimmy’s forehead, “It’s gonna be ok.”

“It’s just…with everything that’s been going on, I’m just worried that you might get hurt. What if you don’t come back?” Jimmy turned away, hiding his face in his elbow, “I’m just scared.”

Tango gently moved Jimmy’s elbow and took his boyfriend’s face in his hands. A single tear trickled down Jimmy’s cheek and Tango wiped it away with his fingers.

“I’m going to come back,” he said, “Everything is going to work out, we’re going to get enough money that we’ll never have to worry about finances again, and I’m going to come back.”

He reached around his neck and unclipped something, pressing it into Jimmy’s hand. Jimmy looked at it, holding it gently.

“Your necklace,” he said, wiping his eyes with one hand. It was a necklace that Jimmy had brought for Tango about a year ago for Tango’s birthday.

“Yeah. I’m gonna want that back, so don’t lose it,” Tango chuckled.

“But why?” Jimmy asked, sniffling.

Tango took the necklace and clipped it around Jimmy’s neck, “It’s another reason to return, isn’t it? I’ll come back for it, and for my darling Rancher.”

He drew Jimmy down for a kiss, his lips lingering a little longer than they normally would. Whether to comfort Jimmy or as a goodbye in case things did go south, Tango wasn’t sure. He himself was full of jittery nerves, but he was doing his best to keep it together.

“Just…stay safe, ok?” Jimmy whispered.

“I will,” Tango replied.

There was the sound of wheels and the pair turned around to see the van pulling up just outside the garage. It parked and Impulse climbed out of the cab.

“Nice parallel parking!” Tango called, grinning.

Impulse laughed and swept a jokey bow, “Thank you Tango.”

“Everything ready to go?”

“Yep, all sorted,” Impulse nodded, “There’s a handful of suit jackets and ties there for you for when you need them and the boys are all ready to go.”

Tango smiled, “Awesome. Thanks Impy.”

“Oh,” Impulse handed Tango a bag he’d been carrying, “And I got you this.”

Tango rooted around in the bag, frowning in confusion as he pulled out a shirt, “Clothes?”

“Yep,” Impulse said, “As good as your jumpsuits are, they’re a little monochrome, so I got in contact with my friend Cleo. I’ve told you about her, right?”

“You’ve brought her up in conversation before, yeah,” Tango nodded.

“Well, she’s a seamstress, so I asked her if she could make some proper heist outfits, like from the movies,” Impulse explained, “Go try it on!”

Tango took the bag and headed for the toilet to change, Jimmy and Impulse exchanging small talk while they waited. They’d just got into a debate about music when Tango yelled, “I’m ready!” from the bathroom and walked out.

Impulse and Jimmy gasped.

Tango was wearing a sleek red crop shirt and a pair of black trousers with red chevrons on the knees, a black sleeveless leather jacket over the top with a lot of pockets. He had a different pair of gloves on, black and red with a few orange stripes along them. On his feet were a pair of sturdy looking black walking boots.

It was a pretty good look.

“What do you think?” Tango asked, spinning around like he was on a catwalk.

“It looks epic dude!” Impulse exclaimed, “This was definitely worth the money I paid Cleo!”

Tango glanced at Jimmy, “What do you think sweetheart?”

Jimmy just stared for a moment, then said, “And I didn’t think you could look any more hot than you already did.”

Impulse burst out laughing, and Tango grinned, rushing over to give Jimmy a hug.

“Thank you love,” he chuckled.

“Only telling the truth Rancher,” Jimmy smiled, hugging him back.

“Hey! Guys!” A voice yelled from the back of the garage. They all looked round to see Zed running towards them, waving something as he ran.

“Hey Zed!” Tango called, “How long have you been here without us knowing?”

“Couple hours,” Zed panted, “I was putting the finishing touches on a few new gadgets for you.”

He sprinted round to the back of the van and Tango followed. The other three were all there, already in their suit jackets, black trousers and ties. Skizz whistled as he walked in.

“Wow Top, if you didn’t already have a boyfriend, I’d have to ask you out,” He looked Tango up and down, “That’s a nice outfit you got.”

“Oh Skizz, you’re making me blush,” Tango joked, fanning his face with his hand. They all laughed at his silly antics.

“I’ve got stuff for you guys!” Zed shouted, drawing the attention back. Everyone gathered around him.

“Etho, got this for you,” Zed handed Etho a little silver cylinder with a button on it and a handful of small silver discs. Etho stared at them in confusion.

“What does it do?” He asked, pressing the button.

“No don’t-!” Zed started, but it was too late. A flash of red light shot out of the end of the device. Etho jumped as it shot a tiny hole through the floor of the van.

“Hey!” Impulse yelled from outside, “Watch the paintwork! Do you know how much time I spent getting this girl ready for tonight?”

“Sorry Impulse!” Etho called sheepishly. Zed sighed and rolled his eyes.

“This is a hand held laser cutter,” he explained, “It’ll cut through almost anything. The only thing it can’t cut through is tungsten, which is what these are made of.”

He gestured to the discs in Etho’s hands, “They’re mirrors. You can stick them on the wall and bounce the laser off of them to reach places you couldn’t reach, or create a laser field to stop guards.”

“Nice,” Etho twirled them between his fingers, “Thanks Zed.”

“Just be careful,” Zed warned, “As you’ve seen, this stuff goes through metal like a hot knife through butter, which means it’ll also go through skin and bone. Watch what you’re doing with this thing.”

“Next up, Skizz,” Zed continued, “Here you go.” He passed Skizz a pair of odd looking gauntlet shaped devices with claws on the end. Skizz stared at them, confused, “What are these exactly?”

“Hydraulics,” Zed said proudly, “Some of my best work. It makes it ten times easier to pick stuff up or pull open locked doors. Or punch someone extra hard. You can combine your brute force with a little more accuracy.”

“Plus,” he added, grinning, “How could the ladies refuse such a strong man like yourself with these things to help?”

Skizz chuckled and tried them on, flexing the claw-like fingers.

“Ooh yeah, I like these!” He exclaimed, “I bet I can pick Tango up with these no problem!”

“Wait, what?” Tango spun around to see Skizz grab him and lift him off the floor, “Hey! Skizz, put me down!”

“Now, Bdubs,” Zed ignored the chaos and turned to the shortest member in the team, “This is yours.” He handed him a small swiss army knife.

Bdubs pouted, “A swiss army knife? Etho gets lasers and Skizz gets hydraulics and I get a swiss army knife?!”

“Not just any swiss army knife,” Zed said, looking smug, “It’s the best and most sophisticated swiss army knife in the world! Take a look at it!”

Bdubs unflicked it a little apprehensively.

It had about 15 different attachments on it, some of which Bdubs recognised. Others he had no idea what they were.

“What are these?” He asked.

“All the lockpicking devices you could ever need!” Zed explained excitedly, “As well as a small handgun with darts, a penknife, a bottle opener and that tiny thing for getting stones out of horse’s hooves. I don’t know how that last one is helpful, but you never know.”

“Right,” Bdubs nodded a little uncertainly.

“And finally Tango,” Zed turned to the other blonde and handed him a small package of cloth. Tango unwrapped it and stared at it.

“Are these…” He trailed off and lifted them up.

It was a pair of goggles with red lenses and silver rims, chrome and shiny and very well crafted.

“Yeah, I didn’t have enough glass to make a visor, so I made the next best thing,” Zed rubbed the back of his neck, “They’re not perfect but-”

“Zed I love them,” Tango beamed, “I haven’t used goggles in years!”

“They’ve got a zoom function if you twist the rims,” Zed said, a small smile on his face. Tango slipped them on his head, nestling them in his hair, then pulled Zed into a hug.

“Thanks buddy,” He said.

“No problem,” Zed replied, “Hey, stay safe, ok?”

“I will,” Tango nodded, letting go and patting Zed on the back.

Impulse came in from the back of the van, “All ready to close up and go?”

“Ready,” Tango said. Zed and Jimmy had come round the back to wave them off, Jimmy still looking a little worried. Tango made a silly face at him and he giggled, his face brightening. Tango laughed and blew him a kiss. Jimmy pretended to catch it, smiling.

“Godspeed!” Zed saluted as the van door rolled up, Jimmy joining him. The others in the van all saluted back.

Impulse settled into the driver's seat and pulled out of the garage, speaking into the PA, “Alright, seatbelts on! Let’s get moving.”

The four of them took their seats on the benches and buckled up, Tango slipping on the suit and tie. The drive was fortunately only about half an hour away, and they did what they could to keep their spirits up and keep their nerves down. Impulse played a few songs on the radio through the PA and they had an impromptu karaoke session, as well as making jokes and telling stories.

Bdubs sat silently through all of it, fiddling with the edge of his swiss army knife, pensive, thoughts whirling through his head like a hurricane. He needed to calm down and play it cool or they’d suspect something and-

“Hey, ‘Dubs? You ok?”

Bdubs looked up. Tango was looking at him, concerned.
“You look a bit worried there. Everything alright?” He asked.

“Oh, I’m fine,” Bdubs assured him, “Just a bit nervous.”

Tango’s face broke into a kind, gentle smile, “I get it. This is probably our biggest ever job. I understand the nerves. But we’ve got this, yeah?”

Bdubs smiled back but it was forced and felt too big for his face, “Yeah. We got this.”

Tango patted his leg and sat back, “Hey. How about, once this job’s done, we go out for dinner, the four of us, maybe bring a plus one. My treat.”

“If it was ‘bring a plus one’, you’d just bring Jimmy and stare into each other’s eyes romantically the whole time,” Skizz scoffed. Tango gasped, mock offended.

“How dare you Skizz!” He exclaimed, “You wound me!”

“He’s not wrong,” Etho chuckled.

Tango pouted and crossed his arms, but he couldn’t stop the smile tugging at his lips and the laugh that slipped out of his mouth. Soon all four of them were giggling. But Bdubs’ laugh felt too fake in his own ears and his mood eventually affected the others, all of them falling silent for the last stretch of the journey.

Soon, Impulse called into the PA, “Alright boys, I’m dropping you off here. Make sure you’ve got everything, and good luck.”

“We don’t need luck Dippledop,” Skizz called back, grinning.

“I dunno,” Tango mused, “We’ll take all the help we can get. Thanks Impy.”

“No problem,” Impulse replied, “Just stay safe you guys.”

There was a general chorus of agreement and they all jumped out the back of the van and onto the pavement.

Etho fiddled with his tie.
“I hate formalwear,” he muttered.

“I know, so do I buddy,” Tango patted his shoulder, “But you know we need it. We can ditch it when it’s no longer needed.”

“Hopefully soon,” Etho mumbled to himself. Tango chuckled.

They reached the doors of the Casino. It was busy and easy to get lost in the crowd, and Tango struggled to keep an eye on the others. Eventually, Bdubs found him and practically latched himself onto Tango’s arm.

“You ok?” Tango had to shout to be heard over the huge crowd.

Bdubs nodded, “Yeah! Where are the others?”

Tango shrugged, “I have no idea!”

The Casino was huge, made of quartz and gold and diamonds. The building itself had to be worth a fortune. If what was inside was more expensive, this was going to be a good heist.

Eventually, Etho and Skizz found them again and the four headed into the massive casino. They all gasped when they entered.

“Well this is something else,” Tango muttered, looking around. The other three nodded.

The inside was even more beautiful than the outside, tall marble pillars holding up spiral staircases. The floors were carpeted in red velvet and gold lined the walls. This wasn’t some kind of dark murky little casino hidden from the authorities. This stood tall and proud and was all bright lights and glitz and glamour.

Skizz whistled, “I had no idea anywhere in the world could be made of this much marble. I feel very out of place.”

“We look fine,” Tango assured him.

“This place is practically made of money,” Etho muttered, “The amount people spend here is ludicrous.”

“And all those riches are in a vault downstairs,” Tango grinned, cracking his knuckles, “All we have to do is get there unseen.”

“And how exactly do we do that?” Bdubs asked, snappily. Etho cast a sideways glance at him. Bdubs had been in an odd tense mood since this evening. Etho mouthed, “Are you ok?”

Bdubs completely ignored him. Etho frowned.

“Simple. There are heating vents dotted around the casino. All we have to do is find one we can jump into without anyone seeing us.” Tango said.

“Found one,” Skizz pointed to a small vent in the bottom of a wall not too far away from them. A pair of security guards stood by it, watching the conversations uninterested.

“But there are guards right there,” Bdubs added, “There’s no way we could sneak past them.”

“Not to mention that gaggle of girls,” Etho added, pointing to a group of three young ladies that were clearly already very drunk, “They’ll blab us to security for sure if they spot us.”

Skizz flexed his hands and rolled his shoulders, “Leave the guards to me gentlemen, I got this covered.”

He walked over to the security guards, flashing that signature Skizz smile, full of charm.

“I’ve a feeling he’s gonna be a bit,” Tango sighed, “Etho, what’s your charming skills like?”

“Nothing like Skizz’s, but they’re ok,” Etho said, “Why?”

“We’ve gotta get those girlies out the way,” Tango explained, “And I’ve a hunch we’re gonna have to get a little up close and personal.”

Etho groaned, “Flirting? Seriously Tango?”

“What else are we going to do?” Tango argued, “We can’t just ask them to get out of the way, we’ll come across as rude! You think they’ll listen if we do?”

“Sure they will!” Bdubs said, and with that he walked over to the girls.

He came back a few moments later red in the face.

“You were right,” He admitted reluctantly, “They just told me to eff off.”

“Dang,” Etho remarked.

“Come on, we’ll handle it tactfully,” Tango said, putting on a strut and swanning over, looking a lot more confident than he felt.

“Hey ladies!” He smiled charmingly, “How are we all?”

They all smiled and made simultaneous answers, none of which Tango caught.

“Woah, slow it down a bit,” He chuckled, “I guess you’re well! How’s your evening been?”

“Oh absolutely fabulous!” One of the girls said, “It’s been super fun! I love a good casino and this one is superb!”

“Totally!” Tango agreed, “Anything here tickles your fancy? You guys gamble?”

“Oh no, I don’t have the poker face for it,” Another said coyly, “We’re just here for the glamour you know! It’s a big deal! Some of our friends didn’t want to come and are going to be SO jealous when we come back!”

“I can imagine, I know I would be,” Tango nodded. He grinned, “You know, I heard the Casino has a big theatre stage and they’re putting on live music. Apparently the lead singer of the band is a pretty piece of work, if ya know what I mean.” He winked playfully and all the women laughed.

“Oh you’re cheeky, I like it!” The third girl giggled.

Tango laughed, “They all say that dearie. Hey, I think they’re starting now. You’d better run if you want to catch it!”

“Sure thing! Thank you mister!” The first lady waved.

“No problem sweetie,” Tango gently took her hand and pressed a light kiss to it. The lady turned bright red and the other two gasped and giggled before they hurried off.

Tango walked back to Etho, wiping his hands on his trousers, the smile gone.

“I hate flirting,” he muttered.

“You’re good with the girls though,” Etho countered.

Tango glared, “I have a boyfriend Etho.”

That made Etho laugh.
“Fair,” He nodded.

“It was impressive,” Bdubs admitted, a little begrudgingly.

Skizz came back over grinning as the guards he’d been talking to left their post.

“There you go,” He smirked, “Dealt with.”

“How did you-” Bdubs started, but Tango cut him off.

“He’s Skizz,” the blonde chuckled, “He’s an enigma to all of us.”

“It’s fairly simple,” Skizz giggled, “Turns out those two are really into birdwatching. I told them I saw an eagle outside and that they should go and take a look. They were worried about leaving their post but I said that it’s not like anyone would see them in a place like this and, you know, it’s not every day you see an eagle.”

“Was there really an eagle?” Etho asked.

“Heck no,” Skizz laughed, “An eagle in the city at a place and time like this? You’d have to be incredibly gullible to believe that, but they can’t prove I didn’t.”

“Honestly, you could make me believe anything Skizz,” Tango chuckled, “You’re a real charmer.”

“Aw, thanks Top,” Skizz elbowed him playfully. Tango just rolled his eyes fondly.

“Enough messing around, can we please get going?!” Bdubs bounced anxiously on his feet. He seemed very fidgety and nervous for some reason, “Please?”

“Jeez, cool your jets Double-Down,” Skizz said as they walked over, “We’re not in a huge rush, what’s got you in such a tizz?”

“I don’t like this,” Bdubs fiddled with his hands, “The guards are going to be back any second and we could get spotted and I hate it.”

“It’s no different to any other job we’ve done,” Etho challenged, “Why is it getting to you now?”

“It’s very different!” Bdubs protested, “Security is much tighter, we could be really easily spotted and there’s a lot at stake here!”

“Hey,” Tango took Bdubs by the shoulders as Skizz and Etho started working on the vent, “I know you’re worried, but you need to focus ok? I get this is a lot, and honestly I’m worried too, but it’s going to be ok. You need to trust in us and in yourself, alright?”

Bdubs sighed, “Alright.”

“Good man,” Tango patted his shoulders, “It’ll all be worth it, trust me.”

“Vent’s ready to go!” Skizz called. Etho slipped down into it and Tango followed. He cast Bdubs one last look as he did so.

“You got this,” He said, then disappeared down into the hole.

Bdubs nodded and took a deep breath, climbing into the vent, repeating Tango’s words like a mantra, “I got this, I got this, I got this…”

He slid down the hole and landed a little hard on the ground. There was a long heating system tunnel ahead of him and he crawled along it, following the others.

“This thing is tiny,” Etho complained.

“So Bdubs should be having it easy,” Tango giggled.

Bdubs glared, “Hey! No short jokes!”

Eventually, Etho reached a hatch in the tunnel’s floor.

“Here,” He said, unlatching it and climbing out of it, the other two following. They landed in a small metallic corridor, lit brightly by white lights.

There was a grunt from the vent as Skizz tried to go through it and then a yell of, “I’m stuck!”

Tango groaned and Bdubs dropped his head in his hands.

“How are you stuck?” Tango demanded.

“I’m stuck!” Skizz repeated, “This vent is too darn small!”

“Or maybe you’re too darn big!” Tango countered. He sighed, “Just figure something out!”

There was a pause and then a loud bang. Some of the ceiling tiles came falling to the floor, Skizz falling with them, screaming. He landed with a thud and an “ow!”

“Shhhh!” Tango hissed, “They’ll hear us!”

“That really hurt,” Skizz groaned. The other three ran to help him up.

“Are you injured?” Etho asked.

Skizz shook his head, getting to his feet, “I’m ok. It’ll bruise but that’s it.”

Suddenly the sound of heavy footsteps echoed down the hallway and half a dozen armed guards appeared at the end of it.

“Down there!” One yelled, pointing at the four thieves.

“Run!” Tango yelled.

They sprinted down the hallway, the guards in hot pursuit, guns loaded.

“Well done Skizz!” Bdubs shouted as they ran, “You really brought the house down - literally!”

“It wasn’t my fault they designed the ceilings so poorly!” Skizz snapped back.

The guards took a couple of shots, which fortunately they all dodged. But they had another problem. The corridor wasn’t going to last forever so they’d have to find another route out.

“What do we do?” Etho asked.

Tango thought for a second, then snapped his fingers, “We split up. The corridor splits slightly further ahead. They’ll have to divide forces to keep up with all of us and that’ll make them easier to lose. Etho and Bdubs, you go left, me and Skizz will go right.”

The others nodded.

“We’ll meet you on the other side,” Skizz said. Bdubs flashed the pair a mock salute.

The corridor split came into view up ahead.

“Now!” Tango yelled, and the group split into pairs, running down the corridors like their lives depended on it.

Which, at this moment, they did.

Chapter Text

Tango and Skizz sprinted down the corridor, security in hot pursuit, their footsteps thundering down the hallway and their breathing ragged. But they had to keep running, or it’d be a long stay in a jail cell for the pair of them.

Tango searched around in his pocket for something to slow the guards and his hand found a smoke bomb. He grabbed it, yanked the pin out and chucked it behind him, not slowing to see the impact.

“You think that shook ‘em off?” Skizz panted.

“Don’t know,” Tango replied, “Probably not. Keep running!”

They ran down the hallway, Tango trying to remember the way in his head. He’d done his best to memorise the blueprint but could only remember so much.

“There should be a room just up ahead we can hide in!” He yelled.

Sure enough, the corridor opened up into a dark and dingy room with a metal latticed floor and a pair of huge circular holes in the wall. The pair flattened themselves up the wall and waited for the guard to come through, their hearts racing.

But the guards didn’t come in.

Skizz took a deep breath and pulled away from the wall, “I think we lost them.”

“Looks like it,” Tango nodded, sliding down the wall to sit on the floor and breathing heavily, “Thank goodness.”

“So where now?” Skizz asked.

Tango pulled a folded copy of the blueprint out of his pocket and unfolded it, taking a look, “I think if we just head straight on, we’ll catch up with the others, then we’ll head to the vault. We should keep moving, just in case the guards come back.”

“Agreed,” Skizz pulled Tango back to his feet and they headed for the door.

But with an automatic swish, it slammed shut in their face.

Tango jumped back with a squeak of surprise, then whipped his head round as the door they’d just come through slammed shut too. Some panels slid across underneath the latticed floor.

“What’s going on?” Skizz asked nervously.

“I don’t know,” Tango said, looking around, fear filling his chest.

Suddenly there was a loud swishing noise and a huge torrent of water came flooding from the holes in the wall. The pair yelped as the cold water splashed over them.

“What the heck is going on?” Skizz had to yell to be heard over the cacophony of the water.

“They’re trying to drown us,” Tango realised, “The water’s going to rise until the whole room’s full!”

“But I can’t swim!” Skizz panicked.

Tango stared at him.

“You can’t?” He said incredulously.

“No! I never learnt how to! I live in a landlocked city Tango, why would I need to learn how to swim?” Skizz shouted over the roar of the water.

Tango made a frustrated noise, “We’ve gotta find a way out of here. There must be some kind of control room that’s running the water through here.”

“But where? How would we find it?”

“I don’t know! But we’ve got to hurry!” The water was rising fast, already up to Tango’s waist. He shucked off his jacket and undid his tie, leaving him in his heist gear, “Ditch the suits, they’ll drag us down.”

Skizz nodded and pulled them off, leaving him in his new outfit. Tango hadn’t realised that Cleo had made them all new costumes, but Skizz was in a sleeveless navy jumpsuit with a shiny silver belt around his waist. There was a clip-on bowtie at the front. Practical and handsome, perfect for his job as the team’s resident conman.

“Nice outfit,” Tango commented.

“Thanks Top,” Skizz said distractedly, “But that’s not the biggest issue right now.”

“Right,” Tango focused back on the problem at hand. The water had risen even further and both of them were chest deep in it now. He pulled the blueprint, now a bit soggy, out of his pocket, scanning for some kind of control room.

“There’s one here,” he pointed, “And it looks like we can get through to it with these holes in the wall.”

He gestured to the huge holes currently gushing water into the room, “We could go through these.”

“But the water’s too strong to swim through!” Skizz countered.

“We have to try or we drown Skizz!” Tango yelled, “Pull yourself together!”

“But Tango I can’t swim!” Skizz repeated.

“So you keep saying!” Tango snapped. He took a deep breath to compose himself, “Listen. We have one option and we have to take it or we die.”

“So technically two options,” Skizz added, “But I’d rather not choose the death one.”

“Agreed.”

The water rose to Tango’s chin and he started treading water, forcing himself to stay calm. He’d float better if he was calm. If he panicked, he’d sink like a stone.

Skizz was definitely beginning to panic. Tango grabbed his arm, “You’re going to be ok, you hear me?”

Skizz nodded, but he looked pale and worried, “Ok. Ok. I’m going to be ok.” He started repeating it to himself like a mantra, “I’m going to be ok, I’m going to be ok.”

The water kept on rising and now even Skizz couldn’t touch the floor. Tango took a deep breath and dove under to try and swim up the pipe, but he just got washed back out again.

“I’m not strong enough,” He groaned as he was flushed back into the room, “You could probably make it.”

“There’s no way I could do that!” Skizz protested.

“You’ve gotta try Skizz or it’s game over!” Tango argued, “Come on! The others are waiting and relying on us, you’ve-”

A small hook on the wall caught Tango’s trouser leg and he was yanked backwards. He cried out and tugged at it, but it held firm.

“Tango!” Skizz waded over to him and tried to help free him but the hook just wouldn’t let go.

Tango pulled himself up to keep his face above the water as best as he could, “You need to stop the water Skizz! It’s not like I can help! I’m stuck!”

Skizz stared, the water still rising. He couldn’t swim. They were doomed. Maybe being a little stronger than Tango could help but it was really unlikely if he couldn’t even swim.

But then they’d die! Skizz couldn’t let them die without having even tried.

Skizz looked back at Tango struggling to free himself, the water getting dangerously high, and gave an annoyed growl, then took a deep breath and dove under the water. His heart was racing as he tried to swim, not really accomplishing more than a doggy paddle but still moving forwards. He swam through the tunnel, battling against the running water and pushed off the walls to propel himself further.

The tunnel opened up into a huge metal tank which was feeding water through the tunnels with pumps, a control room attached to the left wall. Skizz swam towards it, his lungs burning. He needed to breathe. Soon.

There was a small oval-shaped door to the control room inside the tank but it didn’t open when Skizz pulled at it. Locked. Fantastic. He breathed out a spurt of bubbles and slipped on his hydraulics that Zed had made him and pulled at the door again. It squeaked and groaned but held firm.

He made an annoyed noise and puffed out more bubbles. He needed to get in there for oxygen or his lungs were going to burst. He pulled at it even harder, hearing the door seal screeching as he tugged. Eventually there was a loud CLANG! and it swung open. Skizz tugged himself inside and slammed the door shut behind him, taking huge, grateful gasps of air as he slumped against it. He took a moment to catch his breath and then got to his feet again. Tango’s life was at stake here. He had to save him. He ran to the controls and looked for some way to stop the water, or open the doors, anything.

Tango meanwhile was struggling to stay above the water. He’d tried everything he could to free himself, even trying to cut himself free with his knife, but Cleo’s seamstressing was no joke and he just couldn’t cut through. He’d given up a while ago and was just hoping that Skizz would be able to sort the water out.

It was just about to rise above his head and he couldn’t go any higher, so he took a huge breath and ducked under, hoping he’d be able to hold his breath long enough.

Come on Skizz, he thought, Please hurry.

He felt his lungs begin to ache, but he didn’t dare breathe out. If he did, his body would try and replace the oxygen with water, which he couldn’t let happen.

It felt like his chest was burning. He swallowed roughly. This might actually be it. He might actually die here. He couldn’t die! He’d promised Jimmy he’d get home, promised Zed he’d be ok, promised-

The noise of the water stopped.

There was a whoosh as the doors and the floor vents opened up, the water rushing out through the floor. The water that had been holding Tango up dispersed and gravity finally tore the end of his trouser leg, letting him fall to the ground with a thud. He lay there and took huge breaths of air. A hysterical giggle forced its way out of his lungs.

“We’re actually still alive,” He laughed, high-pitched and a little manic, “We actually survived. We’re not dead.”

Skizz came running back down the tunnel, also laughing. Tango staggered to his feet and dragged Skizz into a hug.

“You did it, I’m so proud of you!” He beamed, “So proud!”

“It was nothing,” Skizz boasted, but he was smiling too, “Just a few buttons, you know?”

“But you swam Skizz!” Tango grinned, “You conquered your fear!”

“I was never scared!” Skizz protested.

Tango chuckled and elbowed him in the ribs, “Sure you weren’t. Let’s keep moving, we don’t know if more guards will show up.”

Skizz nodded and the pair headed down the corridor towards the vault. They were both soaked through and cold but they were alive and that was all that mattered.

The corridor opened out again into another room and Skizz went to walk into it, but Tango pulled him back.

“Wait,” He hissed, “Look, on the walls.”

Skizz looked. The walls were lined with little metal pads at random intervals.

“What are they?” He asked. Tango lowered his goggles and fiddled with the lenses. Through the tinted red glass he could see thin red beams of light strung between the metal pads.

“I thought as much,” He sighed frustratedly, “Lasers. Watch your step.”

“Tango, I can’t see them!” Skizz exclaimed, “How do I cross if I can’t see them?”

“Hang on,” Tango tightened his goggle straps and walked into the room, slowly and carefully, sidestepping and jumping over the beams. To Skizz he just looked a bit ridiculous and he tried unsuccessfully to smother his giggles.

Tango paused and glared at him, “Look, if you think this is a joke, I can just leave you there you know.”

“Sorry Top,” Skizz chuckled, “It’s just a bit weird to watch.”

Tango rolled his eyes and kept going, eventually reaching the button and pressing it. There was the sound of something powering down and Tango pushed his goggles back up into his hair, “You’re all good skippy, come on over.”

Skizz walked slowly through the room, a little uneasy that the lasers might still be there. But after he’d walked about a metre or so unscathed he picked up his pace and joined Tango on the other side.

“Alright, the vault is just up ahead,” Tango said, as they headed down yet another corridor, “And hopefully the others are already there waiting for us.”

“I just hope they’re having an easier time than we are,” Skizz muttered.

“Yeah,” Tango mused as they ran, “I’m sure it couldn’t be crazier than this though, right?”

Chapter Text

Bdubs yelped as another bullet was fired at the pair of them running down the corridor.

“Etho we’re gonna die!” He screeched.

“Keep running and we won’t!” Etho yelled, grabbing his hand and dragging him along. They sprinted down the corridor, the guards trailing behind. Etho took a couple of shots with his laser, hitting some of the guards but still missing a considerable amount.

“We need to stop them!” Bdubs shouted.

“On it,” Etho skidded to a halt and threw off his jacket and tie, leaving him in his a black samurai suit with yellow accents, loose fitted and easy to move in, perfect for Etho’s fighting style, “Keep going, I’ll catch up.”

“What?” Bdubs slowed down as Etho turned and ran at the guards, “Etho! They’ll kill you!”

But Etho knew exactly what he was doing. He dodged a volley of bullet and swung himself into a high kick, his foot making contact with one of the guards’ head and knocking them back. They staggered back, then were sent to the floor as Etho slammed his fist into their face, before he sprang into a back handspring and kicked another guard in the chest. The guards were all firing their guns but were quickly running out of bullets as Etho ducked or jumped all of them. He spun round and somersaulted forwards, karate chopping a guard in the stomach and then spinning and punching another in the side of the head.

A few minutes later, all of the guards were out unconscious on the floor.

“Sorted,” Etho brushed his hands together, “Let’s go.”

“I forgot you could do that,” Bdubs shook his head as Etho caught up with him.

“I usually don’t need to,” Etho said, cracking his knuckles.

“Where to now?” Bdubs asked.

Etho thought for a moment, then said, “No idea.”

“What!?” Bdubs exclaimed, “What do you mean no idea?!”

“Tango’s the one with the blueprint, I don’t know which way to go,” Etho explained, “So we’re just going to have to guess where to go.”

“This is ridiculous!” Bdubs yelled, throwing his hands up in the air, “This is stupid! We might as well just turn ourselves in!”

He startled as Etho grabbed his collar.

“Ok man, what the heck is wrong with you?” Etho snapped.

Bdubs’ heart raced faster, “What are you talking about?”

“You’ve been acting off all day,” Etho glared, “You were really quiet in the van and then really snappy at Tango and Skizz. What is going on?”

His face turned from angry to concerned and he let go of Bdubs’ collar, “I’m worried about you.”

All of Bdubs' already cracking resolve shattered at those four words and he collapsed, sobbing, into Etho’s arms.

“I’m so scared!” He wept, “Something is going to go wrong and I’m so worried about it, and I don’t want any of you to get hurt.”

“You don’t know that,” Etho said softly.

“But I do Etho! I do know!” Bdubs cried, “It’s going to go wrong and we won’t be able to fix it!”

“How?” Etho demanded, “How do you know that it’s going to go wrong?”

Bdubs said nothing.

“See? You don’t,” Etho let go and placed his hands on Bdubs’ shoulders, gazing into his big watery brown eyes, “It’s going to be ok. It’s going to work out, alright?”

“I just care about you guys,” Bdubs sniffled and wiped his nose on his sleeve. He hated that he was telling the truth. Had he not, then everything he was going to do would have been so much darn easier.

5 million, he reminded himself, and your family’s safety. That’s why you’re doing this. Stop acting like a wuss, they’re suspecting you.

“It’s gonna be ok,” Etho reassured him, “Now pull it together.”

Bdubs nodded, biting his lip, “Ok.”

“Let’s keep moving,” Etho looked around, “Let’s try that corridor.”

Bdubs nodded weakly and let Etho lead, trailing after him. His conscience was eating him alive, but he swallowed it down. He couldn’t let guilt stop him. No one was going to get hurt, and he was going to make it out of this alive.

They approached another corridor and Bdubs went to walk down it but Etho suddenly grabbed his shoulder, “Wait.”

They stopped as footsteps came towards them.

A handful of guards walked into the corridor and stopped, standing straight with their guns.

“A search patrol,” Etho whispered, “That’s gonna be a problem.”

“What are we going to do?!” Bdubs hissed, cowering back.

Etho stared intensely, trying to come up with a plan. Eventually he got something.

“You’ve got that stun gun, right?” He asked to Bdubs.

“Yeah,” Bdubs nodded and fiddled with his swiss army knife, “What about it?”

“Distract them. Fire a couple shots, keep them busy,” Etho said, “I’m gonna take care of them.”

“Ok!” Bdubs said nervously. He flipped the gun out from the knife and gulped, then pulled off his jacket and tie. He was wearing a long green coat and a pair of raggedy brown jeans, the coat filled with pockets for all his knives and lock-picking equipment. He took a deep breath and ran out in front of the guards with a warcry, firing his stun gun.

All of the guards fired at him with real guns.

Bdubs shrieked and managed to dodge all the bullets, landing a few hits with his gun on the guards, sending a couple collapsing to the ground. As he did so, Etho snuck behind the guards, sticking the mirror discs to the walls at certain spots. Eventually he stuck them all up and grabbed his laser shooter.

“Bdubs move!” He ordered. Bdubs nodded and rolled out of the way as Etho shone the laser at the disc. The laser blasted down the corridor, the red beam scorching anything it touched. The guards in the corridor all screamed and fell to the floor, fatal smoking wounds in their body.

Bdubs whistled and stared, “Wow. Zed did not hold back with that thing.”

“No he did not,” Etho agreed, “And I love it.”

He twirled it and stuck it in his trouser pocket, before they started down the hallway again.

“Where do you think the others are?” Bdubs asked, panting.

“Hopefully almost there,” Etho replied, “We’ve got to pick up the pace before the authorities arrive.”

They kept running before the hallway opened up into a thin room. Both of them stopped dead and stared in horror.

Bdubs groaned, running a hand down his face, “They did not have to go Wille. E Coyote on us.”

The room was full of swinging hammers, axes and huge hacksaw blades. It was like a level out of some kind of video game.

“How the heck are we supposed to get through here?!” Bdubs yelled.

Etho sucked in a breath. This was going to be difficult, even for him.

“We improvise,” He said, pulling out the laser. He aimed it up and fired a short laser at the metal chord one of the axe blades was swinging from.

However, it didn’t cut through, instead bouncing off it and ricochetting around the room. The pair yelped and dived for cover as it pinged around the room like a table tennis ball. It eventually hit a piece of wood in the wall and stopped, leaving a small hole in the wood, looking like a bullet hole.

Bdubs and Etho crawled out of their hiding space.

“Well, I guess this whole room is made of tungsten then,” Bdubs said.

“Yup,” Etho gave a frustrated sigh. Guess we’ll have to do this the hard way.”

He stepped towards the still swinging axe, waited, and when the timing was right, sprinted through the gap. Bdubs followed nervously.

They slipped past all the axes fairly easily - the blades were big but not too difficult to avoid. The hammers came next, huge metal cylinders slamming into the ground like a fist. Bdubs went first this time, waiting until the perfect moment to roll under them. He was, for the first time in a long while, grateful for his shorter height that allowed him to pass under them easier.

Etho followed behind him, sliding underneath them. They reached the end of the hammers and headed onwards. There was a small piece of empty corridor before they reached the sawblades

“Hey, this isn’t so hard!” Bdubs grinned at Etho, “It’s like a video game!”

He took a step forward.

His foot clipped a wire.

And the floor collapsed under him.

Bdubs screamed and tumbled down. He was falling, falling-

He jolted to a stop and looked up.

Etho had grabbed his hand, clinging to the tripwire with his other. Sweat beaded on his brow as he struggled to keep his grip on the shorter man.

“Hang on,” he grunted in effort. Bdubs felt his hand slipping a little and clung on tighter.

The tripwire gave a twang and stretched a little, jolting forwards. Both of them gave a scared yell.

Etho readjusted his grip on Bdubs’ hand, “I can get you back up there. You ready?”

“Yeah!” Bdubs nodded, then paused, “Wait, ready for wh-”

Etho swung him up over his head and let go.

Bdubs shrieked as he flew through the air, landing hard on the platform. He winced as the breath was knocked out of him.

“You could have warned me first,” he choked out, gasping for air.

“Sorry, but you wouldn’t have let me,” Etho said, hauling himself up with the tripwire.

He pulled Bdubs to his feet and Bdubs nodded begrudgingly, “Yeah, I wouldn’t have.”

There was now a gaping hole in the floor where they had been, and when the pair looked down into it, they could see sharp jagged metal spikes that they hadn’t seen before. If the fall wouldn’t have killed them, then the spikes would have.

“What do we do?” Bdubs asked, fear evident on his face.

Etho stared determinedly, “We jump.”

“What?!” Bdubs gawped at him, “Are you crazy?!”

“We can make it,” Etho said, “Tango and Skizz are waiting for us, we can’t just go back. We can try, or we go back and get arrested. I know which choice I’m making.”

He backed up so he had a run up and then sprinted forwards, launching himself off of the platform and rolling when he hit the other side. He got to his feet and looked over at Bdubs.

“Come on!” He called.

Bdubs toed the edge of the platform, biting his lip nervously.

“I can’t make it!” He shouted, “It’s too far Etho!”

“You can do it!” Etho encouraged. He reached out a hand, “I’ll catch you, you won’t fall!”

Bdubs swallowed the lump in his throat and backed up, his legs wobbly, before he started running.

When he reached the edge, he jumped.

He knew the minute that he jumped that he wasn’t going to make it. A scream tore itself from his throat as he fell downwards.

Then a hand grabbed his.

Etho clung to his hand tightly. He gave a huff of effort and pulled Bdubs up to the platform.

“Thank you,” Bdubs said, sucking in a breath to calm his shaking nerves.

“I wasn’t going to let you die,” Etho said, smirking slightly, “Who do you take me for Bdubs?”

“My best friend,” Bdubs dragged him into a hug and Etho jolted in surprise, before he hugged him back.

The loud buzz of the sawblades snapped the pair out of their moment a few seconds later, reminding them of the ticking time deadline.

Etho gestured to the saw blades, “Let’s go. The others are probably waiting for us.”

Bdubs nodded and waited until Etho had walked a little further to uncurl his fist.

Inside it sat Etho’s laser shooter.

He’d slipped it out of Etho’s pocket in the hug (honestly he was amazed Etho hadn’t noticed) and he was trying not to feel bad about stealing it. He’d thought he might need it but that didn’t make him feel any better.

He sucked in a breath and followed Etho past the sawblades, yelping as they swished past him, buzzing like angry bees. But eventually they cleared them, and they headed back into the corridor.

The laser was heavy in Bdubs’ pocket as he ran, as they got closer to meeting back up with their team.

Heavy like the guilt on his conscience.

Chapter Text

Darkness had fallen over the casino. The sun had long since set and the sky was black, lit by the glowing full moon and smattered with stars. It was fairly busy outside, people entering and leaving and running to and fro in stilettos and long dresses and dress shoes and suits.

The sound of footsteps echoed down an alleyway and someone dressed in black poked their head around the wall. They watched the doorway as a dozen police cars pulled up, their lights flashing and the sirens whining, and waited as the officers pushed through the crowd into the casino before they turned round and spoke into a communicator, glancing at a small handheld screen as they did so.

“The police are here,” they said, “And I’m tracking Team Best on the camera. Do you want me to enter and intercept?”

“No,” a menacing voice crackled through the communicator, “We’ll stay out of it. The authorities will do the job for us and then I will reap the rewards. Keep monitoring them in case something goes wrong and only intercept if I specifically say so.”

“Yes sir,” The assassin said, slinking back into the shadows.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Bdubs and Etho spotted Skizz and Tango waiting down the other end of the corridor.

“Guys!” Bdubs yelled, waving as they ran over.

Tango looked up from the conversation he was having with Skizz. They had also both discarded their suits and ties and were for some reason drenched.
“Took you long enough!” He commented.

“We ran into some trouble,” Etho apologised, “Why are you two soaking wet?”

“It’s a long story,” Skizz sighed.

“One we don’t have time for,” Tango snapped, “They’ll have alerted security upstairs by now, this place is going to be swarming within the next few minutes. We have to move.”

“Roger that,” Etho said, Skizz and Bdubs nodding and saluting.

They sprinted onwards. Tango was relieved that the others had made it. He hadn’t doubted them, of course not, but they had been taking a while and he had started to fear the worst. He cared about them.

The corridors seemed like a maze, twisting and turning and spiralling around. Tango was supposedly leading, but the other three carried the suspicion that they might have been running in circles.

Eventually they stopped for a breather since there didn’t seem to be anyone tailing them.

“Are you sure this is the right way, Top?” Skizz asked, panting and leaning against the wall.

“I’m 98% certain,” Tango nodded, “What, you don’t trust me?”

“Tango dude, we love you, but you have the observational prowess of a mole and the direction skills of a drunken seagull,” Etho criticised.

“Hey!” Tango glared at him, “My powers of observation are unparalleled, thank you very much! And a seagull will go in the right direction if you throw it hard enough.”

Etho facepalmed.

Tango unravelled what was left of the blueprint - which wasn’t a lot after the water incident - and glanced around for landmarks. Eventually he pointed at a corridor on it.

“We’re here,” He said, “At least, I’m pretty sure we’re here. So we only need to take the next left corridor and then we’re at the vault.”

“I hope you’re right,” Bdubs huffed, fiddling with his hands.

“I know where I’m going,” Tango snapped.

They headed onwards, turning left at the next corridor. A little further on, they could see a huge circular iron vault door. It was almost twice Skizz’s height, towering over them, gilded with golden accents and studded with diamonds.

“See!” Tango crowed, hands on his hips and face proud, “Told you so!”

He took a step forward but Etho grabbed his arm and dragged him back, “Wait.”

Tango stopped.

Etho was staring at the floor tiles ahead of them, scrutinising them.

“Am I the only one who thinks that this looks a little unusual?” He asked.

The others all looked. The tiles were certainly unconventional, long and thin, some ivory white and others obsidian black in a strange pattern. Almost like-

“They’re like piano keys!” Skizz realised.

Skizz was right. The whole floor ahead of them was lined up like the notes on a piano. The floor was only big enough for an octave and a half, but it was still fairly impressive.

“Musical floor! Nice!” Bdubs grinned and went to press a tile, but Etho also held him back.

“For all we know, this could be a trap,” he warned, “Remember the tripwire?”

Bdubs went pale, “Oh yeah.”

Skizz and Tango shared a confused glance and then looked at Etho inquisitively.

“We’ll explain later,” Etho rolled his eyes, “All that matters is that this looks dangerous.”

“But how do we get from here to the vault if we can’t step on the floor?” Tango questioned, “Cause last time I checked, none of us could fly.”

Skizz sucked his lip and looked at the door, considering. Suddenly an idea crossed his mind and he snapped his fingers.

“I think I know how to get into the vault,” he said.

The others all looked at him.

“How?” Bdubs asked.

Skizz walked up to the tiles and stared at them, “I think it’s like a code. If we play the right notes in the right order, the door will open.”

Tango grinned at him, “Skizz, you’re a genius!”

“I try my best,” Skizz boasted, but he was smiling appreciatively.

“So all we have to do is play the right keys,” Etho said, “But what are the right keys?”

“We’ve got time, let’s think it over,” Skizz said. He took a step towards the tiles and ever so gently tapped the first one with his foot.

A wall of electricity suddenly blasted down the corridor and the four of them barely had enough time to flatten themselves against the walls so they wouldn’t get hit.

The blast petered out with a fizzle against the metal wall at the end of the corridor.

“Welp,” Bdubs said, voice high pitched with fear, “That’s what happens if it goes wrong.”

“Would that kill us?” Etho asked, eyes wide.

“I don’t think it’s strong enough,” Tango replied, “But I don’t particularly want to test that theory. We’ve got to get this right.”

Suddenly the lights above them started flashing red and sirens began to wail. All four of them jumped.

“Time’s up, they found us,” Tango said grimly, “We gotta figure this out quick.”

A loud voice blasted from the overhead speaker system.

“Ladies and gentlemen, this is a warning that there is currently a robbery that we are in the process of thwarting.”

The voice was rough and husky, sounding a little foreign, but Tango recognised it.

Doc M himself.

“Fortuantely the robbers are not armed and therefore your safety is not compromised,” Doc continued over the speaker.

All four of them looked down at the weapons they were holding and exchanged confused glances.

“We’re definitely armed,” Skizz said.

“But hopefully we won’t compromise the safety of the people upstairs,” Tango argued. The others nodded. They may have been criminals but violence against innocents was always a last resort.

Doc kept speaking, “Since there’s no need to worry, the celebration is continuing. The live band is going to be playing some ACDC, which happens to be my favourite band of all time, and there is a poker tournament being arranged in which you could win up to 1 million dollars. Have a good rest of your evening, and remember, everything is under control.”

There was a silence for a moment after Doc signed off, and then Tango hummed.

“ACDC, favourite band of all time huh?” He remarked, “Anyone else thinking what I’m thinking?”

“That he’s correct in his taste of music?” Skizz suggested.

“No,” Tango rolled his eyes, “Well, yes, but that’s not the point. What if the way to unlock the door is to play an ACDC song? Maybe Doc set that as the code.”

Bdubs nodded, “That’s a good idea, but which one? They’ve written a lot of songs and I don’t wanna get electrocuted."

“Let’s brainstorm,” Tango said, “What songs have they done?”

Him, Etho and Bdubs began to compile a list, but Skizz stood aside, staring at the door.

“What if,” He interrupted, cutting the others off, “It’s not a song we’re looking for?”

The other three looked at him confused.

“What do you mean?” Etho asked.

“Doc would want us to think it’s a song,” Skizz explained, “But what if it’s not? Think about it. A, C and D are all keys on the piano. Doc might want us to think that it’s a song, but what if he’s just given us the answer because he’s confident we wouldn’t think of it? I mean, come on, if they have cameras round here-”

“They don’t,” Tango cut in, “I disabled them before we came in.”

Skizz shrugged, “Still, he knows we’re going for the vault, and giving us the vault code thinking we wouldn’t notice it? It feels like something a genius like Doc would do.”

“Detective Skizz!” Tango praised, “Dude, I think you’re right. That is something Doc would do.”

“So, who knows how to play piano?” Etho asked, “Because I don’t.”

“I don’t,” Bdubs said.

“Me neither,” Tango shook his head.

They all looked over at Skizz.

Skizz toed the ground with a sheepish grin, “What if I said I didn’t want to?”

“Skizz,” Tango sighed, “Look, I know this seems intimidating but-”

“Seems?!” Skizz gave a hollow, shrill laugh, “Tango, that thing almost fried us!”

“We’re so close,” Tango pushed, “Think of the glory and the money. Come on Skizz. You’re not a quitter.”

“And besides,” Etho said, “If things do go wrong, we won’t be insensitive and play any ACDC at your funeral.”

Skizz glared at him, “You’re lucky I like you.”

He took a deep breath and jumped onto the A key on the piano.

There was the sound of a piano playing a key, but other than that nothing happened.

All of them let out a collective breath that none of them knew they had been holding and Skizz jumped to the C. There was no electricity at all. He moved to the D and then back to the C.

Suddenly the floor sank down a little and Skizz screamed and ran back, grabbing Tango’s arm.

There was a loud creak and the clunking of gears.

And the door swung open.

The team raced down the corridor and walked into the vault.

And all four of them gasped.

“Boys,” Tango whispered, “We made it.”

The room was almost like some kind of silo, stretching up and up and up until it ended about 60 feet up with a huge ventilation grill lining almost the whole ceiling. It was lined floor to ceiling with stacks upon stacks of money, gold and diamonds, more riches than any of them had ever seen in their lives.

Tango pulled some folded up hessian sacks out of his pocket and tossed a handful to each of them, “Fill these with as much as you can carry. If we make this quick, we can bag most of this up and get out before the cops show up.”

They all split up and loaded up bag after bag of glittering wealth. None of them had ever seen this much money in their lives. Tango was tempted to try and swim in it like in the movies and he’d never seen Skizz grin so hard since the pie incident that they didn’t talk about. Even Etho’s smile could be seen behind his mask.

But it wasn’t just the money. The glory, the thrill, that was why they did this. The cash was nice, sure, but who else could say that they’d robbed the Goathorn Casino? The thought made Tango’s heart soar.

He snapped out of his reverie and went back to stuffing the bags. They weren’t out of the woods yet.

They’d managed to collect about half of it up into bags when suddenly there was the sound of thundering footsteps behind them. A loud cry of “There they are!” made them all spin around to see swarms upon swarms of guards spilling into the room like water.

Tango spat a swear out between gritted teeth, “Dang it! Guys we gotta go! Now!”

“But the money-” Bdubs started, but Tango cut him off.

“Remember the rule!” He yelled, drawing his knives, “If something goes wrong, we get the heck out of here, no arguments!”

He stuffed his bag full of as much money as he could carry and shoved it at Skizz, “Take this.”

Skizz took it, confused, “What are you doing?”

“I’m gonna hold them off, you take the money and get out of here,” Tango ordered.

“But Tango-” Skizz started to protest, but Tango was already running at the guards with a war cry, swinging his knives.

“You heard him, let’s go!” Etho yelled, grabbing the bags.

“He can’t hold them off by himself!” Skizz shouted.

“He’s Tango, he’ll be fine!” Etho argued, “Now let’s get out of here!”

“But how?” Bdubs stared around the room, “We’re boxed in! There’s no way out! We’re gonna get caught or die-”

“Stop being a pessimist!” Etho snapped. He looked around and then spotted the vent above them.

“There’s only one way out,” He said, “Up. That vent system leads outside to just by the van. I’ll cut the vent down and we’ll launch a rope up there. Tango’s got a grappling hook we can use.”

He reached in his pocket for his laser shooter, but his hand just felt emptiness and dust.

“Where’s my laser?” He asked.

Skizz stared at him, “What?”

“Where’s my laser?” Etho repeated, “I swear I had it just now.”

Bdubs felt his cheeks go red and his pocket felt even heavier.

5 million, he reminded himself.

Neither of the other two noticed.

“Well how are we supposed to get out now?” Skizz yelled.

Etho growled in annoyance, “I can’t believe I lost that. Zed’s gonna kill me.”

“Worry about that later!” Skizz rummaged around in his bag and fished out his hydraulic gloves, “If I can get up there, I bet I can pull that thing down.”

He called over to Tango, “Hey! Top! Can I borrow the grappling hook?”

Tango ducked under a guard’s arm and stabbed him in the side, then pulled the hook out of his pocket and threw it over, “I want it back!”

“No promises!” Skizz grinned, “This thing is awesome!”

He aimed it up and shot it at the vent. It latched into the grooves in the vent and held fast. Skizz pulled on his hydraulics, attached as many treasure bags as would fit on the belt around his waist and started climbing the rope.

“I’ll cover you,” Etho stood at the bottom of the rope and grabbed a set of shurikens that had been sitting in his belt, sending them soaring into any guards attempting to shoot Skizz down.

Bdubs took the opportunity to take a look at the situation. Skizz was climbing, Etho was playing sniper and Tango was taking the guards down in waves. It was amazing to watch. Tango had never seemed all that strong or coordinated from outward appearance, but watching him weave in and out of the guards, throwing himself into the air in acrobatic tricks that looked like it would have some of the most talented gymnasts struggling to complete, was incredible. His mouth was set in a concentrated line and his red eyes were almost glowing with a sharp deadly focus. It seemed so strange that this was the man who could joke about walking into his wardrobe thinking it was the bathroom in the middle of the night, or manage to lock himself in his car whilst holding the car keys. To see him this composed and dangerous was almost terrifying.

Despite this, Tango was beginning to struggle. Bdubs could see the sweat starting to shine on his forehead, and his moves were slowing, not a lot, but enough that it was noticeable. He wouldn’t be able to hold them back much longer.

Bdubs glanced back at the others. They were his way out. He needed to let them get that vent down for his own safety, and if they all got caught then that wasn’t happening.

He made a decision and flicked open his swiss army knife, drawing the stungun and sprinting into the fray.

Tango downed another guard and took a moment to wipe the sweat from his brow before throwing himself back into combat. He’d never been an endurance fighter, that was Etho’s thing, and he wasn’t good at brute force, that was Skizz. He wasn’t even small enough like Bdubs to be able to thread like a needle through his opponents and make a quick exit. He was just wily and agile enough to work with knives and able to elevate his fighting with some basic gymnastic skills. The skills were showy, sure, but not actually that difficult, and he was running out of surprises. He could feel himself slowing down and was pretty sure his knives were running out of sedative too.

He dodged another blade, the motions of his fighting becoming almost monotonous. Dodge, swing, compose his stance, repeat. It would have been boring if it wasn’t for the constant feeling of adrenaline tingling through his veins, keeping him quick and alert. But he was losing ground, he could feel it.

Another blade came swinging and Tango barely ducked under it but when he swung, the guard dodged it and it threw him off balance. He stumbled, only slightly, but enough that one of the guards managed to nick him in the arm. He bit back a hiss of pain and tried to recompose himself only for another guard to shoulder-barge him to the floor.

Tango gasped and fell to the ground, his back hitting the floor hard as the guard came over to finish the job. He managed to push himself backward and scramble to his feet, but he’d lost a lot of ground and they were closing in on Skizz, who was still climbing. Tango couldn’t let him fall.

He pushed a loose strand of his hair behind his ear and bared his teeth in a snarl, preparing himself for another long fight.

A handful of stun darts came skimming through the air and sank into the guards, sending them stumbling back. Tango whipped his head around to see Bdubs behind him, holding his stungun.

Tango grinned at him and shot him a thumbs up. Bdubs returned a tight smile. The team was always better when they fought together.

Tango catapulted himself back into the fight, energised once more and the pair set to, sending guards to the floor at an unfathomable pace. There were still more coming, but Doc had to run out of security eventually. They just had to keep this up. And they could. They weren’t called Team Best for nothing.

Back in the middle of the vault, Skizz had finally reached the top of the climb. It was a long way up, and a fall from that height might kill him.

“Etho!” He yelled down, “Put some spare bags at the bottom of the rope just in case!”

“On it,” Etho grabbed some bags that he stuffed with some of the softer bank notes and placed them at the base of the rope. They probably wouldn’t do much, but it made them both feel a little better about this insane climb.

Skizz let go of the rope and grabbed onto the vent with both hands, hanging on it and trying to put as much weight on it as possible, gripping tight with his hydraulics. He could hear the metal starting to shriek as it ground against the ventilation shaft, slowly slipping down.

Then clang! It gave way and crashed towards the ground, taking the rope with it, but Skizz managed to grab the side of the shaft before he fell and heaved himself up into it, peering over the edge. Etho dodged the massive metal plate that hurtled towards the floor, wincing at the loud crash it made.

“We’re good!” He shouted. He shifted it away from the bottom of the drop and untangled the grappling hook and line from the vent, reeling it back in. Then he aimed it and shot it at the shaft. Skizz caught it and wrapped it tightly around one of the bars on the shaft walls after checking it was sturdy enough and gave Etho a thumbs up, “All ready to go!”

Etho nodded and grabbed as many bags as he could carry before he started up the rope.

“We’re good, let’s move!” He shouted to Tango.

“Roger that!” Tango called back, somersaulting over a handful of guards so that Bdubs could shoot them in quick succession, “Let’s go Bdouble-donker!”

Bdubs rolled his eyes at the nickname and took a few more shots before he backed up and grabbed the rope, snatching up a few bags and climbing up after Etho.

Tango watched them climbing and smiled. They were going to make it. He ducked another guard and made another swipe before he leapt into a backwards handspring and tumbled through the air towards the rope, gripping it tight between his hands and taking the few remaining bags, tying them to his waist, and then started the climb, gathering the rope up behind him as he did climbed to make sure the guards couldn’t follow.

By this point Etho and Skizz had made it to the top and had already started heading to the van and Bdubs had just reached the final few metres. Tango kept going, ducking as a few bullets sped very close to his head.

Bdubs reached the top and shoved the bags down the vault, leaning over to check on Tango.

Tango was decidedly not enjoying himself.

A load more guards had come in, all with guns, and he knew it was only a matter of time before the ones they’d knocked out with the sedative and darts would come around which would make the problem even bigger. He swung on the rope, feeling the bags weighing him down as he climbed. Another volley of bullets were shot at him and he felt them whizz past him.

“Bdubs, start pulling the rope up!” He shouted, “I need a hand!”

Bdubs just stood there, staring with an unreadable expression on his face. He didn’t touch the rope.

Tango yelped as a bullet grazed his ear, nearly tumbling down, “Bdubs! What are you doing? Please! Help me out!”

Bdubs looked away and Tango saw him mutter the words ‘5 million’ under his breath.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered.

“What do you mean?!” Tango yelled, “Bdubs-!”

Bdubs pulled Etho’s laser shooter from his pocket and shot at the rope.

Tango gave a heartwrenching cry as the laser pierced through the rope and he fell to the floor, crashing sideways as he hit the ground. The impact was hard, not enough to kill him thanks to the piles of soft bags that Etho and Skizz had put there, but enough that something in his right arm cracked when he connected and shot an agonising spike of pain through his body that had him screaming in anguish.

He cradled his arm to his chest and gasped wet breaths, tears of pain welling in his eyes. He managed to push himself up to sit. He had to get up, he had to get out of there, he had to-

“There he is!” Tango’s hands were pulled roughly behind his back and he shouted in agony as his arm snapped even more. The familiar feeling of handcuffs were clapped around his wrists and he was forced to his knees. The guards stood over him, glaring and grabbing his wrists to keep him restrained. Tango tugged and strained to free himself, but it was no use. He was in too much pain and they had too strong a hold on him.

He panted, tears of hurt, fear and anger stinging at his eyes as he looked up at the vent shaft. One word crossed his mind.

Betrayal.

Bdubs had betrayed him. He’d shot the rope.

“You traitor,” he whispered, trying to stop the tears from falling as his heart broke. His friend, his brother. A liar.

Anger flooded through him and he raised his head and screamed, “YOU TRAITOR! I TRUSTED YOU! I CARED ABOUT YOU!”

Bdubs was still standing there, not looking at Tango. He turned and ran down the vent shaft, swallowing tears, grabbing his bags and bolting for the van. He found the way out to the pavement already open, and guards were beginning to exit the building, scanning the area for them. Bdubs sprinted towards the van rendezvous point. The clouds had gathered whilst they’d been inside and a light rain was falling, the very early beginnings of the dawn starting to fade the sky from pitch black to indigo.

Bdubs reached the van and slammed the door shut once he was in, sitting down on the bench.

“Go,” was all he said.

Skizz nodded and signaled Impulse to drive.

“I’m guessing Tango’s in the front,” he said to Etho, who also nodded.

Bdubs couldn’t make eye contact and decided to stare at the floor and hope the others didn’t notice as the van pulled away

He was a traitor. This was his fault.

And now Tango was gone.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Doc was fuming to say the least.

He stared at the vault, half empty with a huge gaping hole in the ceiling. Those fiends, those villains, those-

“Doc M sir?”

Doc spun around, his face the picture of fury.

“What?!” He spat, “What do you want?!”

The guard who’d approached him cowered back, “Um, sorry Doc sir, but, um, we got news from the head of security. Apparently most of them got away - but, but!” He added the last bit quickly since it looked like Doc was about to punch him, “We did get one.”

Doc’s temper died down a little.

“You did?” He asked.

“Yes sir,” The guard stepped aside and a pair of high security guards walked in, dragging someone with them. His hands were bound in irons and one of his arms was hanging limply like it was fractured. He wasn’t putting up a fight, seemingly utterly dejected.

Tango.

Doc looked at him unimpressed, “This little scruffy person tried to rob me?”

Tango made no response.

“Yes sir,” One of the guards answered for him.

Doc glared and hit Tango around the face, leaving him gasping.

“That is for wrecking my casino,” he said, before he punched Tango in the stomach, “And that is for stealing from me.”

Tango wheezed for air, doubled over and panting. The guards pulled him back a little, seemingly to protect him from Doc’s anger.

“Take him away to the darkest, nastiest prison you can find,” Doc snapped, “I hope he rots there forever!”

“Yes sir,” The guards dragged Tango away and left Doc to mourn the loss of his riches.

A single figure in black watched the whole proceedings before pulling out a communicator.

“Mission accomplished sir,” They said, before they disappeared into the shadows.

Chapter Text

The van rattled down the road back towards the garage. The passengers inside all sat in a tired silence, the exhaustion of the evening weighing heavy as they contemplated their supposed victory.

Bdubs swallowed the lump in his throat and wrung his hands. Fear and regret tasted bitter against his tongue, but there was some refreshing relief too. He’d been worrying about the betrayal and now that it had happened, there was a weight off his shoulders, as much as he hated to admit it. He just kept telling himself mentally that Tango was fine. If he said it enough, he might believe himself.

Skizz stretched and flexed his hands, breaking the silence at last, “That was crazy.”

Etho nodded, “Yeah. I think I’m gonna need a holiday after this.”

“I’m sure Top will give us some time off,” Skizz chuckled, “Heck knows he needs it too. That fight was epic! You too, Double-Down.”

Bdubs gave them a tense smile.

There was the ping of the PA system and Impulse’s voice popped into existence.

“Nice work boys! Seems like a big haul,” The grin was evident in his voice, “Proud of you guys.”

“Yeah, tell Tango he did great! That last fight was incredible!” Skizz called back.

There was a pause. A horribly long one.

Then Impulse said, “I… can’t. He’s not in the cab. I thought he was back there with you.”

“We thought he was with you,” Skizz trailed off as the realisation hit them.

Tango wasn’t in the van.

“Where’s Tango?” Etho’s voice had an underlying layer of panic to it.

“Who was with him last?” Skizz asked.

Their eyes fell to Bdubs, who was staring at the floor, desperately avoiding eye contact.

“Bdubs, where’s Tango?” Skizz pressed.

“Errr, see, well-” Bdubs stammered.

“Bdoubleo100, what did you do?” Etho glared.

“He got caught ok?!” Bdubs blurted out.

“WHAT?!” Skizz and Etho both jumped to their feet. The van rattled over a bump and they stumbled, leaning on the walls to keep themselves upright.

“The guards got him,” Bdubs continued, refusing to make eye contact, “I tried to stop them, of course I did! But the rope snapped when he was still climbing and I couldn’t catch it in time.”

“He fell?” Etho went even paler than he already was.

“He’s alive, it’s fine!” Bdubs hoped that was true.

“It’s not fine!” Skizz yelled, “He could be hurt! They could be torturing him right now! We have to go back!”

“If we go back, they’ll catch us too!” Bdubs argued, “We can’t!”

That wasn’t why. If they went back, they’d find the rope cut, not torn. They’d put the pieces together and figure it out. Bdubs didn’t want them to find out.

“We have to do something!” Skizz turned to Etho, eyes pleading and panicked, “Right Etho?”

“We do,” Etho nodded, “But Bdubs is right. Going back for him would only result in us getting caught. We’ve been driving for about an hour and I’d reckon that they’ve probably already moved Tango somewhere more secure. We should reconvene at the base and come up with a plan.”

“Exactly!” Bdubs threw his hands into the air in exasperation.

Something flew out of his pocket as he did so.

He gasped and tried to catch it and stuff it back in, but he missed and it skidded across the floor to Etho’s foot, who picked it up, looking at it, confused.

It was the device the assassins had given him. Bdubs hadn’t even realised that he still had it on him. He jumped to his feet and ran over to Etho, trying to take it back, but Etho held it out of reach.

“What is this?” He asked, flicking the on button and taking at look at the screen.

“It’s nothing!-” Bdubs insisted, but Etho’s expression said enough.

When he spoke, his voice was trembling.

“How could you?” He hissed, practically vibrating with anger, “Bdubs, how?”

“What is it?” Skizz questioned, “Etho, what’s going on?”

Etho handed Skizz the device and he read it. His eyes widened and his jaw fell slack.

He looked up at Bdubs, who was standing frightenedly in the middle of the van.

“You slimy traitor!” Skizz yelled, rushing at him. He slammed Bdubs up against the side door of the van and Bdubs squeaked in fear.

“How dare you!” Skizz was furious, betrayal written on his face, “Tango was your brother! Our brother! And you hurt him like this!”

The van swerved sideways and jolted violently to a stop, all of them nearly falling over.

One of the back doors of the van swung open and Impulse stormed in.

“What the heck is happening?” He shouted, “Tango’s missing and I heard yelling and-”

He cut off when he saw Skizz pinning Bdubs up against the wall.

“Skizz, let-” he began, starting towards them to free Bdubs, but Etho held out an arm to stop him and handed him the device.

“Take a look at this,” he said grimly.

Impulse looked at it, and his face changed into one of repulsion, physically recoiling as he read it.

“I have never been more disgusted in my life,” he said, voice barely louder than a whisper, “Bdubs, why?”

“They were going to give me 5 million for it, and keep my family safe!” Bdubs choked out, struggling to speak with Skizz’s hands pressing hard against his chest and stomach, “They approached me in a dark back alley with guns and I was supposed to say no?!”

“Any one with decency would have said no!” Skizz exclaimed, “If you were loyal, you would have said no!”

There was a clicking noise and the door behind Bdubs swung open, both him and Skizz tumbling through it. Bdubs pushed Skizz off and sprinted away, still holding his swiss army knife, flicking the lock picking tool back into it. Skizz should have grabbed his arms instead of his torso.

Skizz got to his feet to chase but Etho was already out of the door, speeding after him. They sprinted along beside the motorway, Bdubs losing ground. Etho threw a shuriken at Bdubs to slow him down even more, but Bdubs dodged it quickly, grabbing something from his pocket and aiming it at Etho.

Etho yelled as a laser came flying at him. He ducked and managed to dodge it in time, head snapping up.

Bdubs was holding his laser gun.

Etho shouldn’t have been surprised, considering the situation, but it was like another slash across his heart. He couldn’t hide the hurt on his face.

“Where did you get that?” He shouted.

“I stole it off you,” Bdubs said, “I’m sorry, ok?!”

“‘Sorry’ doesn’t really cut it!” Etho ran at him.

Bdubs made a jump and leapt onto the side of a passing car. Etho sprinted after it but it wasn’t long before Bdubs was completely out of sight.

He skidded to a halt and stared in horror.

Bdubs had escaped.

Skizz caught up to Etho, panting, “Where’s he at?”

“He got away,” Etho shook his head, clearly angry at himself for letting Bdubs slip away.

Skizz placed a hand on his shoulder, “It’s ok. We’ll find him eventually. We should get back to the van before we cause any traffic accidents.”

They both headed back to the van, a feeling of defeat sitting heavy in their chests.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

On a desolate coastal road, a small police prisoner transport drove up the winding track, buffeted by the wind, heading towards a little rugged basalt pier leading over the sea.

The transport was almost empty, save for a pair of drivers in the front cab, a guard and a prisoner. All of them sat in complete silence as they drove on.

The prisoner was Tango, his blonde hair hanging wet and greasy around his face, cheeks stained with teartracks. He looked utterly defeated. His hands were in handcuffs and locked in a set of metal stocks in front of him and his ankles were chained to the wall. He’d been stripped of his shoes, socks, gloves and jacket, leaving him barefoot in his red crop shirt and black trousers. All his weapons and gadgets had been confiscated and Tango had a feeling he’d never see them again.

His arm had been bandaged and propped with a splint but it was still throbbing with pain.
His side was badly bruised and his head was sore from the dehydration of crying. But the betrayal stung more than any injury he’d gained. It felt like his whole world and his heart had been shattered into hundreds of pieces, like someone smashing a pane of glass. The shards cut deep into him, leaving scars in his trust.

Was it just Bdubs? Or were the others also in on it? Were Skizz and Etho celebrating with him in the van on the way back? Were Zed and Impulse smiling as they offloaded the van, happy that he was gone? Heck, had even Jimmy been in on it too? Had his precious Rancher been so kind, cared for him and made a home in his heart, only to turn on him?

Tango tortured himself with these thoughts as the transport drove on. Had everything he’d ever cared about been faked affection to get him caught? He didn’t know what to think anymore.

The guard opposite him cleared his throat, finally breaking the silence.

“I didn’t think we’d meet again,” he said, a little awkwardly, “I’d ask how things are going but… well…”

Tango didn’t answer, but looked up ever so slightly. He did recognise the voice, but he knew a lot of people, so that didn’t exactly narrow it down.

The guard continued, still rather awkwardly, “I… why do you bother?”

When Tango didn’t reply, he elaborated, “Like, stealing? You stole from the Museum, and now the Casino, but what’s the point? Because, couldn’t you just, like, get money from a job?”

That was it. The Hermitdale Museum. It was the new guard that had responded to Tango’s questions. Now that Tango could see him properly, he looked a little older than he’d thought before. His hair was brown and hung around his neck in a long mullet with the beginnings of a stubble on his chin.

Tango still said nothing.

The guard looked nervously at the floor, playing with his hands, “I… sorry, I’ll be quiet. I was just curious.”

Tango couldn’t help a little pang of sympathy for the guy. He was too nice for this job.

“I don’t do it for the money,” he said quietly, “I do it for the thrill. The adrenaline. That’s why.”

The guard snapped his head up, looking a little more enthusiastic. He reminded Tango of a puppy. It was a little endearing.

The transport rattled as it drove onto the pier. Tango winced as it jolted, bouncing his arm roughly against his splint.

“Where are they taking me?” He asked.

“I think it’s, erm, hang on, let me check,” The guard pulled out a small tablet device out of his pocket and flicked across the screen, “Ah! Fort Blackrock, that’s it.”

Tango’s face paled, “Fort Blackrock?”

“Yeah,” The guard nodded almost mournfully, “They must really hate you.”

Fort Blackrock wasn’t a prison; it was a citadel. It was spoken of only in hushed, terrified whispers. Anyone who had been taken there was never seen again. No one had ever made it out.

Well, not alive anyway.

Tango’s heart was somehow both simultaneously stuck in his throat and sunken into the very bottom of the pit of his stomach. This was worse than a death sentence. He’d never see anything outside of a prison cell for the rest of his life. This wasn’t something he could use his quick wit to escape from.

For the first time in his life, Tango felt truly and utterly hopeless.

The transport clattered to a halt and the guard stood up, unclipping Tango’s hands from the metal stocks and his ankles from the wall before he led him to the door of the transport which was slowly lowering down. Tango swallowed roughly, his throat dry and tasting of bitter, bitter fear as the guard led him out.

He gasped when he saw the fort.

It was huge. Breathtakingly, mind-bogglingly, stomach-churningly huge. It looked like it reached above the clouds. It was made of thick black basalt and obsidian, towering and imposing, all the windows barred. The walls were jagged and rugged like it had been carved straight into the rock.

The whole building was sitting on top of a huge basalt plateau in the middle of the sea, and Tango grimaced as a huge cloud of sea spray splashed against his face. The guard didn’t seem to like it here much either.

The huge doors of the building swished mechanically open and a trickle of ice cold fear prickled down Tango’s spine. He shuddered as he was taken inside.

It was just as bleak inside as out, with tall black walls and harsh coarse stone floors that dug painfully into Tango’s bare feet. Occasionally, screams could be heard echoing around the dark corridors, horrible bone-chilling cries for mercy.

This place was like something out of a nightmare.

Tango was taken by another guard who was a lot less nice than the one in the transport and stumbled as he was shoved along the hallway before he was dragged abruptly to a halt, then pushed roughly into a prison cell. He yelped as he tumbled to the floor, his arm spiking with pain.

The door was slammed shut behind him and there was the sound of a key turning in a lock.

Tango stared at the door, tears of hopelessness and despair beginning to run down his face. He was trapped, locked up, alone and helpless where he’d never be found.

He dragged his legs to his chest with his good arm and sobbed into his knees.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The van rolled up at the garage about an hour after Bdubs had fled. The group had spent the rest of the drive in a woeful silence, each of them considering how they’d break the news to the hopeful pair waiting for them.

Zed and Jimmy were both there, and from the tired bags under their eyes, they had been waiting for them to come back all night.

Zed waved and grinned as the doors swung open, “You made it! Well done!”

But his cheerfulness was met with sorrowful silence.

Jimmy frowned and noticed the lack of people inside the van, “What is it? Where’s Tango and Bdubs?”

When no one answered, he pressed again, more urgently, “Guys, what happened?”

“Bdubs betrayed us,” Skizz forced the words out of his mouth, “Which is why Tango got caught.”

Jimmy’s face flashed through about 5 different emotions in about the span of a second before settling on anger.

“That monster,” he spat, eyes flashing, “If I ever see that man again, I’m gonna kill him!”

He turned to Skizz, expression furious.

“Why didn’t you go back for him?” He shouted, shaking Skizz by the shoulders, “You could have gone back for him! Why didn’t you go back for him?!”

“Woah, Jimmy,” Zed placed a hand on his arm, “Calm down, they might not have had-”

“NO!” Jimmy yelled, throwing Zed’s arm off of him, “Tango’s GONE! And you could have saved him! He’s my boyfriend!”

“And he’s our friend!” Impulse grabbed Jimmy’s arm and pulled him around, “I know you’re worried about him but just because you two were in a relationship doesn’t mean we don’t care about him! We wanted to go back for him too! And we’re going to! So stop making it seem like you’re the only one who loves him!”

Jimmy opened his mouth to retort.

Zed pushed between the two of them, “Stop! Fighting is going to get us nowhere. We’re all scared about Tango, but if we divide ourselves then we’re not going to be able to save him. This is no one’s fault except Bdubs’, so let’s calm down and figure out a plan.”

There was a moment of silence and then Jimmy pushed past Impulse and Zed and ran to the back store room, wiping his eyes.

“Jimmy!” Zed called, going to follow, but Etho held out an arm to stop him.

“He needs a moment,” he said gently, “We’ll check he’s ok in a minute.”

Zed nodded.

“Let’s at least unload the van and see what we’re working with,” he muttered. The others all nodded and pitched in.

Jimmy watched them from the backroom, tears streaming down his face as he sobbed silently. He clutched the necklace Tango had left him that hung around his neck with a shaking hand. Tango had never been caught before, at least not unintentionally. Occasionally the plan would require for a member to get caught and usually Tango was happy to play that role, but he’d never been actually captured before.

It was scary. Tango was a highly wanted man. No one actually knew that the leader of Team Best was Tango, otherwise the police would have tracked him down and arrested him years ago, but everyone knew there was a high bounty on his head. Maybe that was what Bdubs had been after.

Jimmy’s blood boiled when he thought of that man. How, after everything Tango had done for him, had he been able to turn on him?

There was a knock on the door and it swung open gently. Skizz was on the other side of it.

“You ok Jiggles?” he asked gently.

Jimmy shook his head wordlessly.

“Can I come in and sit next to you?”

Jimmy nodded.

Skizz sat down next him, wrapping an arm around his shoulders. Jimmy leaned into him, tears rolling down his face.

“Sorry for yelling at you and Impulse,” He whispered, “I… I’m just really scared.”

“Me too,” Skizz nodded, “You’re forgiven. We’re all worried about Tango. We just have to hope he’s ok and that he’ll stay strong.”

Jimmy clutched his necklace tighter, “He promised he’d come back. And I barely got to say a proper goodbye-”

He cut off into sobs again.

“Don’t talk like that,” Skizz said, “Top is still alive, I know it. You’ll see him again. We’ll see him again. Because we’re going to get him back.”

Jimmy wiped his eyes and took a deep breath. Skizz was right. They were going to get Tango back. Tango would want Jimmy to be strong. So he would be.

He steeled himself and turned to Skizz, eyes still bloodshot from crying but a little less hopeless.

“What’s the plan?” He asked.

Chapter Text

The van trundled along the road, heading onwards down the street. Impulse grabbed his sunglasses from an overhead case in the roof and put them on to stop the glare of the sun distracting him from driving.

He could hear the others in the back of the van finishing the plan and ironing out the rough edges of it. Jimmy’s voice was at the head of the conversation and Impulse couldn’t help but smile. He hated the fact that Tango was gone, but in his absence Jimmy was proving himself to be a good leader and a valuable member of the team.

The plan had, to be honest, been Etho’s idea, but Etho was busy collecting supplies from an arms-dealer that Jimmy apparently had connections with and therefore would be more willing to help, which left the leadership role open. All of them had agreed that Jimmy should be the one to fill it. He was fairly level-headed and had a bit more in-the-field experience than any of them. Jimmy had been a pickpocket and conman long before Tango had met him and the only person with more experience than him was Tango himself.

The van reached a set of red traffic lights and Impulse hit the brakes, switching on the radio quietly so he could have some music to listen to. He didn't really need to listen to the plan. His job was the same as always: be there to drive them in and get them out. He didn’t mind that at all, if anything he liked that he didn’t have to do a lot of the hard work.

The lights turned green and Impulse pushed the clutch pedal and the accelerator, kicking the van into the right gear and rolling onwards.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

They showed up at their destination about an hour later: The Offices of the Hermitdale Security Bureau. The building was pristine white and silver, clearly made to look smart and intimidating.

Zed had to admit that they’d done the intimidating bit quite well.

He stood next to Skizz as Jimmy ran through the plan. Impulse had already driven off to a safe spot a few blocks away and was waiting for the signal to come and pick them up. Zed was a little jealous. He’d much rather be in the van than here.

But they’d needed a computer expert and whilst Zed was better with technical work and science, he was the next best person after Tango when it came to hacking and coding. Which was why rather than sitting back at the garage like usual, he was helping the team find out where Tango had been taken so they could stage a proper rescue.

“The plan is simple,” Jimmy was saying, “We distract the guards, get in, locate the criminal placement files either on the computers or from the paper files, find out where they’re holding Tango and then get out as quickly as we can. Security will be fairly tight so we’ve gotta make this quick. Zed, have you dealt with the cameras and doors?”

“The cameras are down,” Zed nodded, “Sorted that in the van along with some of the security doors, but not all of them. We’ll have to figure out how to open them.”

“We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it,” Jimmy said, “Everyone ready and armed?”
The pair both nodded, Skizz pulling on his hydraulic gloves and Zed taking a small stun pistol he’d found at the back of the store room out of his lab coat pocket.

Had he needed to wear a lab coat? No. Did it make him feel more heroic? Yes. Plus the extra pockets helped.

He swallowed his nervousness and took a deep breath. They were doing this for Tango. His best friend. He had to pull himself together.

Jimmy unsheathed a knife, one of Tango’s spares that he’d borrowed, and smashed one of the building's windows.

There was a loud yell of alarm and the trio sprinted round to the side of the building, watching as the police officers rushed outside, looking around for whoever broke the glass on the building. Whilst they were distracted, Skizz forced open one of the windows near them and gave Zed a leg up, then helped Jimmy before he pulled himself up and dropped down inside the room.

Jimmy glanced around quickly. There was one computer at the receptionist desk, but that wasn’t going to have the info they needed on it.

“Zed, you checked the blueprints for this place right?” He asked, “Where might they be storing information?”

Zed wracked his brains, “There’s a couple of rooms of info terminals and computers with securely stored files just through there.”

He pointed to a doorway with a sign above it and Jimmy nodded, “Got it. Alright, I’ll lead. Skizz, watch our backs.”

Skizz walked behind Zed and clenched his fists, iron gloves clinking. Zed gripped his gun tightly and shook his blonde curls out of his eyes, following Jimmy. They ran down the corridor, their already tight time window starting to close on them, until they reached a room with a thick iron door, the sign on it reading ‘Information and Filing’.

Jimmy gave it a push and sighed, “Locked. Anyone got any lock picks?”

“Don’t need ‘em,” Skizz walked forwards and stretched, flexing his hands, “Step aside gentlemen.”

The other two moved back as Skizz grabbed the handle of the door with his hydraulic gloves and yanked it hard.

The door squealed in protest and then fell open.

Skizz grinned and nodded at the room, “Come on fellas, we can’t waste time.”

They all rushed in, Skizz slamming the door shut behind them. The room was huge, filled with important-looking information terminals and other bits of technology as well as a couple of filing cabinets. It was fortunately empty of people apart from the thieves.

Jimmy rushed to one of the filing cabinets, “Skizz, help me check these. Zed, you start on the terminals.”

“On it,” Zed headed over to one of the terminals and stuck a USB drive into one of the ports on the side of it. He waited for a moment as the hacking software did its job, getting him into the terminal and syncing it with the data from the other terminals, and then set to work scouring the terminal data for Tango’s whereabouts.

They’d been there for about five minutes when Jimmy chucked the files he’d been looking at back in the cabinet with an angry sigh, “Nothing in here.”

“Nothing in these either,” Skizz shook his head grimly, “Any results Zeddlebop?”

“Not yet,” Zed stuck his tongue out as he concentrated hard, typing in another load of bypass code to access some sealed off files. It was tricky work, and one wrong move could screw this whole plan over.

It beeped and the files opened, Zed continuing to scroll and type, searching for Tango’s name, or face, or anything attributing to him. There had to be something-

There! A file that had been made a couple of hours ago, the incident dating from the casino heist with the initials GC on it. Zed opened it and one of the documents, skimming through it.

“I found it!” He exclaimed, taking another USB drive out of his pocket and sticking it in, starting the download process, “Downloading it now!”

“Nice!” Skizz cheered and Jimmy grinned happily.

However, a few minutes later there was a loud beep from the terminal and Zed gave a yell, starting to furiously type code. Jimmy and Skizz whipped their heads around and dashed over.

“What’s going on?” Jimmy asked.

“Something’s trying to reject the code!” Zed shouted, “I’m losing control of the terminal!”

Suddenly, there was a loud banging noise against the door and all three of them looked up at it to see people on the other side in uniforms.

“We weren’t quick enough!” Skizz panicked.

“Crap,” Jimmy swore, “They’ve found us.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Etho really didn’t like this part of town.

He walked through the underground tunnel system, hands in his pockets, hoping to look inconspicuous. This part of town was shady, and looking out of place wasn’t something you wanted to do.

Hermitdale had a handful of decommissioned train and underground tram lines that had since become a huge black market for anything outside the law: drugs, alcohol, rare and banned items and, the thing he was currently searching for, weapons. Jimmy had pointed him to a few friends who supposedly had everything they were looking for to bust Tango out of… wherever he was.

A few people walked past him, casting him a bit of a suspicious look, but ultimately decided he was harmless. Etho gripped the knife he had in his pocket a little tighter. He had a deep loathing for anything that was covertly against the law, which he supposed was a little hypocritical considering his line of work. But Team Best were different. They robbed from the rich, they didn’t scam people out of a living and make stuff that could end lives.

Apparently though the weapons dealer he was looking for was fairly ‘ethical’, although Etho wasn’t sure how much of that was true. He trusted Jimmy, but he didn’t think he trusted this informant all that much.

He realised a few moments after his thought that he couldn’t really call the group Team Best anymore, which stung in a way he hadn’t expected. Sure, it was just a name, but it was their identity.

If they weren’t Team Best, who were they?

He shook the thought away. He’d consider it another time. Right now he had a job to do.

Speaking of which, he’d arrived.

The shop was small and looked fairly run down, an old metal sign above it reading ‘Shadow Stores’. It was where Jimmy had told him to go, but it seemed very… disreputable. Still, what could go wrong?

Etho pushed the door of the shop open with a creak, forcing it to move on its rusted hinges. It was dark and dingy inside, and smelled like gunpowder and engine oil.

There was someone sitting at the desk, typing something at a computer. They looked up when Etho walked in.

“Hi, how can I help you?” They smiled hospitably. It was a woman with long pink hair in a blue shirt and navy skirt, eyes ocean blue.

“Hi,” Etho greeted with a nod, “I’m here on behalf of Jimmy Solidarity. We needed some equipment for a job and he said you’d have what we’d need.”

The woman’s face lit up, “A job for Jimmy! Now that’s exciting! Follow me sir, I’ll get you sorted.”

She got up and walked to a door with a Staff Only sign on it and slid a key into the lock, pushing it open. The pair walked in and Etho couldn’t help but gasp.

“Woah,” he said, “Jimmy wasn’t kidding when he said you’d have everything we’d need.”

The room was lined wall to wall with huge metal shelves covered in guns and explosives and other mechanical devices. They stretched out into a room that was almost as big as a football pitch.

“How is this place so big inside when it looks so small on the outside?” Etho gawped.

The woman chuckled, “We find ways. Now, what can I get you?”

Etho fished around in his pocket and pulled out a scribbled down list of equipment, “As much of this as you can get us. And anything else you think that we have missed for a break out job.”

The woman’s eyes flicked down the page and she raised an eyebrow, “Wow. That’s a lot of heavy duty stuff. What kind of break out were you planning?”

“A big one,” Etho tiptoed carefully around the details.

The woman seemed to figure that out, since she shrugged and headed to the shelves, starting to pull things off, “I assume you need something to carry this stuff in.”

“Yeah, if you’re able to get a bag or something, that’d be great,” Etho replied.

The woman nodded and turned around, yelling, “JOEL!”

There was the sound of footsteps and someone came in, “Yeah Lizzie darling?”

It was man with brown hair, a vibrant strike of bright green dyed into it. His eyes were chocolate brown and he was in a cream hoodie with some kind of heart design on the front of it as well as some black jeans and a pair of black converse trainers. He looked a lot less formal that the woman, and from the cup of tea he was still holding, acted a lot less formal too.

“We’ve got a job request for Jim and this gentleman needs a bag,” Lizzie said, “Can you fetch me one?”

“Sure thing love,” Joel nodded and hurried off, shooting Etho a nod of greeting before he disappeared into the back. Lizzie got back to pulling weapons and explosives off shelves.

“That’s my husband, Joel,” She explained, “I’m Lizzie, by the way. Lizzie Shadow-Beans. Sorry, I forgot to introduce myself.”

“It’s fine,” Etho smiled slightly behind his mask, “I get that you don’t want to give your name away to strangers down here. I’m Etho.”

“Well Etho, any friend of Jimmy is a friend of ours,” Lizzie smiled back, “Feel free to grab anything you think you’ll need, or anything that takes your fancy.”

“Thanks,” Etho walked over to one of the shelves and started browsing. They were full of all kinds of different guns and explosives and even some swords and more traditional weapons. Tango would be acting like a kid in a candy store if he could see this stuff. Etho smiled and made a mental note to tell Jimmy to take Tango here someday.

His eyes fell on a sharp looking sword on a shelf adjacent to him. He walked over to it and picked it up, the light catching off the blade and glinting dangerously. It was a wakizashi, sleek and deadly with a gentle curve and white and black wrapped handle, the guard gold and the pommel silver.

“Hey,” He called over to Lizzie, “How much is this?”

Lizzie glanced over, “Oh, I’m not sure. Joel’s better with swords than I am. You’d be better off asking him.”

Etho walked towards the back of the shop where Joel was rooting through a box of bags. He heard Etho walking in and looked up.

“What’s up lad?” He asked.

“I was wondering how much it would be to buy this,” he showed Joel the sword.

Joel whistled, “That’s a nice blade. It’s a-”

“A wakizashi, I know,” Etho said, “How much would it cost?”

Joel sucked his lip, contemplating, “Honestly, for one of that quality, 500 or so, but since we need to shift it and you’re a friend of Jim, I’d say we could let it go for 100 quid. And a sheath for it would probably be a half of the amount.”

“Done,” Etho said, pulling his wallet from his trouser pocket and fishing out a handful of notes, handing them to Joel, “I’ve got a sheath at home but the handle on my old sword snapped beyond repair. This one’s better quality and nicer in general.”

Joel nodded, flicking the notes between his fingers, “Sure thing. You still need that bag by the way?”

“Yeah,” Etho said.

Joel handed him a bag, “Take this one Mr… erm-”

“Slab. Etho Slab,” Etho smiled, “You’re Joel. Lizzie said.”

“Joel Shadow-Beans,” Joel took Etho’s free hand and shook it, “That’s me.”

There was a shout of “I’ve got everything!” from the front of the shop and the two men walked up to where Lizzie was organising everything on an empty shelf. Joel handed her the notes and she took them with a nod.

“What’s this all for?” Joel asked, leaning against the shelf, Lizzie glaring at him as he shook it whilst she was organising.

“We’re breaking Jimmy’s boyfriend out of prison,” Etho said, deciding that he trusted the pair enough to tell them the truth.

Joel blinked in shock and Lizzie looked up.

“Wow,” She remarked, “That’s a big job.”

“Yeah,” Etho replied, “He got caught at the raid on Goathorn Casino and the others are on a job looking for his location right now.”

“I saw about the casino on the news,” Joel stated, “That heist was gutsy.”

“Very,” Etho agreed with a sigh, “We probably shouldn’t have gone through with it, Tango was really against it, but we did it anyway. I think our boss got all the profit for it. We refused to take the profit after losing a member of our team. No money could fix that loss.”

“That’s very noble,” Lizzie said, “You know what? For that, and because this is for Jim, the equipment’s on the house.”

Etho looked at her surprised, “Really?”

“Yeah,” Joel nodded, “We do owe him a couple of favours and I say this pays in at least one of them, if not more.”

“I… I really appreciate that,” Etho said, taking the bag and slipping the wakizashi inside, making sure the blade was firmly wrapped so it wouldn’t cut anything, “Thanks for all the help.”

“No worries,” Lizzie waved a hand dismissively, “Like I said, any friend of Jim is a friend of ours. Good luck with the heist!”

“Thank you,” Etho waved to the pair as he walked out.

Huh. Maybe this place wasn’t as bad as he thought.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jimmy gripped the knife in his hand so tightly his knuckles went white.

“What should we do?” Skizz questioned.

Jimmy had no idea. Zed had gone back to try and regain control of the terminal and seemed to be succeeding, but he and Skizz had to buy him as much time as possible to download the info and then get out.

The door made a noise like the metal was buckling and Skizz ran to it, forcing it closed with his hands and his hydraulics.

“I can’t hold it for too long!” He yelled.

“I know!” Jimmy yelled back. He frantically wracked his brain for an idea.

Come on brain, he thought, What would Tango do?

Tango would do something that seemed impossible and yet still pull it off. He’d do something unexpected.

Jimmy looked around the room and his eyes fell on a short vent system above the door. An idea came to his mind.

“Skizz, can you hold the door until Zed’s finished?” He asked.

“How long has Zed got left downloading?” Skizz grunted as the door was shoved again.

“It says 5 minutes,” Zed said, biting his tongue lightly.

“Then no,” Skizz replied to Jimmy’s question.

“That’s fine,” Jimmy said, “Just hold the door for a little longer. Zed, can I borrow your stun pistol?”

“Go for it,” Zed nodded, fishing it out of his pocket and throwing it to Jimmy, who caught it.

“Thanks,” he said. He aimed it at the bolts on the vent grate and caught it when it fell, placing it on the floor and climbing up into the vent.

“What are you doing?” Skizz asked.

“You’ll see,” Jimmy answered, shimmying along inside the vent. It was incredibly cramped, but it’d do.

He waited until he was over the officers where another ventilation grate was placed and shot the bolts out, letting the grate crash to the floor, hitting a couple of the officers in the head, before he jumped down and shot the remaining few with the pistol. He would have used the knife, but he was fairly sure it wasn’t a sedative knife and he didn’t want to risk it.

The sound of footsteps came down the corridor and he called back to Zed, “How much longer in there?”

“Gimme two minutes!” Zed shouted.

The officers approached. There were loads of them, most of them armed with truncheons and a couple with hand guns.

“We don’t have two minutes!” Jimmy yelled, preparing himself for the fight.

“Hang on,” There was the sound of someone coming through the vents and then a cry of ‘Dang it! Why are all vents so small?!”

Jimmy sighed and facepalmed, “Really Skizz?”

“Two seconds!” There was a loud bang noise and the ceiling collapsed. Jimmy had to push himself against the door to avoid the falling plasterboard and concrete. He watched as some of the officers were trapped or knocked out by the debris.

Then Skizz fell down with a squawk and landed on top off a pile of ruined plaster.

Jimmy helped him to his feet, “You ok?”

Skizz nodded and grinned, “It’s getting less painful the more I do it!”

He turned back to the remaining officers and clenched his fists, “Let’s get these jerks.”

He ran at them with a battle screech and swung with his huge metal gloves, knocking a handful of them out in a few moments, deflecting the hand gun bullets off of them. Soon they all lay unconscious on the floor.

“We’re good!” The door slammed open and Zed ran out, holding both USB drives, “I’ve signalled Impulse, we’re ready to go!”

“Then let’s move,” Jimmy handed Zed back his gun and started running down the corridor towards the exit. The others followed behind.

They reached the main room, but halted at the door. Jimmy peered through the glass and spat out a swear, “Gosh dang it.”

“What?” Zed asked, gripping the pistol tightly.

“So you know how we got all those guards distracted by breaking the window?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, they’ve stopped being distracted and have gone back to doing their job.”

The room was full of them. There was no way they’d make it through without getting spotted.

“How do we do this? Do we just run in and hope we don’t get our butts shot?” Skizz asked.

“I don’t think we have another option,” Jimmy said grimly, “On my count, we run. You ready?”

They both nodded pensively.

“Ok,” Jimmy took a deep breath, “Three, two, one, GO!”

They stormed through the door and bolted for the exit. The officers guarding it started in surprise and began to yell and try to attack the three of them. Somehow, the trio managed to make the door just as Impulse was pulling up. He had the window rolled down.

“Impulse!” Jimmy screamed, “We gotta go! Drop the door!”

Impulse pressed a button on the steering wheel and the door at the back of the van fell down with a clunk. Jimmy, Zed and Skizz all leapt inside and Impulse slammed his foot against the accelerator pedal.

The van roared off back to HQ.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“How’d it go?” Etho greeted the group as the van doors opened and they all climbed out.

“Not too bad,” Jimmy made a ‘so-so’ hand gesture, “Could have been better, but we got what we needed.”

“Yup!” Zed threw the USB drive up in the air and caught it again, “I’ll get this uploaded and then we’ll take a look at the file.”

He sprinted over to a small and rather broken looking computer at the back of the garage as Impulse and Skizz came over to stand with Jimmy and Etho.

“Nice new sword,” Skizz noticed the sword Etho was holding.

Etho looked down at it, “Yeah. I can thank Joel and Lizzie for that. They said hi by the way Jimmy.”

“I’ll have to pay them back later,” Jimmy smiled, “I owe those guys big.”

“They said the job was on the house,” Etho remarked, twirling the sword.

Jimmy blinked, then grinned, “Well, I’ll still have to do something. Maybe when this is all over we can go out for dinner. But that’s irrelevant, did you get what we needed?”

“Sure did,” Etho patted a bag next to him, “Everything we asked for and more.”

“I’m gonna have to meet this Joel and Lizzie,” Impulse nodded, impressed, “They might be able to hook me up with some new gear.”

“Guys! It’s done!”

Zed’s yell drew everyone’s attention away and they all ran over, gathering around as the very last few percentages ticked up on the loading bar, before it opened the file. They were immediately met with a huge report of the heist and Zed scrolled down until he found the prisoner data.

“Here!” He pointed to a line, “‘Location: Originally held in a temporary cell in the casino, currently being deported to Fort Blackrock’. I’ve never heard about a Fort Blackrock before.”

“I have,” Impulse said, voice shaking. They all looked around at him and were shocked to see him pale as a sheet of paper.

“Impulse,” Jimmy asked, concern etched on his face, “What’s Fort Blackrock?”

“I’ve only ever heard the name once and it was from Tango,” Impulse explained, “It was the only prison he was ever scared of. Apparently the people who go in never come out again. At least, not alive. That place is a fortress. Every escape attempt failed. Tango said it was worse than death.”

A horrible silence hung in the air for a moment. Tango was in even bigger trouble than they’d previously thought.

“So…” Zed broke the silence, “How do we save him?”

“We find Fort Blackrock and we try and bust him out,” Jimmy replied, “We’ll need blueprints, and co-ordinates, and-”

“Jimmy,” Impulse’s voice was quiet and sad, “That place is a secret facility. There’s no blueprints or co-ordinates. No one knows where it is.”

“But if we don’t know where it is…” Jimmy trailed off, eyes filling with sorrow, “Then… then…”

Skizz rested a hand on Jimmy’s shoulder as Jimmy bit his lip to hold back tears. Etho was shaking. Impulse was already crying slightly, silent tears trickling down his face.

But Zed squared his jaw and stared resolutely at the screen, typing something into it before he snapped his fingers and grinned, “Got it!”

Everyone looked up.

“The public don’t have co-ordinates,” he smirked, “But this isn’t the public and, hold on a moment,” He typed something else then continued, “The police have left certain instructions since Fort Blackrock is such a secluded and secretive prison, including-”

He pulled up what looked like a map at the bottom of the document and exclaimed, “Co-ordinates!”

“Then,” the sorrow in Jimmy’s eyes was replaced by hope, “We have a chance!”

“I’ll load the van,” Impulse ran over to it.

“I’ll help,” Zed pushed back his chair and jumped up, following Impulse.

Jimmy grabbed a pen and paper and quickly jotted the co-ordinates down, making sure he had a note of them before he slotted the note in his pocket and headed over to help the others.

“What’s going on down here?” Another voice came from across the room. Jimmy glanced over to see Scar walking towards them from the elevator.

“Hey Scar,” He greeted, “We just got back from a job.”

“A job?” Scar looked at him confused, “I didn’t have a job for you!”

“It was intel gathering,” Jimmy explained, “We’ve found out where they’re holding Tango and we’re going to go and save him.”

To his amazement, Scar frowned and said, “Not on my watch you’re not.”

Everyone stopped and looked up in surprise.

“What?” Jimmy stared, “What do you mean?”

“I’m not letting you go,” Scar said, “It’s too dangerous. I’ve already lost Tango, I can’t lose you guys either.”

“But that’s what we’re gonna go fix Scarface!” Skizz protested from across the room.

“Without you guys I have no team!” Scar argued, ignoring Skizz, “And with no team, I get no money!”

Jimmy’s expression turned disgusted, “It’s always about the money with you, isn’t it?”

“You seem to be forgetting that some of us do this as a job,” Scar sneered, “Or did you forget since you don’t? I need the money or I have no income, no nothing. Besides, it’s a suicide mission Jimmy.”

“Tango would have done it for you,” Jimmy spat, “He has, in fact.”

“I NEVER NEEDED HIS HELP!” Scar screamed. Jimmy stepped away, taken aback.

“He never helped me! He just caused problems, like you are now! Always taking the credit for being helpful when he wasn’t! Which is why I-” Scar cut himself off, snapping his lips shut, then taking a deep breath to calm himself.

“Listen,” He sighed, “I know when to let people go. You need to learn that too.”

Jimmy recoiled.

“How can you say that?” He whispered, “Didn’t Tango mean something to you? He was your friend!”

“I don’t want to argue about this!” Scar snapped. He turned to all of them.

“You are not going to go on this stupid mission,” he glared, “In fact, I forbid it. If you do, you can consider yourselves no longer under my employ.”

He stalked back to the lift and stepped inside, trying and failing to look threatening as the stupid cheerful elevator music played behind him.

There was a silence for a second.

Then Jimmy turned back and headed into the van.

“Where are you going?” Etho asked.

“To prep the van for the job,” Jimmy said, mouth drawn in a grim, resolute line, “Scar said it himself, I don’t work here. He can’t fire me. I get it if you guys don’t want to risk your jobs, but I’m going. I don’t care about the consequences. Tango would do it for me.”

“I’m in,” Skizz added immediately, “Tango’s like a brother to us, and we don’t leave family behind.”

“Yeah,” Etho nodded, “I’m in too.”

“Me three,” Zed agreed, “Tango saved my life more than once. It’s only fair that I return the favour.”

“Impulse,” Jimmy turned to their driver, “What about you?”

“Do you really need to ask?” Impulse smiled, “Of course I’m in.”

“Awesome,” Jimmy grinned, “Then let’s go save a Tango Tek.”

Chapter Text

Detective Cub Fan sighed and flicked through the case files again, scanning it for anything he might have missed on his first runthrough, and coming up empty. He hated this; it was a waste of time and resources.

Someone walked in, the officer he was working on the case with, CSI Peritas.

“Anything yet Detective?” She asked.

“No,” Cub sighed again, “This whole case is a load of dead ends. And I don’t see why the heist is going to help us find the rest of the crew who did it. We have one of them, why don’t we just ask him?”

“You think he’d give up their hideout without a fight?” Peritas snorted, “There’s not a lot of point. He won’t let anything slip, he’s too loyal to his team.”

She patted him on the shoulder, “Look, our job is just to find out where they are, and we’ll do it by ourselves if we have to.”

Cub nodded, and glanced across to the case file.

“But that still doesn’t explain why they killed that man,” He muttered.

Peritas’ face grew cold, “Mr Albert Friar’s death. Yes. I know. He was a good man. Shame he was poisoned.”

Cub looked up, confused, “The case file said he was strangled, not poisoned.”

“It looked like he was,” Peritas agreed, “But we checked the toxicology report. They found a paralysing toxin in his bloodstream and did some tracing. We think something he ate or drank happened to be laced with the substance.”

“But who put it there?” Cub mused.

“That’s what we’re trying to figure out,” Peritas said, “I don’t understand why he was killed. He wasn’t in the wrong. I suppose there is the option of an accident, like he ate or drank something made for someone else, but it’s unlikely. I just don’t know who would have a vendetta against him.”

She tapped the folder, “In the meantime, start cross referencing some of the possible locations. We’ll find something, I’m sure.”

She walked out, leaving Cub to flick back through the file for the umpteenth time that afternoon.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Of all the things they could have done to him, this was the worst.

Tango lay on the floor, arms behind his head and one knee propped up over his other leg. He stared up at the ceiling, counting how many lines there were in the stone roof.

He’d only been left there about a day, but he’d already almost died of boredom. He’d run out of stories to repeat to himself. His lips were too chapped to whistle and his throat too dry to sing. He’d searched his clothes for something to mess around with; a button, a coin, anything. But there was nothing.

People had always told Tango that being left unstimulated like this was torture. Now he believed them.

He was starving too, and incredibly thirsty. They hadn’t given him food or water since he’d got there, and Tango wasn’t sure if they would. Maybe that was how it would end. He’d die of dehydration or starve to death. There wasn’t anything even resembling a bed, just the hard rock floor, and only a bucket in the corner to…relieve himself in. Fortunately, he hadn’t needed to yet, but when he did, he didn’t think it would be pleasant.

The irony that it didn’t seem legal almost made Tango laugh. Here he was, a criminal, being treated with conditions that he was almost certain weren’t allowed by law. It was ridiculous.

He was just thankful they hadn’t actually tortured him yet. He didn’t think his wrecked, sore body would be able to stand it. He hadn’t been given proper medical treatment, his arm still broken and bound with a splint. He’d tried to treat it himself the best he could, but he’d only made it worse. The bruise on his right side had turned a purply-blackish-blue colour and it hurt to lay that way when he slept - well, tried to sleep. He hadn’t managed to since getting here, no matter how hard he’d tried.

He sighed and shut his eyes. He didn’t know how he was going to get out of this place. He just had to hope he’d figure something out, and soon.

The door swung open and Tango opened his eyes, turning his head to face the doorway. There were a couple of guards standing there.

“You’ve got a visitor,” One of the growled, moving to let someone enter. They were fairly tall, wearing a police uniform and mask over their face.

“I’m honoured,” Tango scowled, the sarcasm dripping from his voice.

The door slammed shut again and the person came closer, glancing down the hallway to make sure they were alone.

Then they pulled the mask off and Tango gasped.

Long brown hair pulled back in a ponytail. Sparkling green eyes. Scars lining their face.

And that signature smirk.

“Scar!” Tango jumped to his feet and ran to him, wrapping his arms around him, “Oh my gosh! You came! Thank you! Thank you so much!”

Scar chuckled, but it sounded a little… off. A little menacing. He didn’t return the hug.

“Oh Tango,” He smiled, but not pleasantly, “You’re such a naive little fool.”

“I know,” Tango sighed, “I should have realised that Bdubs was acting weirdly. I should have been more observant. But I’m so grateful, how- how did you find me?”

Scar laughed, “Oh, look at you, so sweet and trusting. I almost feel bad now!”
His voice turned steely, “Almost.”

Tango froze and let go.

“What?” He asked, smile faltering, “What do you mean?”

“You never connected the dots, did you?” Scar said, “And I thought you were supposed to be the clever one of the group.”

Tango’s breath picked up, feeling panicky and ragged in his chest. Scar pushed him away and he tumbled to his knees. His arm jolted and he forced back a yelp of pain.

“Scar,” he stuttered, “What’s going on?”

“You don’t get it? Fine,” Scar grinned, “I’ll say it straight for you.”

He knelt down in front of him and took Tango’s chin in one hand, angling his face so their eyes met.

“I sent the assassins after you, I killed Mr Friar, and I got Bdubs to betray you.”

Tango’s heart fell.

“No,” he whispered, “It’s not possible.”

“Oh it’s very possible,” Scar nodded, letting Tango go and standing, brushing his trousers down, “Since it’s true. I’ve been planning this for years and now finally, finally, my plan has come to fruition. It was worth the wait, and worth killing for it too.”

“But I don’t-” Tango cut himself off, staring numbly at the floor.

“I know you’re trying to make heads and tails of this, so I’ll explain,” Scar said, “I knew where you lived, so I sent assassins in the hope to kill you so I could just get you out of my hair fairly easily. However, of course, the idiots couldn’t do it, as you know, since you made it home alive.”

He paused, “Well done for outwitting them by the way. Whatever you did, it was clever.”

Tango didn’t reply.

“Anyways,” Scar continued, eyes glinting with a mad kind of glee, “After much thought, I came to an epiphany. Why should I bother getting my hands dirty when I could hit you right where it hurts most? So I had my assassins approach Bdubs in a back alley with enough money to line the entirety of Hermitdale Town Hall. I knew he was low on cash for his stables and he had been with you for the least amount of time - well, apart from Jimmy but there was no way he’d betray his precious rancher.”

He put a babying, mocking tone on the last few words before he recomposed himself.

“But both of us know that if you want a job done properly, then do it yourself. Which is why the meeting with Mr Friar was a set up. I poisoned your drink in the hope you’d drink it and seemingly just choke yourself to death on the way out. You clearly never noticed I poured your drink from a different bottle. I guess I was just lucky it looked like I was finishing a perfectly normal bottle. Oh, remind me to buy some more poison if you could? Thanks.”

His voice turned sour, “But of course, something had to go wrong. Mr Friar took the wrong glass and drank your drink instead. I was lucky that he left before it took effect, or it’d make me look very suspicious indeed.”

“Wait,” Tango cut him off, head spinning with shock, “Mr Friar wasn’t poisoned, he was strangled by assassins!”

“Was he?” Scar challenged.

“But his neck…” Tango trailed off, dumbfounded.

“Was purple and swollen,” Scar continued, “What colour did your leg turn when you were shot with that dart?”

“Purple,” Tango said. Then his eyes widened as he realised, “You used the same serum to make it look like he was strangled!”

“Honestly that was just luck,” Scar shrugged, “But yes. The serum isn’t a poison as such, it’s just a paralysing agent, like an anesthetic. It paralyses the part of the body that it touches, so when Mr Friar drank it, it completely closed up his throat, stopping him from breathing. It looked like he was strangled, but he wasn’t really. A nice touch, no?”

“That’s horrible!” Tango looked like he was about to be sick, “He was an innocent man!”

“He made me pay too much!” Scar shouted, “It doesn’t matter! Because somehow, Bdubs pulled the whole thing off. I still don’t know how the fool did it, but he managed to. He didn’t know I was leading, by the way, if it makes you feel any better,” He added, “And now here we are. Exactly how I wanted it. With you in chains and me finally being superior.”

“But why?” Tango pleaded, tears pricking at his eyes, “Why did you do this?”

Scar’s eyes turned cold.

“Why did I do this?” He hissed, “I’ll tell you why. Because I am sick of you getting all the glory, sick of you getting all the praise. Even back when we were working together in the old days, it was always ‘Bring Tango. Oh, and Scar if you need him.’ No one ever wanted me. Ever.”

“I-” Tango started, but Scar cut him off.

“No, don’t try to justify this!” He yelled, Tango flinching back at his cutting tone, “I just wanted recognition! I thought if I started up my own crime agency I could actually make a name for myself. But then you came along, begging for a job with me as your boss.”

He started pacing, “I thought that maybe I would finally have you where I wanted you: right under my thumb. But it didn’t work, did it? It wasn’t Scar’s agency, it was the agency that Tango Tek happened to work at. No one cared about me since you drew all the attention!”

“I knew however, that if I bided my time and played my cards right, I could bring an end to it all,” He stopped dead still and turned back to Tango, “And it worked.”

He sneered, “How does it feel Tango? How does it feel that everyone that you ever loved betrayed you? How does it feel to know that they’d throw you away and break your heart again and again?”

Tango looked away, tears falling down his face, no matter how much he tried to stop them. Scar knew how much he was hurting Tango. That this was more painful for Tango than any kind of torture. He grinned wickedly.

“You care too much,” He smirked.

“You’re a monster!” Tango shouted through his sobs, “A sick, twisted monster!”

“Am I?” Scar asked, “Or are you just saying that to try and stop yourself from hurting?”

Tango flinched at the truth in the words.

Scar smiled in triumph, “Ah, I knew it. You still care about Bdubs and me, even though we tore you apart inside, even though I enjoyed every single second of it.”

He turned and walked away, pulling his mask back on. He stopped in the doorway before he left.

“It’s just a shame no one cares about you, Tango,” he said quietly.

The door shut gently behind him and the lock clicked closed.

Tango didn’t watch him walk away, head buried in his hands, but he could hear Scar’s shoes clicking down the hallway as he left.

He curled up on himself and let the tears flow in rivers down his face, heart cracking at the seams.

Chapter Text

The garage door of Team Best’s agency slowly shifted open, someone walking in. They played nervously with their hands and tried to keep the tears in their eyes from falling.

The place was empty. They must be on a job. He’d figured as much. He walked up to the back of the room and loaded up the computer, curious as to where they might be. He couldn’t help but glance around the room as he did so, taking in the emptiness. It was unusual for it to be this quiet here.

The screen flickered on, the only light in the darkness. He typed in the password and watched the loading symbol spin monotonously. Eventually it flicked to the home screen.

The person noticed a USB drive sitting on the desk and picked it up, inspecting it before slotting it into the computer and letting it decrypt itself. It took a couple of minutes and he entertained themself by spinning round in slow circles in the desk chair that was there, thinking things over.

The computer gave a beep as it finished and the person span back around to face the screen, only to be met with a sprawling amount of data. He flicked through it, eyes widening as he read and realised where they were. It all fell into place in his head and he jumped to his feet, heart pounding.

“Scar!” He yelled, “Scar, are you here? We’ve got to go help!”

There was no reply.

He huffed. He didn’t have time for this.

A very, very stupid idea crossed his mind and he glanced across to an old telephone sitting on the desk.

With a shaking hand, he picked up the phone and dialed the number, holding the receiver to his ear.

“Hello, this is the Graceffa Boat hire service, I’m Joey, how can I help you?” A polite male voice asked.

“Hi Joey,” he said, “It’s Bdubs. I need your help.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A prisoner transport trundled along the coastal road towards the huge looming structure of Fort Blackrock. There were two guards waiting in the transport, heading back to pick up some supplies for another station. It was silent in there, all of them sitting awkwardly, no one sure what to say.

Suddenly, there was a bang on the side of the transport and the door was torn open. The guards and driver spun their heads around, shock and panic written on their faces.

Someone came flying in with a high kick that took out the driver and another figure jumped in behind him. A flurry of stun darts from a pistol shot into the rest of the guards, leaving them all unconscious on the floor.

Etho heaved the driver out of the chair and Zed ran to slow the vehicle to a stop, running to the door and poking his head out of it when it had halted.

“Come on!” He called. Three people poked their heads up from behind an outcropping of rock and came sprinting over, jumping into the transport.

Impulse walked over and sat in the driver's seat, thanking Etho for dealing with the driver so quickly. Skizz and Jimmy dragged the guards to the back of the transport and then ran up to the cab.

Zed sat down in the passenger seat after handing Skizz back his hydraulic glove as Impulse started the transport again and began to drive towards the pier, “Ok. Phase one of the plan is complete, transport is hijacked and we’re on our way. So what’s next?”

“You two stay here and watch the transport,” Jimmy said, leaning on the seats, “We’re probably going to need it to get out. Me, Skizz and Etho will go inside and find Tango, then we’ll retrace our steps and come back here.”

“But how are we going to get in there without being spotted?” Skizz asked.

Jimmy glanced back at the guards flopped unceremoniously in the back of the vehicle, “We don’t have to worry about stealth. We’ll go in disguise. Me and Skizz are going to pretend to be guards and bring Etho in as a prisoner. Hopefully we’ll have access to the cells and we’ll be able to find Tango without too many problems.”

“Sounds like a good plan,” Skizz nodded.

“I hope so,” Jimmy swallowed, staring at the huge building looming in front of them. It was so daunting and he was starting to doubt himself.

Zed turned around and placed a hand on his shoulder, almost like he could read his mind, “You can do this. We believe in you. Tango would too.”

Jimmy took a deep breath, “Yeah. Yeah, you’re right. We got this.”

They got closer to the building, the imposing citadel towering over them. A shiver of fear ran down Jimmy’s spine, and he noticed that Impulse gripped the steering wheel a lot tighter as they drove over the pier.

“Better get into character boys,” he said.

Skizz and Jimmy nodded, heading to the back of the transport and removing the uniform from the guards, pulling them over their clothes.

“Hope they won’t have any questions when they wake up in their underwear,” Skizz snickered.

The vehicle ground to a stop just outside the fortress and the door of the transport opened.

“Best of luck,” Zed said, as Etho made sure his wakasashi was hidden and secured and Skizz finished doing up the buttons on his shirt, “We’ll be waiting in the transport depot. Signal us with the comms when you’re ready to go.”

“Go get our boy back,” Impulse added with a smile.

“We will,” Jimmy nodded.

And the three of them stepped out onto the basalt platform and headed to the huge doors of Fort Blackrock.

Jimmy stood behind Etho and gently snapped the handcuffs he'd found in his uniform pocket around Etho’s wrists.

“Sorry,” He apologised.

“It’s fine,” Etho said, “I can deal.”

There was a pair of guards waiting at the door with riot shields and they moved to block the entrance as the trio approached.

“Gentlemen!” Skizz called, “There’s no need for that! We’re just dropping off a prisoner before we head back out to do our duty!”

“There was no information about a prisoner transfer today,” one of the guards frowned, “Who ordered this?”

“It was a spontaneous decision,” Jimmy explained, “This brigand was caught attempting to escape a high security prison and almost succeeded. We had to make a quick transfer.”

“That didn’t answer the question,” The guard spat, “Who ordered this?”

“Sorry sir, he’s new,” Skizz apologised, standing in front of Jimmy, “This was straight from the head of the CSI squad.”

“CSI Peritas?” The second guard scoffed, “I find it hard to believe that she would authorise this.”

“There’s nothing stopping you from asking her,” Skizz shrugged, “But I’d be curious to see what she’d think about you doubting her credibility.”

The two guards looked at each other nervously.

“No, of course we’re not sir,” the first guard stammered, moving to let them in, “Please proceed.”

“Thank you,” Skizz nodded and the three of them walked in.

Once they were out of earshot, Jimmy whispered to Skizz, “Quick thinking. Thanks. I was about to land myself in a lot of trouble.”

“It’s my job Jiggles,” Skizz grinned, “It’s no problem.”

They headed onwards through the main entrance room and towards the many winding corridors. They echoed with screams and shouts and Jimmy hoped with all his heart that it wasn’t Tango screaming.

“Where are we heading?” Etho asked, still being led along like a prisoner with his hands bound.

“We need to find Tango’s cell and grab some clearance codes, then we go and bust him out,” Jimmy said, “Once that’s done we make a run for it and then contact Impulse and Zed. If things go smoothly, this should be easy.”

“Let’s hope so,” Etho nodded.

They continued on their way towards the control room, keeping an eye out for guards or anyone who might want to stop them from entering. Eventually they made it to the room and the door slid open.

There was an officer on the other side.

“Excuse me,” he said, taking in Etho and the other two, “Why are you taking a prisoner to the control room?”

“Sorry sir,” Jimmy said, trying to see if they could just push through, but the doorway was too small, “We’ve interrogated him and were going to get him to repeat the information so it could be filed.”

“Where’s your clearance for this?” The officer snapped.

“My… clearance?” Jimmy felt his chest fill with panic. He rooted around in his pockets with one hand, desperately hoping that there was a clearance card or something, but there was nothing.

“I, erm, seem to have misplaced it,” He said, trying to keep his cool.

The officer stepped out into the hallway, making the trio step back, “This seems awfully suspicious. I’m going to have to call this in with the higher-ups.”

“Oh for goodness sake,” Etho ripped his hands from Jimmy’s grip, jumped, tucking his arms under his legs so they were in front of him, drew his wakasashi and sliced the guy across the chest, smacking him across the head with the pommel.

The officer fell to the floor, bleeding and still.

Jimmy and Skizz stared at the corpse in front of them.

“There’s our clearance buddy,” Etho muttered, wiping his sword on the elbow of his sleeve.

“You didn’t have to kill him!” Skizz exclaimed, “That could have been solved peacefully!”

“He was about to call us in!” Etho retorted, “He wasn’t going to listen to us! Besides, I don’t think he’s dead, just injured.”

“Argue about this later!” Jimmy insisted, taking Etho’s hands and undoing the handcuffs on them, “Right now we have to find somewhere to put this guy.”

They dragged the body into a corner and then headed to the control room, Etho sheathing his wakasashi. They walked in and headed to a terminal, Etho sticking a USB drive into it and loading up the clearance that would let them open the cells. Skizz sprinted to another terminal to work on shutting down the cameras.

“Where is he?” Jimmy asked, leaning over to see what Etho was typing.

“I’m not sure yet,” Etho said, clicking download on the clearance codes before he started scrolling to find Tango’s cell. Eventually he spotted his name.

“There!” He pointed, “Corridor J, cell 8.”

“Awesome,” Jimmy said, “Can you delete the information from the system? The less knowledge they have about Tango, the better.”

“I can try,” Etho said, flicking through the options until he found the delete option. He clicked it and the file was removed.

“Sorted,” he said as the download finished and he pulled out the USB drive, “Let’s go.”

“Cameras are done too,” Skizz added, “But they won’t be down for long. We’ve probably only got a 10 minute window.”

“Then let’s get moving and make this quick,” Jimmy replied.

They ran out and headed for the cell.

None of them noticed the brunette guard sitting in the corner of the room, watching them suspiciously.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“This is corridor J,” Jimmy said, standing outside the doorway, “We’ve got to hurry, we’re running out of time.”

“Working on it,” Etho said, slipping the drive into a USB port next to the door. The seconds it took to analyse the codes felt torturously long.

Eventually the door slid open with a metallic swish.

Showing the guards that were on patrol down the corridor.

The three of them froze as they all turned to look at them.

“Hey!” One of them yelled, “What are you doing here?”

“Can I use my sword now?” Etho asked.

“Go for it,” Jimmy nodded vigorously.

Etho drew his wakasashi and launched himself down the corridor, swinging the sharp blade. The guards tried to defend themselves, but Etho was far too quick for them. Any that were missed by the sword were promptly felled by Skizz, who was following behind with hydraulic gloves, punching the guards in the head with his metal fists. Soon all the guards lay either dead or unconscious on the floor.

“Ya know,” Skizz remarked, flexing his hands, “I think I’m gonna call these jawbreakers.”

“Save that for later,” Jimmy said, “Tango should be just down this corridor.”

They headed down, counting the cell doors until they reached the eighth one.

“He should be in here!” Jimmy called to the others, running to the door and looking in.

His brown eyes met a pair of bright ruby red ones.

Chapter Text

The sea around Fort Blackrock foamed and spat sea spray at the cliffs. It was cold and dangerous and just waiting to swallow up a poor fishing boat that strayed too far from the shore.

And yet, a tiny dinghy had sailed almost invisibly around the side of the citadel, and somehow hadn’t been spotted. Any guards patrolling later would find it empty of anyone.

A small figure scrambled up the slimy wet rocks towards the prison, their hands sliding and feet scrabbling for grip, just about managing to pull themselves up and sneak round to a vent grill.

They slipped out a swiss army knife, fiddling with the screws until they fell out, pulled the grill away, took a deep breath, and crawled inside.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tango wasn’t sure what time it was, but his face was stained with tears and his nose felt stuffy when he woke. Somehow, he’d actually managed to get some sleep, which honestly felt like a mistake now his body was feeling stiff as a board. He tried to click out the crick in his neck and winced at how sore his back felt. His arm wasn’t any better either, and somehow in the night the splint had snapped.

He must have cried himself to sleep with the amount of tearstreaks on his face.

And then he remembered why.

He didn’t have any tears left to cry, feeling severely dehydrated, but if he had he would have started crying again. How could Scar, such a dear, dear friend, have turned on him like this? He hadn’t meant to take all the attention! He didn’t even know that he had.

Tango shut his eyes with a dry sob and leaned up against the wall, the stone cold and rough against him. He just wanted this torture to end, just wanted to escape. But the door was locked and he had no key, no lockpick, not even a hairpin or something. Anything he could have used to free himself had been taken away.

Maybe he could fake his death. Then they’d bring him out of the cell and dump him in the sea. But the water was deep and it was a long way to swim to the shore. In his tired, injured state, he’d sink and drown, or they’d spot him and drag him back in. Besides that would be pointless if they tried to do something like cremate him. Tango didn’t particularly fancy burning alive.

Maybe he could ambush a guard if one came in to speak to him and make a run for it. But again, Tango was too hurt to properly fight and the guards had good armour and weapons. All that would happen is he would end up even more injured than he was now.

He sighed. He was trapped with no way out, physically and emotionally broken. This was it.

“Tango should just be down this corridor.”

Wait.

Tango snapped his eyes open and sat up a little straighter. He knew that voice. But no, it couldn’t be. He was hallucinating. He had to be.

He chuckled hollowly. Splendid. He was going crazy on top of the pain. Wonderful.

“He should be in here!”

A figure appeared in front of the door. His eyes met Tango. No. There was no way. He was hallucinating for sure, they couldn’t have found him.

Could they?

The lock on the door clicked and it swung open.

And Jimmy ran in.

“Tango!” He sprinted to him and pulled Tango into a tight hug, never wanting to let go.

This was happening. Jimmy was warm and real and Tango wasn’t hallucinating. This was really happening.

“Jimmy,” Tango’s voice broke as tears began to fall, grateful tears this time. He’d thought he didn’t have anymore tears to cry, but seemingly he’d been wrong. He threw his good arm around Jimmy and clung on like his life depended on it, “How did you- how did you find me?”

“Luck and a lot of hoping,” Jimmy chuckled, holding Tango close, “And some research and coordinates, but mostly hoping.”

He pulled back a little so he could look Tango in the eyes, “But there was no way we were leaving you here. Never.”

Carefully taking his face in his hands, Jimmy dragged him in for a desperate kiss that Tango eagerly reciprocated.

“Thank you,” Tango breathed, whispering against Jimmy’s lips, “Thank you, thank you, thank you. I was going to die here if you hadn’t come. It was torture Jim, torture.”

“I know,” Jimmy pulled back from the kiss, “We’re gonna get you out of here, let’s go.”

He helped Tango stagger to his feet and led him out of the room where the others were waiting.

“Top!” Skizz threw his arms around him the minute they entered the corridor. Tango flinched a little as his broken arm was slightly jolted, but he didn’t care. The others had come for him.

“Hey Skizzleface,” He smiled, patting Skizz on the back with his good hand, “Hope you didn’ miss me too much.”

“Miss you?” Skizz said, “Tango we were worried sick. We weren’t sure if you were hurt, or even still alive!”

“I’m ok,” Tango assured him, “A little sore, a bit broken, but I’m ok.”

Then he turned to Etho. Unlike Skizz, Etho wasn’t much of a hugger at all, so Tango stuck out a hand for a handshake.

“Come here,” Etho took his outstretched hand and dragged him into a hug. Tango blinked in surprise, then hugged him back. He couldn’t help but feel a little guilty though. Etho must have been really scared to hug him like this.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered.

“You have nothing to apologise for,” Etho replied, “This wasn’t your fault. It’s Bdubs’.”

The name made Tango’s face harden.

“Where is he?” He asked, “Too scared to show his face to me?”

“He ran after we found out in the van on the way back,” Skizz explained, “We weren’t able to catch him, I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine,” Tango sighed, “I don’t think I want to see him again either, that traitor.”

“Admittedly he would have been useful to have,” Etho said, “As well as Scar and his quick thinking.”

Tango’s eyes dilated the second Scar’s name was mentioned and his heart dropped.

“Wait,” he asked, “Does Scar know?”

“He told us we couldn’t but we went anyway,” Skizz shrugged, “He might have seen us on the way out.”

“No no no!” Tango’s face was aghast, “If Scar knows-”

“What does it matter if Scar knows?” Etho asked, “He was tetchy about it but he won’t really care.”

“You don’t understand!” Tango urged, panicked, “Scar orchestrated all of this! He’s the reason I’m here! The reason Bdubs betrayed me!”

“What?” Jimmy paled.

Tango nodded, “If he knows you’re coming, then you’ve walked right into a trap!”

Suddenly all the doors in the corridor around them slammed closed with a metallic clunk. The quartet spun around as guards appeared from the vents in the ceilings, dropping down around them and raising guns at them.

“Surrender! Or we’ll shoot to kill!” A guard demanded.

Etho drew his wakasashi with a swish. Skizz readied his metal gloved fists in a fighting stance. Jimmy held his knife tightly in his hand, knuckles white. Tango unstrapped one of the halves of his broken splint and held it at arms length like a sword with his good hand. All four of them instinctively backed into a circle, shoulders touching as they all prepared for a fight.

“This is your final warning!” The guard shouted, pointing their gun at Jimmy’s head.

Jimmy made a move to bat the gun away but Tango raised a hand to stop him.

“There’s no use,” His voice was defeated, “They’ll kill us. We have to surrender.”

“What?!” Skizz exclaimed, “No, we go down in a blaze of glory!”

“I’ve lost enough friends these past few days,” Tango said sadly, “I can’t lose anymore.”

He placed the broken splint on the floor and raised his good arm, his broken one as high as he could get it without it being painful.

“Please,” He begged the others, “I’m sorry.”

Skizz was the first to surrender, taking the gloves off, dropping them and holding his hands up, then Etho, sheathing his sword.

Jimmy stared, jaw set resolutely and knife still held in a shaking hand.

“Last chance!” The guard yelled.

“Jimmy, love, please,” Tango pleaded.

The broken tone of Tango’s voice was what made Jimmy drop his knife reluctantly and raise his hands.

Their hands were taken and bound behind their backs with handcuffs. Jimmy bit back the anger at hearing Tango’s cry of pain when the guards handled his poor right arm roughly, snapping the cold iron around his wrists.

“We’ll move them to the lower cells where they’re less likely to escape,” The guard ordered, “Especially the red eyed one.”

“I’ll take them,” A voice said. They all turned around as the door behind them swung open and someone walked in. It was the guard from the transport and the museum who’d spoken to Tango on the way to Fort Blackrock.

“We’ve got this covered,” The first guard said.

“I’ve been specifically asked to take them sir,” the new guard persisted, pushing a strand of his brunette hair out of his eyes, “You’ve been moved to admin by top level security.”

The first guard looked reluctant, but took him at his word.

“They’re all yours,” he said. The new guard nodded, taking Etho and Skizz’s handcuffs in one hand and Tango and Jimmy’s in the other so he could guide them down the corridor. They left down the hallway, the door opening and shutting behind them.

They continued down the corridor for a little way, all four of the team exchanging sad glances with each other. This was it. Team Best was done for good.

But they had only been walking for about a minute when the guard stopped and tapped something on his wrist, letting go of Tango and Jimmy’s bonds. The doors around the five of them slammed so they were trapped in a small square shaped bit of corridor.

“Alright,” the guard said, “We’re good. Give me your hands.”

The others all blinked.

“What?” Tango whispered.

“Give me your hands!” The guard insisted, “We’re getting out of here.”

“Wait, what? Why?” Skizz asked as the guard pulled a screwdriver out of his pocket and started undoing his handcuffs.

“I did some research on you guys after I brought you in,” The guard explained, pointing to Tango, “You aren’t petty thieves. You steal from the rich and the snobbish and the cruel. You raid the bad places people are afraid to raid because of the consequences it would pose. But you never steal just because you can, like stealing some kid’s bike or something similar just to get a little cash out of it. And you don’t kill either! I have proof! I’m still alive! So when I realised they were taking you here I decided I had to help. And then I saw you three hacking into the control room and recognised you from the museum heist too,” He gestured to Etho and then continued, “Figured the other pair of you were friends or colleagues who were helping. So I followed and bailed you out.”

By the time he’d finished explaining, he’d undone all their handcuffs and they were on the move again, sprinting down the corridor.

“But you barely know us,” Etho asked as they ran, “Why risk your career to get us out of here?”

“Because whilst your job isn’t legal, you have morals,” The guard argued, “And besides, being a security guard isn’t all that fun. I’d much rather play the other side. Live on the edge, ya know?”

They slowed for a moment to catch their breath and so the guard could check a small map that he had on a rather fancy console on his arm.

“I’m Tango, by the way,” Tango said, leaning against the wall, “Tango Tek.”

“I know,” The guard nodded, “I’m Ren.”

“Well, it’s nice to properly meet you Ren,” Tango stood up straight and offered Ren a handshake, which he took gratefully.

“It’s my pleasure dude,” He smiled.

“I’m Jimmy,” Jimmy added, “And the other two are Etho and Skizz.”

“Yup!” Skizz grinned, “I’m Skizz!”

“Nice to meet y’all,” Ren nodded.

“I hate to be that guy,” Etho interrupted them, all of them turning their attention to him, “But we do have to get out of here before the rest of security notice that we’re gone.”

“Agreed,” Ren checked his map, “If we keep running this way, we should be able to get out to a corridor down to the main platform out front. I assume you have a ride out of here?”

“Yes,” Jimmy nodded, “They’re waiting in a transport.”

“Sounds good,” Ren said, “Follow me.”

They set off down the corridor again, but Etho pulled Tango to the back.

“Are we sure this is a good idea?” He questioned.

Tango frowned, “What do you mean?”

“How do we know he isn’t leading us into a trap?” Etho elaborated, “He might just be trying to gain our trust and then break us down again?”

“It’s possible,” Tango admitted, “But why bother when we were already held captive? They were going to throw us in a cell anyway, why would you make life more difficult on yourself like that? Plus, he seemed legit in the transport.”

“Bdubs seemed legit,” Etho countered, “So did Scar.”

“Low blow,” Tango winced.

“I know, and I’m sorry,” Etho apologised, “It’s just that I don’t want any of us to get too badly hurt, especially you.”

“I appreciate the concern,” Tango smiled and patted Etho on the shoulder, “But right now, I don’t think we have a better option.”

Etho huffed, “Fine. Ok, we’ll hope this works.”

They caught up with the rest of the group who were a little ahead of them and walking now rather than running.

“You two good?” Jimmy asked.

“We’re ok,” Tango assured him, “How long till we reach the platform?”

“It should only be about 5 more minutes so long as we don’t have any hiccups,” Ren declared, “So we should-”

“TANGO!”

Tango stopped to a dead halt, ice cold dread trickling down his spine, the voice instantly recognisable. Everyone else stopped too.

Slowly, willing it not to be who he thought it was, Tango turned around.

Dressed in a long green coat and a pair of raggedy brown jeans, with big brown eyes and brown hair that stuck up in a quiff at the front, kept out his eyes by a red headband, was…

Bdubs.

Chapter Text

Bdubs stood there, staring Tango down, hands shaking and face pale. He didn’t look armed or planning to harm them in any way, but that didn’t stop Tango’s blood from boiling at the sight of him.

“You TRAITOR!” He screamed, rushing forwards, “You slimy, wicked, two-faced, lying TRAITOR!”

Bdubs didn’t even flinch at the words.

“I know,” he whispered.

The sentence made Tango skid to a halt about a metre away.

“What?” He said, voice loud in the tense silence that had fallen.

“I know I’m a monster,” Bdubs said, eyes a little teary, “I know you think I am one, and you’re right. I am a horrible traitor, an awful man. But I had no choice.”

“You had a choice!” Tango glared, “Of course you had a choice! You didn’t have to follow through! How much did they offer you for my head on a silver platter, huh? 100? 1000?”

“5 million,” Bdubs muttered.

Tango blinked in surprise, then his face turned disgusted.

“Of course it was something that big, something only someone as greedy and heartless as you could take,” he spat.

“I didn’t take it,” Bdubs insisted, “I refused to take the money, I felt too bad.”

“Doesn’t matter,” Tango retorted, “You still went through with it.”

“Tango, please,” Bdubs reached out a hand but Tango took a big step back, pulling his arm close to his chest.

“No, oh no,” Tango growled, “I’m not going to just act like a fool and tell you I forgive you just because you came running to me, sobbing like a COWARD!”

He yelled the last word and this time, Bdubs did flinch back, looking hurt.

“I didn’t want to do this Tango, I mean it,” He pleaded.

“And yet you did,” Tango snarled, red eyes flashing angrily.

“Look,” Bdubs sighed, blinking back tears, “I didn’t come here to ask for forgiveness. I came to apologise. And to help.”

“We don’t need your help,” Tango immediately snapped.
“I mean, we could use all the help we could get-” Ren interrupted.

If looks could kill, Ren would have been dead on the floor with the glare that Tango shot at him, “Shut UP.”

Ren raised his hands and took a step back, a little nervously.

Skizz turned to him and whispered behind his hand, “Bdubs is the reason Tango’s here. He betrayed us, you see.”

“Ohhh,” Ren nodded, “Got it.”

Bdubs kept talking, “You could use my lockpicking skills. I want to try and make things right between us.”

“Make things right?!” Tango barked out a stunned laugh, “You think you can actually do that? You think anything you do will make me forgive you? Make us forgive you?”

“Tango’s right,” Jimmy piped in, glowering at Bdubs, “What you did was diabolical. I don’t think anything you could do or say would make me forgive you for hurting my boyfriend like you did.”

“I didn’t want him to get so badly hurt,” Bdubs muttered, unable to look Jimmy in the eye, “They promised not to kill him.”

“And you believed them?” Etho added, voice harsh.

Bdubs looked up at Etho sorrowfully, “I’m truly sorry for the collateral, really I am. Here.”

He chucked something across the floor. It skidded past Tango and landed at Etho’s feet, who picked it up a little disbelievingly. It was a small metal tube with a button on the back.

“My laser shooter,” he stared.

“I didn’t have the heart to throw it away,” Bdubs admitted, “You can keep it. It’s not like I need it.”

“Trinkets don’t win apologies! We don’t need it, and we don’t need you,” Tango growled, “We can handle ourselves, traitor.”

“Tango I told you-” Bdubs was cut off by Tango before he could finish.

“I don’t want your excuses!” He yelled, “You put aside loyalty for money, that’s all there is to it!”

“It wasn’t just money!” Bdubs protested.

“Oh yeah?” Tango’s voice was mocking as he sneered, “What was it then? Power? Better friends? Purpose?”

“They threatened my family!”

That made Tango pause. His hands dropped to his sides from where they’d been outstretched in rage.

“They what?” His voice was low and dangerous, but also questioning in a curious kind of way.

“They threatened to kill my family if I didn’t do it,” Bdubs’ tears were falling now, “I was trying to protect them. And the money would have been put towards them. Them and the horses anyways. I know what I did was selfish, but it was selfless too.”

“Oh don’t you even dare-” Tango was cut off by Etho, who grabbed his arm to stop him lunging forwards.

“Hear him out buddy,” Etho chided gently.

Tango glared at him, but shut his mouth and stood back, letting Bdubs speak.

“I wanted to tell you, I wanted to stop it, really I did,” he lowered his head, “But they said that if I told anyone that my family would pay for it. I know betraying my friends is wrong, but I saved my family. ”

There was silence for a moment as everyone processed the words. None of them had even considered that Bdubs had been blackmailed into betraying them.

Eventually Tango spoke.

“I don’t condone what you did,” He mumbled reluctantly, “And I don’t forgive you. I don’t know if I can or will ever be able to. But I understand why you did what you did. I hate that I understand but I do. Family is more important than friends, even though I thought of you as a brother.”

He sighed, “I don’t really want you coming with us, but now you’re here I’m not sure we have much choice. So come on, but if you try anything I’ll throw you in the ocean myself. That’s a promise.”

Bdubs looked up at him gratefully, “Thank you. I won’t cause any problems, I swear.”

“Gang’s back together again!” Skizz cheered. When he was met only by glares, he shrugged, “No? Ok.”

“Let’s just keep moving,” Jimmy dragged a hand down his face in frustration.

“Agreed,” Tango turned to Ren, “What’s the best exit out of this hellhole?”

“If we keep going down this corridor, then we should come out at the exit to the transport depot, where I assume your friends are waiting,” Ren nodded, “Let’s just hope it’s not blocked.”

They all ran down the corridor towards safety. They could almost taste the freedom, it was so close.

Jimmy pulled his comm out of his pocket, “Guys, we’re on our way back, do you copy?”

There was a pause and then a brief hiss of static, before there came a reply of, “We copy, hearing you loud and clear.”

It was Impulse. Jimmy smiled and said, “We’re just outside the main depot hanger. Get ready to burn rubber.”

“Did you get him?” Impulse asked.

“Of course they got me!” Tango leaned over to speak into the comm with a grin, “You really doubted it?”

A relieved chuckle came from the other side of the comm, “Very glad to hear your voice T. Get back here as fast as you can.”

“On it,” Jimmy replied, “Over and out.”

He flicked it off and clutched it tight as they charged down towards the exit. Ren fiddled with his device, opening and shutting the doors as they ran.

He opened the one ahead of them.

Revealing many heavily armed guards waiting behind it.

The group skidded to a halt

“There they are!” One of them yelled.

“Ren, what now?” Skizz panicked.

Ren made a frustrated noise and opened another one of the doors, “This way!”

They sprinted down that hallway, following Ren as he slammed the door shut in the guards’ faces, even though it wouldn’t hold them back for long.

“Where are we heading now?” Bdubs asked.

“All the other doors are sealed off,” Ren growled in annoyance, “They’ve triggered a system override. I can’t access many of the doors anymore. There is still one way out, but it’s dangerous.”

“We’ll take whatever we can get,” Tango said, “Hit us with it.”

“There was a bridge being built between two tower sections of the fort,” Ren explained, “It was to make a safer access route for if there was a fire or something similar, but for some reason it was never finished. There’s a stairwell from the side it meets that runs right down to the outside platform. That’s our way out.”

“Sounds good,” Tango nodded.

Jimmy pulled out his comm again, “Impulse, do you read me?”

“Loud and clear.”

“There’s been a change of plans. We’ve had to go a different route, are you able to meet us outside on the platform?”

In the transport, Impulse and Zed exchanged a glance.

“It’ll be really tricky,” Zed said into the comm, “We can try if you signal us at the right time, but no guarantee.”

“We’ll take anything we can get right now,” Jimmy replied, “So that will work. Thanks guys, sit tight.”

“Will do.”

The comm went dead.

Impulse sighed and slumped back in his chair, “This already feels like it’s going to go wrong.”

“Agreed,” Zed nodded, face pale and his hands gripping the dashboard, “But we have to do what we need to.”

“Just sometimes wish it wasn’t so crazy,” Impulse muttered.

Suddenly, there was a tap on the transport window that made them both jump. The pair looked up to see a guard standing there, peering in.

“Who are you?” He demanded, “What are you doing? You don’t have clearance for this!”

“Erm, well, you see sir,” Zed began, “We were cleared by security a little while ago, maybe you could-”

“No,” The guard glared, “I was told by someone less than an hour ago that they were cleared by security and they turned out to be here to break out a prisoner! I’m calling you in!”

They headed to the door to try and wrench it open.

“Impulse, if there was ever a time to drive, now’s the time!” Zed yelled.

Impulse slammed his foot on the gas pedal and the transport zoomed forwards, speeding onwards towards the exit.

There was a yell and the depot doors began to close.

“Impulse, I don’t like this!” Zed cried, eyes wide with fear.

“Hang on!” Impulse shouted, “Brace yourself!”

Zed gripped the dashboard even tighter.

CRASH!

The transport smashed through the depot doors and lurched to a halt on the platform outside. Zed almost flew into the windscreen with how suddenly they had stopped.

There were guards running towards them from inside, all armed and ready to fight.

“Zed, this thing has weapons, right?” Impulse asked.

“I think so,” Zed nodded weakly, still a little shaken from the crash.

“Then let’s use them,” Impulse got to his feet and sprinted to the back of the transport. There were the controls for a turret gun that was attached to the transport roof that Impulse tried firing.

The bullets sent the guards scattering. Impulse didn’t really want to hit any of them but if he could keep them at bay, it would do the job.

“We gotta signal the guys that we’re ready and waiting!” Impulse called back.

“On it,” Zed picked up the comm, “This is Zed, do you copy?”

“We copy Zed,” came the reply. It sounded like Etho this time.

“We’re out on the platform,” Zed explained, “Impulse is holding back the guards but you guys have got to be quick, ok?”

“We’ll pick up the pace,” Etho agreed, “Thanks guys. Hang in there.”

Zed placed the comm down as it beeped, conversation finished, before he headed over to go and help Impulse.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“We’re here!” Ren triggered the last door of the corridor and it slid open. A rush of cool outside air met them as they all hurried to the doorway, but stopped as it suddenly disappeared and plummeted down into the sea below them.

Skizz looked around and whistled, “You weren’t kidding when you said this wasn’t finished.”

The bridge was all of a long metal pole that stretched between the two platforms, shiny and slippery-looking. There was a pile of building materials on a platform on the other side that hadn’t been applied to it yet.

Ren went first, arms spread, balancing along the beam best he could. Eventually he reached the other side.

“It’s a little slippy,” he warned, “Take it steady.”

Etho went next, focused and sure-footed, then Jimmy, nervous and a bit wobbly.

Skizz and Bdubs both eyed the beam with the same fear.

“It’s really high up,” Bdubs muttered.

“And that sea does not look kind,” Skizz added anxiously, “Maybe we should try another exit.”

“There isn’t one!” Ren urged, “Come on!”

Skizz took a deep breath and tiptoed along the pole, whispering encouragements to himself as he shuffled along and refusing to look down, Bdubs following in a similar fashion. There was a scary moment where Skizz almost fell at the end but Jimmy and Etho managed to grab him before he did.

Soon it was just Tango left, carefully crossing the metal beam like a tightrope walker. He was very glad of his able footing and acrobatic skills right now.

Suddenly the door swished open and the guards that had been chasing them came running out. Tango spun his head around, wobbling on the pole.

“Get them!” One of the guards shouted.

“Dang it!” Ren cursed, “They found us!”

“Tango hurry!” Jimmy yelled.

Tango picked up the pace, scurrying across the beam like a frightened mouse. He was almost at the end-

One of the guards raised a tranquiliser gun and sent a flurry of darts as Tango.

He managed to duck all of them, but he was struggling to keep his balance, and the guard took his chance, firing one more shot.

The dart sank into Tango’s shoulder.

He was knocked off balance.

And with a cry, Tango tumbled backwards off of the beam. He hit the water below with a splash.

“TANGO!” Jimmy, Skizz, Etho and Ren screamed.

But Bdubs pushed past them and threw off his coat, then, ignoring the yells of the others, launched himself after Tango into the sea.

Chapter Text

The water was ice cold as Bdubs hit it, diving under the surface. He blinked, the salt stinging his eyes, and shivered as the chill seeped into him. He scanned the water for Tango, trying to see where he’d fallen in, hoping to catch a glimpse of red clothing or blonde hair. But the water was dark and murky, and seeing even an inch in front of him was difficult.

A faint flash of colour to his left caught his eye and he spun around. Despite it being hard to see, there was no mistaking the figure he saw. Bdubs swam like mad towards him, wrapping his arms around Tango’s unconscious form and then striking out upwards to the surface. His lungs were beginning to burn but he kept pushing.

Eventually he broke the surface, gasping for air, with Tango in his arms. He heard a shout from above, Jimmy by the sounds of it, and looked up, treading water.

“I could really use some help!” He yelled.

The guards were still shooting, but Etho shot the door control with his laser and it slammed shut, giving them a little more time.

“We’ve gotta get them back up here!” he exclaimed.

“But how?” Skizz countered, “We don’t have a rope or something!”

Jimmy glanced around the pile of building materials and spotted something, “No, but we do have one of these!”

He dragged a ridiculously long metal pole out of the pile and lowered it down until his hands reached the end. It just touched the water and Bdubs swam to it, grabbing hold of it to keep him from sinking.

“You’re expecting me to climb this?” He called up.

“We don’t have another choice!” Jimmy replied, “Come on! Quick!”

Bdubs huffed, “Tango was always better at this than I was.”
But nonetheless, he repositioned Tango to be resting on his shoulders and pulled himself up to climb the pole. His wet hands scrabbled for a grasp as he ascended and more than once he almost lost his footing. But after a painfully difficult climb, he reached the platform where the others were. Skizz hefted Tango off of his shoulders and Etho grabbed his hand to haul him back over the edge.

Jimmy let go of the pole and it crashed into the sea, sinking out of sight.

Bdubs shook some of the water out of his hair and then rushed over to where the others had congregated. Skizz was sitting on the floor, Tango lying limply in his lap.

“Is he ok?” Jimmy pushed anxiously.

“He’s got a pulse and it feels steady,” Skizz said, one hand on Tango’s wrist, “He’s probably swallowed a fair amount of seawater though. I hope none went in his lungs.”

“I reckon he’s fine,” Ren plucked the dart gently out of Tango’s shoulder and held it up, “This probably knocked him out before he even hit the water. I reckon he wasn’t breathing when he went under.”

“So what do we do?” Jimmy panicked, kneeling down next to him, “I can give him mouth-to-mouth if he needs it.”

“That won’t wake him,” Ren shook his head, “The anaesthesia in the dart is already in his system. Unfortunately, it’s just a waiting game until he wakes up.”

He glanced at the few small bandages still wrapped loosely around Tango’s arm, absent of any wood, “I’m more worried about him losing his splint.”

“We don’t have time to wait for him to wake,” Etho said, “We have to get out of here. Zed and Impulse are waiting for us and they can only hang on so long.”

He knelt down and pulled his sword sheath off of his hip before he grabbed the bandages and tied it to Tango’s arm.

He stood up, “This should help for now.”

“I’ll carry him,” Jimmy gently took Tango from Skizz, scooping him up in his arms in a bridal carry and standing, “Let’s go. Ren, you lead the way.”

Ren nodded and the group ran for the door leading down to the stairwell. It slid open and they headed down the many sets of stairs to the ground floor.

Tango stirred in Jimmy’s arms and he slowed down, “I think he’s waking up!”

Ren slowed to catch up with him, “Good thing those darts have very weak anaesthetic in them.”

They all stopped as Tango came to, groggily rubbing his eyes and groaning, blinking in the light.

“What the…” He looked up, “Jimmy?”

“Yeah, it’s me love,” Jimmy kissed his forehead, “How are you feeling?”

“Rough,” Tango shook his head to clear the fogginess from it, “What the heck happened?”

“You got shot and fell off the bridge,” Skizz explained, “Double-Down jumped in after and saved you.”

Tango looked up at Bdubs.

The smallest smile slipped onto his lips and he nodded.

Bdubs’ face lit up and he nodded back.

Staggering a little, Tango climbed out of Jimmy’s arms and stood, bracing himself against the wall, “Well? What are we waiting for? Let’s go.”

The others nodded and sprinted towards the bottom of the stairwell. Eventually they reached the ground.

“One more corridor and we’re home free,” Ren said, playing with the door controls, “I just gotta open this.”

“We don’t have time,” Etho tapped Ren’s shoulder and gestured that he get out of the way, before he pushed his wakasashi into Tango’s hands, “Hold this please.”

He took a few steps back and then threw himself at the door, kicking it down.

It fell with a loud CLUNK to the floor.

“There,” He brushed his hands together, stepping elegantly over the mangled metal, “Let’s keep moving.”

“I never get used to how impressive you are sometimes,” Bdubs shook his head in amazement. Etho shot him a reluctant but genuine smile.

Tango took the lead, stepping through another doorway, “Yeah, Etho, you’ve gotta teach me how to kick like that when this is over. My martial arts skills are way too shabby.”

There was a sudden swish and the door in the doorway Tango had just walked through slammed shut behind him, separating him from the rest of the group. Ren gave a shout of alarm.

“Hey!” Tango spun around and ran to the door, banging his good fist against it, “What? Open the door!”

“I can’t!” Ren panicked, fiddling with the door controls.

“Etho, quick!” Skizz ordered.

Etho ran up against the door, trying to shoulder-slam it open, but wincing when nothing happened, “This one’s made of some stronger metal, I can’t bust through it!”

“Let me try!” Skizz pulled on his hydraulics and punched his hand into it as hard as he could. It barely made a dent.

Tango tried to help pry the door open from his side, but it was firmly closed.

“You didn’t think it’d be that easy, did you?”

The voice made Tango freeze and he inhaled sharply, the air suddenly feeling cold in his lungs.

He spun around.

Scar stood there, that horribly familiar smirk on his face. The kind of smirk he wore when he knew he’d won.

“Hello Tango,” he smiled wickedly, “Miss me?”

Tango backed up against the door, the grip on Etho’s wakasashi tightening.

“To think you almost made it,” Scar sighed dramatically, pressing a hand to his forehead in mock sorrow, “And then to fall at the last hurdle. How… tragic.”

His voice turned to a hiss, eyes narrowing, “I didn’t go all this way, put in all the effort for you just to escape on me. I guess I should have expected that traitor Ren to turn on us.”

“You’re one to talk,” Tango growled, trying to hide the fear growing in his chest, “You betrayed me!”

“So did Bdubs,” Scar countered, “And yet he stands behind that door with your friends, despite shattering your trust. Despite the fact that he hurt you, ruined you, you still let him stay - by choice, might I add!”

Tango flinched and stared at the floor.

“Like I said,” Scar grinned, “You care too much.”

“What do you want?” Tango snapped.

“I want to finish this the way it always should have been,” Scar started pacing, circling around him like a predator in a prairie, preparing to play with its food, “I should have just killed you when I had the chance, but now we get to see why I'm better. Why I was always better.”

He eyed up Tango's right arm, taking in the splint, “And your dominant hand is out of action. Isn't that a shame.”

Tango gripped Etho's wakashi tightly with his left hand, “I can still fight.”

“You’re not ambidextrous, don’t try to convince me you have a cunning plan to win this,” Scar criticised, drawing a sword from his belt - a broadsword with an ornate ruby and emerald crossguard. Tango had never seen Scar use it before, but it had a cruel-looking sharp edge that made him grip his own sword a little tighter on instinct, “The Tango I know knows when he’s beaten.”

“Guess I’m not the guy you know anymore,” Tango raised his blade, standing ready.

Scar made the first move, swinging in with his sword. Tango parried, catching his blade on the flat and shoving it away. They fought back and forth, violently slashing at each other, but it was very clear that Scar had the upper hand. Tango was scrabbling to return blows as best he could.

But he got lucky. Scar made a lunge at him and Tango slipped past his guard, making a swipe at his hand, praying that it would connect. He caught the handle and sent it tumbling out of Scar’s hands and across the room.

He didn’t have any time to celebrate however; Scar wasn’t going down without a fight. He raised his sword to hit Scar with the pommel to knock him out but Scar grabbed his wrist and twisted it hard. He winced as Scar managed to force it out of his hands and it skittered across the floor, the metal clinking.

Still gripping Tango’s wrists, Scar dragged him forward and kneed him hard in the stomach, leaving him double over and gasping, before Scar slammed his fist into his face, sending him tumbling backwards, blood running down his nose.

He braced himself up against the wall, spitting out a mouthful of blood, taking a second to try and compose himself. But he didn’t get one, as Scar tried another punch at his head. Tango managed to duck and roll away to the other side of the small section of corridor. He wiped the blood off his face with his sleeve and gritted his teeth.

“See?” Scar was hardly injured, the only blood coming from a small cut on his hand from when Tango had knocked his sword away, “I was always better than you! Always stronger! But just because YOU-” He made a swing that Tango barely sidestepped, aiming for his chest, “Managed to cash in the bigger jobs, it made me look inferior! It made me look like a FOOL!”

“I didn’t want to take the glory!” Tango ducked another punch before being forced to deflect one off of his bad arm with a choked back noise of pain, “I told you this!

“It doesn’t matter what you want!” Scar yelled, “You could have stepped aside, could have refused, could have stopped, but no! You just had to keep going!”

“You should have said something!” Tango tried to fight back, but Scar stopped his fist before it hit him and pushed him back, “I would have stopped if I had known!”

“Stop acting like the victim!” Scar spat. He faked a shot at Tango’s shoulder and used the opening it gave him to grab Tango’s bad arm and twist it hard behind his back. Tango screamed, tears of pain welling in his eyes as the bones made a hideous cracking noise. His back hit the wall hard as Scar forced him up against it, delivering blow after blow after blow. Tango couldn’t fight back, his broken arm too mangled to do anything and his good arm stuck in Scar’s iron grip, taking hit after hit after hit.

“Please,” he whimpered, “Scar, please.”

There was a manic kind of glint in Scar’s eyes, triumphant and cruel. He rested a hand on Tango’s collarbones, pushing him harder against the wall.

“How does it feel to know you’ve reached the end?” He cackled, “How does it feel now that I’ve proven I’ve bested you?”

“You’re done Tango. I’ve won.”

Tango could hear the yelling from behind the door, hear the others trying to break through to free him. He struggled weakly against Scar’s grip but Scar just leaned an arm on his neck. Tango gasped for breath at the pressure on his throat.

“I guess this is goodbye,” Scar shrugged, “It was nice knowing you Tango.”

Tango closed his eyes, succumbing to his fate. This was it. He hoped death would take him swiftly.

But then a little voice at the back of his head cut through the panic.

No.

He could still hear the others yelling.

He had people to look after.

His heartbeat pounded in his head, deafeningly loud.

So much more to live for.

He hadn’t been called the best thief in Hermitdale for nothing.

And it was about time he showed that.

“No,” he choked out, opening his eyes and glaring at Scar, “I’m not done yet.”

With all the energy he had left, ignoring the pain, he dragged his broken right arm up and smashed Scar in the face.

It phased Scar enough that he stumbled and loosened his grip, and Tango took his chance. He kicked Scar hard in the groin, sending him staggering back with a grunt.

Scar shook his head and blinked hard, collecting himself. He looked up just in time to see Tango shoulder slam him to the floor. He gave a cry and tumbled over, hitting the ground hard.

There was a swish of metal, then a foot on his chest and a sword at his throat.

Tango stood over him, boot pressed against his ribcage, wet, bleeding, bedraggled and broken, but victorious. His eyes were harsh.

“Looks like I am the better of us,” He said.

Scar struggled, trying to escape, but Tango pushed harder, hearing one of the ribs crack ever so slightly. Scar gave a wince of pain.

“Go on!” He yelled, “Finish it then! If you’re really better, end it!”

Tango’s hand shook ever so slightly, the vibration rattling down the wakasashi blade.

“See?” Scar coughed, scowling at him, “You can’t finish this. Because you’re a COWARD!”

“I’m not a coward,” Tango replied, “But you were right about one thing.”

“What’s that?” Scar spat out.

“I do care too much.”

He flipped the sword around and smashed Scar over the head with the pommel.

Scar went still, unconscious on the floor.

Tango stood back, removing his foot from Scar’s chest and dropping the sword, shaking as the adrenaline left him. He staggered to the wall and propped himself up with his good arm, gasping heavy breaths to calm his nerves.

There was a loud bang behind him and Tango spun around as the door finally gave way, the others all rushing in.

“Tango!” Jimmy tugged him into his arms, “We heard screaming, I was so worried, are you ok?”

“I’m fine,” Tango winced a little as his injuries were slightly jostled, but he bit back the pain and buried his head in Jimmy’s shoulder, “I’m ok.”

“Scar!” Bdubs rushed over to Scar’s still form, shaking him, “Scar! We gotta help him, we-”

Tango pulled out of the hug with Jimmy and walked over, gently placing a hand on Bdubs’ shoulder and shaking his head.

“He’s the reason we’re in this mess,” He explained, “He betrayed us all. He’s the one who sent the assassins after us, both the ones that tried to kill me and the ones that convinced you into betraying me.”

Bdubs’ eyes widened, then went cold.

“Stinking snake,” He kicked Scar’s arm.

“Nice to get a taste of your own medicine, huh?” Jimmy retorted, but Tango placed a hand on his shoulder.

“Not now honey,” He chided gently.

Jimmy sighed, “Sorry.”

Tango kissed his cheek, “I get it. We can worry about it later.”

“What are we gonna do with him?” Skizz nudged at Scar with his foot.

“He’s a well-known criminal,” Tango said, “And every time he came to see me, he was in a mask so they didn’t know it was him. If we leave him, I reckon he'll end up in a cell like he deserves to.”

“You could just get rid of him now,” Etho picked up his wakasashi and twirled it around.

Tango shook his head, “No. That’s his way. Not mine.”

He readjusted his splint and wiped some more blood off of his face, “Come on. Zed and Impulse can’t wait forever.”

Everyone nodded and sprinted down the corridor, eventually reaching the door that led outside. The cool air was a relief after the many stuffy metal hallways, and Tango could taste the freedom. They were almost there.

Unfortunately, there were guards there too.

They all spun around to see the group outside the door and started yelling and rushing at them with weapons. Etho shoved everyone behind him and stood ready with his sword.

But then there was a huge bang and a spray of bullets came flying at the guards, striking them dead. The group flinched back and then looked up to see a transport in front of them, its turret gun still smoking.

Someone stuck their head out of the transport door.

“You made it!” It was Zed, “Come on, let’s go!”

They ran for the transport and hurried inside, Zed helping them and watching for guards. When Tango entered, he pulled him into a big hug.

“I’m so glad you’re alive,” he whispered.

Tango hugged him tighter with his good arm, Zed’s curls soft against his skin, “I wouldn’t be if it weren’t for you guys. Thank you so much.”

“You’re gonna squeeze the poor man to death Zed,” A voice chuckled. The pair looked up to see Impulse there, smiling.

Tango let go of Zed and buried himself in Impulse’s arms, “Missed you Impy.”

“Missed you too,” Impulse held him tight, “You scared us so much, never do that again.”

“Wasn’t really my choice,” Tango chuckled dryly, “But I’ll try.”

Zed giggled with them, glancing around the transport and doing a headcount.

Then he saw Bdubs and his face hardened.

“What is he doing here?” He asked, his voice cold and hostile.

Impulse turned around too, letting go of Tango and balling his fists, “We should just chuck him out into the sea.”

“He’s ok,” Tango said, stepping in front of Bdubs, “He helped us escape and saved my life. There was more to the betrayal than we thought. He was trying to save his family.”

Zed and Impulse paused, exchanging glances.

Then Impulse sighed and walked back to the driving seat, “If he causes any problems, I’m throwing him out myself.”

Zed nodded and then added, “And who’s the security guard?”

“Oh!” Tango looked over at Ren, “This is Ren! He defected from the guards and helped us escape!”

“Hi,” Ren waved a little awkwardly.

Zed stood still for a moment, then smiled, “It’s great to have you with us Ren.”

Ren smiled back.

There were yells from outside and everyone was reminded of their situation.

“We gotta go!” Skizz exclaimed, “Punch it Impy!”

Impulse shut the door and pressed hard on the accelerator, charging down the causeway. But as they drove, things started to rise out of the floor. Barriers, blocking their escape.

Impulse increased the transport speed even more, “Hang on! This is gonna get rocky!”

They sped towards the wall to smash through it, just like Zed and Impulse had done earlier with the depot door. Everyone braced for the impact.

But they didn’t go through.

The transport crashed into the wall with a bang and the crew were thrown to the floor with shouts of alarm as the barrier held firm.

After a moment, they all staggered to their feet, leaning against chairs and wincing at bumps that they knew would bruise in the morning. Honestly Tango was amazed that the windshield hadn’t smashed on impact. It must have been very thick glass.

Or plastic, he supposed.

“What do we do?” Zed’s voice cut through the air, brimming with panic, “We can’t go forwards!”

“Could we fight our way out?” Skizz suggested, and Etho nodded, holding his sword.

“There’ll be too many of them,” Ren shook his head hopelessly, “We’re trapped.”

There was a pause for a moment as the dreadful words sank in.

Then Bdubs asked suddenly, “This thing has a pressure seal, right?”

“Yeah, I’m pretty sure it does,” Zed nodded, “Why?”

“Drive into the ocean,” Bdubs said.

Everyone stared at him.

“Are you crazy?” Skizz yelled, “We’ll drown!”

“Not if this has a seal on it!” Bdubs countered, “It’ll keep the water out and they won’t be able to catch us up in time! It’s our best shot!”

“You’re mad if you think we’d fall for that,” Impulse glared, “It’d kill us!”

“No it wouldn’t!” Bdubs exclaimed.

Jimmy started, “There’s no way we’d-”

“He’s right,” Tango’s voice made them all look round. He was grinning.

“These things do have pressure seals on them,” He explained, “I spotted it when I was captured and they were driving me here. If we drive underwater along the seabed, they won’t have time to deploy their transports and underwater craft before we reach land. We’ll be home free! Bdubs, that’s an amazing idea!”

There were shouts of guards running towards the transport.

“Zed, the settings are on a wall terminal at the back,” Tango ordered, “See if you can switch the pressure to keep the water out.”

Zed nodded and ran to the back.

“Impulse, get ready to drive,” Tango patted Impulse on the shoulder, “Everyone else, brace yourselves.”

The others ran to chairs in the back, sitting down and gripping the arms of them tightly, all of them looking nervous.

Zed fiddled with the terminal at the back, humming, “I think… yes! Got it! Engaging watertight seal!”

There was a strange suction noise and a small beep from the front dashboard.

“Pressure seal engaged,” Impulse said, switching the engine back on but not taking his foot off the brake.

Tango glanced back at the guards approaching, “It’s now or never Impulse.”

Impulse sighed and hit the accelerator, “The things I do for you guys. Here we go!”

The transport rolled forwards, smashing through the railings on the edge of the pier, then hurtled towards the sea.

SPLASH!

They hit the water and everyone flinched as the sea parted around them before crashing back over the top of the transport. The noise of the guards on the causeway was muffled and soon couldn’t be heard at all as the metal box of a vehicle sank to the seabed, landing with a thud that shook the transport, rattling the passengers.

But no water leaked in through any gaps. The pressure inside held perfectly.

Everyone let out a collective breath they didn’t know they’d been holding.

“Alright,” Impulse turned to Bdubs, a little reluctantly, but still smiling, “I’ll admit, that was a good idea.”

Bdubs beamed at him.

“We do still have to get out of here,” Jimmy reminded.

Impulse nodded with a chuckle, kicked the transport into gear and drove onwards towards home.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

They ditched the transport in a hidden cove when they reached the shore. Fortunately, Bdubs had been right and Fort Blackrock’s security hadn’t had time to launch anything to follow them, since the drive back had been fairly smooth. Then they’d climbed the rocks up to the coastal track where the van was parked. The rocks were slippy and it was a struggle, especially for Skizz who was carrying Tango on his back due to his broken arm. But they reached the top unscathed and headed to the van, beginning the long drive home.

Tango fell asleep during the ride back, which surprised no one. They kept the noise down and let him rest, curled up in Jimmy’s arms, Jimmy running his hands through his hair to calm him if he got restless. Impulse and Skizz were in the cab, Skizz regaling Impulse with stories of how brave and heroic he’d been on the rescue. Impulse just grinned at all of it, rolling his eyes at points, taking everything with a grain of salt. Etho, Ren and Zed were discussing the heist as well as general small talk, Jimmy just watching with a gentle smile, occasionally quietly adding points he felt were necessary.

And Bdubs… well. He sat silently in the corner on the bench, watching the scenes unfold. He watched Zed show an astounded Ren some of his contraptions he had on him. He watched Etho fiddle with his wakasashi handle, making sure the yarn wrap on it hadn’t come undone. He watched Jimmy peck kisses to Tango’s forehead, playing gently with his hair.

He didn’t think he’d ever be truly accepted by them again, and he was ok with that. He’d messed up big time and didn’t really deserve the forgiveness he was being given.

Sitting on that bench, everything felt different.

And yet it all felt the same as before. As if this was any other job. As if they’d just heisted some small time museum and were on the way home.

Etho caught his eye, seemingly thinking similar to him. He smiled slightly behind his mask and beckoned Bdubs over to join the conversation. Bdubs got up and walked over to sit next to him.

“You ok?” Etho asked quietly.

“I think so,” Bdubs said, “You shouldn’t have forgiven me.”

“Honestly?” Etho scoffed a little, “I don’t think I fully have yet. Truth be told, I’m not sure if I ever will. But you tried to make up for what you did wrong, and you were pushed to do it by blackmail, so I’m trying to forgive you a little. It’s a start.”

“And I appreciate it more than you realise,” Bdubs replied. He rather hesitantly placed an arm on Etho’s shoulder and Etho reciprocated.

Bdubs smiled.

Yeah. Same as before.