The Grab for Power
Chapter one:  New friends.  New enemies?
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	Nicoli popped up in front of the apartment complex he was scheduled to stay at.  
He craned his head backwards, staring up at the colossal structure.  The base alone was 
monstrous and perfectly square, and the building stretched skywards for at least twelve 
stories.  It looked more like an office building than an apartment building.  He couldn't 
discern its exact dimensions from where he was, but he was sure the individual who had 
it constructed got an earful from the local Zoning Commission.  While he was thinking of 
buildings, he decided to look around and survey the block.  His heart sank as soon as he 
began to turn, however.  The first structure to the left of the apartment complex was 
another, smaller building, which had been ravaged by what appeared to be a series of 
bombs.  It appeared ready to collapse at the slightest touch.  Nicoli's jaw dropped as he 
continued to turn and glance across the street.  An entire row of similar buildings sat 
devastated in front of him, punched full of holes as if pelted by a massive shotgun.  Only 
one of them stood proudly, its face covered with a coat of bright white paint no more than 
a few years old; it was labeled "Soup Kitchen" in bright, bold red lettering, just above the 
door.  As Nicoli completed his full turn, he laid eyes on the empty lot next to his 
apartment building.  It was covered with a layer of reddish-brown dirt and looked to have 
been bulldozed just recently, although there was no sign of any kind of heavy machinery 
nearby.  He sighed and turned back to the brilliantly constructed complex, wondering 
how it survived whatever happened here.  He also wondered if he was really in Silicon 
Valley; he had no idea such a travesty could occur here.  A brief check with his 
Clairvoyance ability verified that he was, indeed, outside of the area labeled as the Valley 
by about three-quarters of a mile.  "Oh well," he thought.  "I'll visit the Valley tomorrow.  
Or maybe Monday."  
	He was still deep in thought as he unconsciously walked forward through the 
automatic sliding doors into the small corridor separating the outside world from the 
apartments.  As soon as the doors slid shut, Nicoli glanced about the little passageway 
and found nothing but two doors and a row of vending machines, including soda, snack, 
and newspaper machines.  His smile returned to his face as he found something else that 
wasn't on the brink of collapsing into a mess of ashes.  He entered the complex and was 
immediately greeted by the smell of foliage.  He found the source to be four budding 
plants, of what kind he did not know, each situated in a different corner of the room.  He 
traced the thin vines that ran together on the walls near the ceiling with his eyes, still 
trying to figure out what kind of flora was in the corners.
	"Hi!" a high-pitched voice suddenly chirped in front of Nicoli.  He jumped 
backwards a few feet and jerked his head downward, staring straight ahead and 
downwards at the source, a four and a half foot tall female rodent.  When he made eye 
contact with her, she grinned childishly at him.  "Sorry for scaring you," she giggled in a 
much softer voice.
	Nicoli blinked, then smiled warmly back at her.  "It's quite alright," he replied.  
"I'm used to it."
	The mouse giggled again, flicking her tail around excitedly.  She thrust a paw at 
him and introduced herself.  "My name is Kathryn.  I'm the owner of these apartments.  
You must be our new tenant, Nicoli."  Nick's smile widened as he took her frail hand in 
his own and shook it gently.
	"Yes, ma'am.  You may call me Nick if you like," he answered in a humbled 
tone, which only made Kathryn giggle a third time.  
	"If it doesn't start to confuse you, you can call me Kat.  Most of my friends do."  
	He nodded, took his paw back, and stood still for a moment, unable to think of 
what else to say.  He was never terribly good with conversations and he knew it, and his 
cheeks started to redden because of it.  Luckily, Kat saved him from any further 
embarrassment by chiming in once more.
	"Do you like the decorations, Nicoli?" she inquired of him, motioning to the 
vegetation in the corners and on the walls and still staring straight at him.
	He nodded energetically, thankful for a topic to talk about.  "Oh, yes, quite a lot.  
You've done a great job with the place."
	Kathryn beamed with pride, then grinned once again.  "You oughta get used to it.  
Most of the rooms on the ground floor are decorated like this."  She made a gesture 
toward the stairway, which Nick hadn't noticed until then.  "The second floor and up are 
decorated by the other residents, so you're in for a surprise each time you go up."
	Nick nodded again and asked the only pertinent question he could think of.  
"Which floor am I on?"
	"Didn't your friend tell you?" she retorted with another small giggle.  "You're in 
room 3-8.  Floor three, room eight."
	He blushed again at his ignorance, but Kat didn't notice.  She had turned to walk 
behind the front desk to retrieve something for him and gave him a full-body view of 
herself.  She was like the other rodents he had seen on TV:  short, skinny as a rail, and 
with a covering of gray fuzz that wasn't quite long enough to be deemed "fur."  Her wavy 
silver hair reached the middle of her back; he thought for a second that her grayish hair 
meant she was old, but then he remembered that it was a natural hair color.  She wore a 
pink t-shirt and a pair of jean-shorts, which showed off the thin, albeit shapely, legs that 
Nicoli's eyes seem to be stuck on.  She whirled around and grinned at him as soon as she 
had moved behind the desk.  "Haven't you ever seen a rodent before?" she inquired 
innocently.
	Nick's eyes widened slightly at having been caught.  He turned a bright red from 
his face halfway down his neck and looked at the floor embarrassedly.  "Uh... I… 
sorry…" he answered sheepishly.
	Kat giggled like a maniac at the poor kitten.  She seemed to enjoy how shy he was 
acting.  "Don't worry about it," she chirped happily.  Nicoli's face was still bright red 
when she repeated her question.  "You've never met a mouse before, have you?"
	He raised his head and shook it slowly.  "All-feline town, all-feline schools…"
	"Perfectly understandable."  She continued to smile warmly at him as she held up 
a pair of keycards.  She padded back toward him, handing them to him.  "All of our doors 
are electronically locked.  You'll need these," she explained.
	Taking the cards, Nicoli smiled once more.  "Thank you.  And… sorry again…"
	A torrent of giggles greeted his apology.  "It's quite alright, really.  I don't mind."  
With a wide grin, she added, "I'm used to it."
	His smile widened a little as he thanked her for not getting mad at his shyness.  
He made his way to the stairwell and climbed up to the third floor, wondering if all 
rodents were as sweet at Kat was.  He looked around as he traversed the stairs.  The walls 
of both the stairwell and the hallway on the third floor were decorated blandly, having 
eggshell-white walls and little else.  The beige carpet in the hallway was like a giant, 
deep shag rug that tickled his bare paws slightly as he made his way to room 3-8.  He 
inserted a keycard into the card reader and yanked it back out, as the instructions on the 
card instructed him.  A small green light lit up to tell him the door was open.  With a 
simple push, he entered his new home away from home.  
	Like the hall, the walls of his apartment.were an eggshell-white with no 
decorations, which Nick felt he could fix in a heartbeat.  He took a few steps into the 
room and noticed it was partitioned into three smaller rooms.  The largest was the L-
shaped main room, where his TV, couch, and other furniture would go.  Off to the side 
was a convenient enclave with room for a bed and a dresser, complete with a small closet 
in the back wall.  Next to that room was a similarly sized full bathroom.  He was pleased 
to find both a bath and a shower; his hotel rooms in the past only possessed a shower, and 
he occasionally liked to relax in a bath, especially after losing a battle and coming home 
feeling like he had been shoved into a blender.  Padding around the bend in the L-shaped 
room, he found a small kitchen area at the end of it, the top of the "L", with enough room 
at the far corner for a refrigerator. Nicoli went through how he would set up his 
apartment in his mind a couple of times before he found a good arrangement.  He also 
thought about doing something about the carpeting, which covered even the bathroom's 
floor, oddly.
	First, he decided to move the furniture he brought with him from outside to the 
living room.  Nick surveyed the room and teleported his couch against the wall the living 
room shared with the bathroom, the longer part of the "L."  Next, he sent his little TV 
back to his friends and nabbed a larger 27-inch TV from their storage room, setting it in 
front of the couch against the wall opposite it, just to the left of the window.  In the 
corner, he put both a computer desk and a desktop computer he brought with him, 
adjusting it so he faced the side wall when he used it.  He put the recliner still in tow in 
front of the computer so he could surf the net in style and comfort.  When he turned 
around, he noticed that the room was much bigger than he thought; there was still room 
for a coffee table and another chair, which he failed to bring.  He resumed setting up what 
he had brought, placing his toiletries in the cabinet of his bathroom with a flick of the 
wrist, his large bed in the bedroom, his clothes in the closet and dresser, and his linens 
and pillows on the bed.  With another thought, the sheets, pillows and comforter lifted 
themselves into the air.  Nick watched with an entertained smiled on his face as the bed 
made itself before his eyes.  To wrap everything up, he placed his box of weapons and 
ammunition under the bed to keep it out of sight from anyone who decided to drop by.  
He couldn't imagine living without his Kinetic abilities and his teleportation skill.
	After everything he had brought was in place, he set about requisitioning other 
pieces of furniture from his home.  Remembering the food he had brought with him, he 
teleported a fridge to himself and placed it in the corner of the kitchen against the wall 
containing the window.  He quickly stocked the newly acquired refrigerator and 
neighboring pantry with enough snacks to hold him over for a week.  Between the couch 
and TV he placed a small coffee table, in case something he made for himself to eat was 
too hot to hold in his lap.  Lastly, but certainly not least, he teleported in a pile of CDs, 
including a few games, and placed them on his computer desk next to his monitor.  He 
glanced around the apartment and smiled to himself again.  Everything seemed to be in 
order.  He decided to call Damien and let him know he had gotten settled in easily 
enough.  He turned his computer on, and then realized he hadn't plugged it in, but simply 
placed it in the corner.  He chuckled to himself at his own oversight and turned the 
computer back off, lest he electrocute himself while trying to plug it in.  Once it was set, 
he booted it up, plugged a phone cord into the back of the computer and the nearby phone 
jack, and recalibrated his favorite ISP, NetZero, to reflect where he was now.  He had to 
make use of a pamphlet left in the kitchen by Kathryn; it told him how to configure a 
phone or modem to dial out of the building.  After a few moments in the Dial-Up control 
panel, he called Damien on the video phone.

	"I am SO bored!" bellowed Zeek, pounding his fist down on the arm of the couch.
	Koshiro cringed at his bored fury.  "Watch it!  I don't want to have to repair that 
thing again, ya lummox."
	"Then help me thing of something to do!" came the reply.  "I'm full, so I can't 
eat.  There's nothing on TV.  You're a complete pushover at every game we have.  And 
Damien is busy doing Cynd-knows-what."
	"I resent that," he growled back at Zeek.  "You know very well that I can beat 
your ass into the ground in any game that requires a brain, Zeek.  Screw the VR shooters, 
back to the basics.  Like Command and Conquer."
	Zeek answered his threat with a deep belly laugh.  "Ha!  I'd like to see you try!"
	"Hey!  Calm down, y'all."  Damien stood in the doorway to the living room, 
chuckling to himself silently at the bickering felines.  "Without Nicoli, it's no fun around 
here, eh, Stripes?"
	Zeek growled softly.  "Don't call me that, that's a kid's name!"
	Koshiro grinned.  "Well, you were acting like a child, after all."
	Damien knew from past experience where this was going and made an attempt to 
stop another brawl before it started.  "Nick just called in, you know."  Both of the other 
cats immediately fell silent and turned their attention to Damien.  He grinned, knowing 
that would work.  "He said to tell you guys 'Hi' and that he got settled in nicely."
	Koshiro smiled.  "Glad to hear one of us is doing something constructive."
	"Did he meet anyone new?" Zeek asked with a sly smile.  He already had plans to 
visit Nicoli and party with all his new friends, specifically the females.
	The jet-black cat in the doorway nodded.  "Only a rodent, though."  Both of the 
others frowned slightly, neither of them liking mice a whole lot.  "Save your questions 
for Nick, though, or your first visit with him will be boring as all Hell."
	"When are we visiting?" Koshiro inquired, wondering if Damien was planning to 
come along as well.
	He shrugged.  "Whenever you feel like it.  And no, I'm not coming.  I have to stay 
here, remember?"
	"Aww," both Zeek and Koshiro groaned in unison.
	"Oh well, we'll just have to have fun without you," the tiger retorted with another 
chuckle.

	Nicoli turned off the video phone, wondering if and when they were going to 
come and see what he did with his apartment.  No sooner had he terminated his 
conversation with Damien than a knock rang out through the room.  He turned to the 
door, wondering who it could be.  "Come on in, the door's open," he hollered to the 
stranger.  Another feline, a gangly-looking Siamese cat in a black business suit, accepted 
his invitation and swung the door open.
	"Hey," was the only greeting that came from him.
	Nicoli swiveled his chair to face the newcomer and retorted with his own "Hey."
	"I heard there was a new guy, but I never thought he would be next door to me."
	Nick smiled warmly at his newfound neighbor.  "My name's Nicoli, or Nick, if 
you prefer.  Yours?"
	The other cat smiled back at him.  "Jake.  Just Jake."  He extended a paw towards 
Nick and made a motion as if shaking his hand, even though he was on the other side of 
the apartment.  "Forgive my rudeness," he explained with an apologetic grin.  "I'm 
running late today and I gotta jet."
	"No problem," he replied.  "I understand perfectly.  Nice to meetcha, regardless."
	"Thanks, man, and nice to meet you too."  With that, Jake made a beeline to the 
stairs and disappeared.  Nick chuckled to himself and waved his hand, shutting the door.  
"My, my.  I hope everyone isn't in such a rush," he thought to himself.
	More tenants arrived throughout the otherwise-boring afternoon, most of them 
just stopping by on their way somewhere.   From his own floor, he met mostly canines, 
none of whom seemed terribly interested in talking to him.  They simply dropped in to be 
polite, which Nick appreciated nonetheless.  Also on his floor, he met two male rodents: a 
brown field mouse named Leonard Greene, or Leo for short, and a white rat simply 
named Benjamin.  Both of them arrived at the same time, and he showed them around his 
quaint room.  Leo immediately took notice of his computer games and challenged him to 
a LAN game of Unreal, which Nick said he would think about.  The rat seemed to be 
angry at something, however, and kept shooting Nicoli dirty looks.  In the spirit of 
kindness, he decided to ignore the rude rodent for now, since he was about three times as 
bulky as he was.  Nick didn't want to start a fight with anyone just yet.  
	Once they left, people from a floor up came to meet him.  First was Jamie, a short, 
female Calico feline who set out immediately hitting on poor, shy Nick.  After making 
him turn a bright red, she offered to show him around the rest of the complex.  When he 
declined politely, she left to get something to eat and a new furre arrived.  This one was a 
male rabbit with a heavy Russian accent named Mirev.  He seemed quite energetic about 
meeting the new feline, asking Nick questions faster than he could keep up with.  He, too, 
offered to show him around and was rejected for now.  Once he headed off to work, the 
last person to arrive that afternoon came to his door and turned out to be a fox, literally.  
Oddly enough, she was very kind to him, which was quite unusual for a canine.  Perhaps 
she was too kind; she nearly crushed Nicoli with a welcoming bear hug after the initial 
"hello."  Her introduced herself as Thelma with a mild Dutch or Swedish accent, he 
couldn't tell.  When he commented on how friendly the people from the fourth floor 
were, she giggled and invited him with her to meet the other people up there.  Nick 
kindly declined, telling her that he was tired from the day's work and from meeting 
everyone on his own floor.  When she left, Nick yawned and padded toward his bedroom, 
wondering why people from floor four came to visit, but nobody from the second floor 
arrived.  He shrugged and flopped onto his bed, beginning to miss his friends as he dozed 
off for a catnap.

	The sounds of gunfire awoke Zeek, who had the same idea Nick had to waste 
some time an hour before he did.  He made his way to the computer room and found 
Koshiro in the middle of a training game, blazing away with a standard assault rifle, 
which he found to be a little unnerving.  Koshiro always used a laser rifle during training, 
and a bigger one during live combat.
	"What are you doing?" Zeek asked through a yawn.  "What's with the ballistics?"  
Koshiro was too busy to answer, though.  He looked up at the monitor that showed his 
friend's actions and smirked, finding out what he was doing.  He was fighting an AI 'Bot 
modeled after Zeek's actions and was losing.  Badly.  He chuckled to himself and 
watched while, much to his chagrin, the Zeek-bot repeatedly blew Koshiro to kingdom 
come with a TOW rocket launcher.  Once it had attained fifteen kills, which only took 
five more minutes, Koshiro sat up and yanked the eyepiece that linked him to the 
computer off his face and would have hurled it to the floor if he hadn't spotted Zeek 
standing behind him.  He twisted around and launched the piece of gadgetry at him 
instead, who stopped it in mid air without lifting a finger.  "Having fun?" Zeek inquired 
sarcastically.
	Koshiro only growled at him.  He jumped up from his chair and stormed out of 
the room, leaving Zeek standing with the eyepiece hovering in front of him.  He simply 
shrugged his shoulders and placed the electronic device on the chair where it belonged, 
thinking of what to do now that he was awake.  He pondered letting Koshiro win at a 
game, any game, but he decided against that.  With a wince, he imagined what it would 
be like if Koshiro actually beat him.  Endless bragging, chattering, more bragging… he 
would never be able to shut him up.
	Koshrio thought of what it would be like to actually beat Zeek once, just once.  
Everyone would applaud him and tell him "great job!"  Zeek would be pissed off, though, 
but that's a small price to pay.  Thinking about how nice it would be to win made him 
even angrier at the fact that he's never won and might not ever win.  Not at the games 
they had, at least.  He made plans to go shopping for the most cerebral game he could 
find, but was interrupted by one of the intercoms sprinkled about the building.  
"Koshiro!" it bellowed.  "Zeek!  Come ta the briefing room, I have a job for you."  
Koshrio grinned; this would be another great opportunity to show his fighting prowess 
and show Zeek that he was just as good as he was.
	Zeek sighed.  As usual, he would have to defend Koshiro and try to stop him from 
showing off, or he'd be torn apart by whoever they were attacking today.  He didn't feel 
like walking, so he teleported to the briefing room with a yawn.  Both of his comrades 
were already waiting for him when he arrived.  
	"Good.  Now that you're both here, we can start," began Damien from behind his 
desk.  "You both remember that little… incident… in Los Angeles last week, right?"
	Both of them chuckled and nodded, remembering the wanton chaos that greeted 
them when they arrived in downtown LA and the destruction they heaped upon the 
warring gangs that caused it.  "What about it?" Zeek asked with a smile. 
	Damien was not smiling.  "Well, apparently, the cops in LA are smarter than the 
other police on both the east and west coasts.  Somehow, they followed you unnoticed 
and tracked you here.  I have no idea how, though."
	Zeek's grin faded instantly.  They all had an idea of how bad it was to be found 
by cops, but only Damien didn't seem worried.
	He picked up a small envelope from his desk.  "Well," he continued, "instead of 
trying to arrest us, they sent me an ultimatum.  They want us to pay for the damage done 
to the downtown district you nigh destroyed.  If we don't, they're going to send some 
state troopers and SWAT guys after us.  And you both know how much of a pain it is to 
get rid of those guys."  Despite the situation, Damien laughed to himself and put the letter 
down.  "Now, if you think I'm going to pay for your desolation, you're absolutely 
insane."
	Koshrio knew what was coming.  "Let me guess.  You want us to pay for it 
instead?"
	Damien shook his head, a sly grin spreading across his face.  "Nope.  I pay you, 
so that'd be like me paying them myself.  Besides, if that were all I wanted, I wouldn't 
have told you that you had a job."  He lowered his voice and smiled, one of his evil, sly 
grins that the other two knew meant nothing but trouble.  "I want you to… how shall I 
put this… make a withdrawal from a few banks in downtown LA and bring the money to 
me."
	Zeek had done this before for more or less the same reason, so he already liked 
the idea.  Koshiro, who was newer to the group, was appalled at the idea.  "You have got 
to be kidding!   We can't do that!"
	Damien chuckled.  "'We' can't.  You can.  That's your mission."  Koshiro was 
stunned.  He never knew Damien could stoop so low as to rob a bank, then feed the 
money back to the city that owned it.  This is exactly how Damien rationalized it, though.  
"The was I see it, Koshiro, is like this: first, we rob the bank.  Second, we hand them the 
money right back.  Lastly, we laugh at them for their stupidity.  No net loss and no net 
gain for either of us, so nobody is getting hurt or helped, but the cops are getting off our 
case.  Now, ready for the tricky part?"  Zeek nodded energetically, while the 
dumbfounded Koshiro tried to stammer out a protest.  When he couldn't, he sighed 
resignedly and nodded as well.  "Well, if the fact that you can't steal civilian money 
weren't enough, you also can't get caught this time around.  You have to make sure they 
don't even notice the money is missing.  Those LA cops are brilliant, I tell you.  They'll 
make a connection between us and the theft in a heartbeat if they notice something's out 
of the ordinary."  He waved his hand in the air in a dismissing gesture.  "You'll carry out 
the mission tomorrow.  Spend tonight preparing."  The other two cats nodded obediently, 
turned, and padded to the computer room to prepare for the attack.
	"I still can't believe we're resorting to thievery," fumed Koshiro in the hallway.  
"We're an ANTI-terrorist group, not a terrorist one!"
	Zeek chuckled, having thought the same thing many times in the past.  "Terrorist 
or anti-terrorist, we can't get our job done by being 'good' guys all the time.  It just 
doesn't work that way."
	"Yeah, I know," sulked Koshiro.  "But thievery?  From innocents?"
	"Eh, it's not from innocents, remember?  It's just from the city.  Besides, they're 
as guilty of the damages as we are, as I see it.  The cops didn't do squat to stop the 
rioting.  They're cowards, and we have to pick up after them.  Frankly, I think we deserve 
to be paid."
	Koshiro huffed, defeated by his "logic."  "Fine, fine, but let's just get what we 
need."
	They both stayed quiet until they got to the computer room, where they proceeded 
to pick out banks to hit and ways to rob them blind.  They were careful to only choose 
banks that had city money in them, regardless of whether there was civilian money there 
too.  Both of them wished Nicoli was with them, too, so he could help them break into 
the online banks that were becoming more and more popular.

	Nick was always a very light sleeper.  Even the timid knocking at his door was 
enough to wake him up.  He looked at his clock, and then realized he forgot to bring a 
clock.  Grumbling, he got out of bed, straightened his clothes and hair hastily using a 
magical "mirror" he conjured up for a moment, and answered the door.  A rodent he 
hadn't seen before stood on the other side, a female mouse with light brownish-orange 
fur and almond-colored hair.  She looked up at him shyly, being a solid foot shorter than 
he was.  When she made eye contact with him, she blushed and smiled timidly.
	"Hello.  My name is Annabelle," she began in a hushed, high-pitched voice.
	Nicoli was moved by how bashful she seemed and smiled down at her warmly.  
"Hi there.  I'm Nicoli.  Or Nick, if you prefer."  Annabelle nodded her head in 
acknowledgement, turning her head downward to look at the floor.  Nick furrowed his 
eyebrows.  He sensed something odd about her, something different from the other 
furries that he met today.  "Everything okay?" he inquired worriedly.
	Annabelle jerked her head back upward and nodded at him, though her hazel eyes 
betrayed her by welling up with tears.  Nick sensed a lot of fear in them, though he 
couldn't understand what she was afraid of.
	What's wrong?" he asked soothingly, not expecting her to actually tell him.  
	She backed a step or two away from him and swallowed hard.  "N-nothing's 
wrong, Nicoli.  I just came by to say hi, since I heard everyone else did earlier today…"
	"You're afraid of cats, aren't you?" Nick interrupted abruptly.
	Annabelle blinked, the current tears in her eyes disappearing into the fuzz on her 
cheeks before a few more dripped out of the corners of her eyes.  "Wh-what?"  She shook 
her head softly.  "No, that's silly.  I'm just… just shy, that's all…"  Her voice took on a 
tone of desperation, as if she expected the white feline in front of her to attack her at any 
moment.
	He chuckled softly at her, making her jump backwards, almost into the opposite 
wall.  His smile faded when he realized how serious she was.  "I'm shy too, Annabelle, 
but I keep my composure when I meet other people."  He smiled reassuringly.  "If you're 
worried about me trying to hurt you, worry no longer.  I don't attack people for no 
reason."
	She blinked away the tears and nodded, believing him.  It was no use hiding her 
fear from him any longer, now that he figured it out.  "I'm sorry," was all she could 
squeak out.
	"It's alright," he assured her.  After a moment of awkward silence, he thought of a 
new, more upbeat subject to talk about.  "If you don't mind me asking, where were you 
earlier today when everyone was making such a fuss about me moving in?"
	She looked back at the floor, her face turning red again.  "I was in my apartment.  
I was too scared to come and meet you when I heard you were a feline."  Then she 
remembered another fact that seemed to make her feel better.  Looking back at Nick, she 
told him, "There's another pair of furries on this floor you haven't met, y'know.  Not just 
me.  But they're dragons…"
	Nicoli was confused.  "Dragons actually mix with other species?"  He simply 
couldn't believe the uppity, pretentious "nobility of the furre world," as they called 
themselves, would mix with common felines, canines, and rodents.
	Annabelle finally smiled at him, completely over her fear by now.  "You lived in 
one of those all-cat cities, didn't you?"
	"Why is it that everyone picks that up right off the bat?"
	She giggled softly at him, who replied with a chuckle of his own.  "You're 
thinking of the dragons and 'greater' dragons they showed on TV during the war," she 
explained.  "They rarely, if ever, even look at anyone who's not a dragon.  The ones 
down the hall," she pointed toward room 3-4, near the stairs, "are 'lesser' dragons.  
They're much more open-minded and much nicer."
	He was impressed with her knowledge of the dragon race.  "Are there other 
dragons here?"
	"Oh, yes, quite a few.  From the seventh floor on up."  She spied the confusion on 
his face.  "It's a long story."
	"Would you like to come in and explain?  You don't look so comfortable standing 
up," he asked out of the blue.  As soon as he said it, Nick's face turned red again, though 
it didn't show through his fur.
	It showed through Annabelle's, though.  Her cheeks changed from a light brown 
to a deep crimson; she had never been invited into another furre's apartment before.  
"Uh… sure, okay."  She nodded in acceptance with a smile and followed him to the 
couch he had nabbed from his friends back home.  She looked around the room 
nervously, rather impressed with how he did in such a short time.  "I like what you did 
with the place, Nick."
	He sat down in the chair in front of his computer and swiveled to face her.  
"Thank you.  I need to do something with the walls, though.  They're too bland for me."
	She giggled again, starting to relax.  Another brief moment of silence followed 
while they brainstormed topics again.
	"So, anyway, have you been here a while?" he finally inquired.
	She replied with a nod, smiling.  "Been here a long time, probably two years.  I 
know the place in and out."  She frowned slightly, a puzzled look spreading across her 
face as she remembered the conversation they were having a moment ago.  "I'm 
surprised nobody's told you how this place is arranged and whatnot yet."
	Nick looked a little dejected remembering the others.  "Most of them were in a 
hurry, they said."
	"Aww.  That's a shame."
	He shrugged and smiled again.  "No matter.  So, tell me a little about this 
apartment complex, please.  Now I'm curious as to how it's arranged."
	She grinned and nodded.  "Alrighty.  The first floor is the most interesting.  Did 
you look around there when you arrived?"  Nick shook his head slowly.  "Well, there's 
all sorts of fun stuff there.  There's a pool, hot tub, miniature arcade, even a snack shop.  
It's no wonder this place is so huge."
	"Mm… a hot tub, eh?  Nice, very nice."  He smiled to himself and chuckled when 
Annabelle raised her eyebrow confusedly.  He anticipated the question and nodded.  
"Yes, I know.  A cat that likes water.  What can I say?  A nice bath is soothing at the 
right time."
	An amused giggle came from Annabelle.  "I've never heard a male of any race 
say that before."
	He shrugged in reply.  "What can I say?  I'm a bit of an oddball."
	She giggled once more, thoroughly enjoying talking to this "oddball."  "From the 
second floor to the sixth floor, everything is rather simple.  Each floor up has fewer 
rooms, but each one is bigger…"
	Nick was halfway paying attention to her description and partly paying attention 
to her body.  She was a lot different from the rest of the rodents he had seen, excluding 
Kathryn.  They were all skinny as a rail and they looked perpetually pissed off.  They 
were also pretty short.  Annabelle was a little taller than the average he had heard, being 
five foot even, and looked quite jovial once she relaxed.  She also had a little meat on her 
bones, so to speak; she wasn't all skin and bones, but she was far from being labeled as 
chubby.  Just like he liked his females.  He blushed as this brief phrase crossed his mind 
and prayed to Inir that she didn't notice or, in the worst case, hear his thoughts 
telepathically.  Lastly, she had a different taste in clothes.  The other rodents he had seen 
all dressed in jeans or jean-shorts and a t-shirt.  She was wearing khakis and a jungle-
green tank top, making her even more attractive to Nick.  He growled to himself mentally 
and forced himself to focus on what she was saying, and not on her body.
	"… it's such a shame that most of the tenants are canines.  And unfriendly ones at 
that."
	He nodded unconsciously, entering back into the conversation.  "What about the 
seventh floor?"
	Annabelle blinked and smiled sheepishly.  "Well, actually, I exaggerated.  I don't 
know exactly what's up there," she admitted.  "I talked to Kat once about it and she said 
they were private rooms, but that didn't tell me much.  The guards at the door told me 
enough, though."
	Nick's eyes widened with interest.  "Armed guards?  Really?"
	A nod answered his question.  "Yup.  Dragon guards.  And I'm not dumb enough 
to take them on just to see what's behind the door."
	Both of them laughed together.  They were both enjoying the evening together, 
neither of them having spent much time with anyone of the opposite gender, let alone 
different races, before.  Neither of them would admit it, though.  They started to chat 
about everything under the sun:  hobbies, interests, TV, their hometowns, everything but 
their social lives.  They both became silent when that topic came up, either from 
embarrassment or, in Nick's case at least, for lack of anything interesting to talk about.  
All in all, they were pretty much alike:  they both grew up in single-race towns.  They 
both liked video games.  They were both computer nerds who knew more than Bill Gates 
ever dreamed of knowing about technology.  And they were both very introverted in most 
respects.  They had just gotten to the topic of schools before the video phone rang.
	"Eh?"  Annabelle craned her neck to see around Nicoli at the computer screen.  
"Whazzat?"
	If Nick weren't already snow-white, he would have turned white as a sheet at the 
call.  Only Damien, Zeek, and Koshiro knew where he was, and calling at night usually 
meant something he would rather not share with a civilian.  "Oh, uh, it's a friend of 
mine," he explained quickly.  "A good friend.  Just a second, okay?"
	She nodded and watched him curiously as he turned around to the computer.  
With a few hushed whispers, he spun back around.
	"Um, I apologize, but this is a private conversation.  I'm afraid I have to ask you 
to step outside for a few minutes."
	Instead of being mad, as he expected, Annabelle giggled softly.  "I understand," 
she assured him.  "There's plenty that I wouldn't want people to listen to when I'm on the 
phone.  Besides, I have to go anyway."
	"To do what?"  He smiled at her slyly, remembering how she said she "never did 
anything interesting" earlier in the evening.
	She grinned at him.  "Just trying to make sure you don't feel bad."  She got up 
and padded over to him, surprising him with a brief, friendly hug.  "Thanks, Nick," was 
all she said.
	"For what?" he replied, his face once again bright red.
	She smiled at him and stood upright again.  "Just for talking to me."  She turned 
and walked to the doorway before he could reply.  Once she got to the door, she turned 
around again.  "Oh, and one more thing, Nick.  When you get time, move your desk to 
the right a little bit.  All these rooms have a connection to a T1 line."  She giggled again 
at his look of mild shock.  "Hey, what did you think you're paying for?"  With that, she 
trotted out of his room with a quick flick of her tail, leaving the blushing Nick to his 
phone.  He spun back to the monitor once he felt the blood drain back out of his cheeks 
and growled.
	"Thanks a lot, Stripes.  You just made me drive off the only friendly furre I've 
met all day."
	"Don't call me that!" bellowed Zeek.  "I called to get your help, not to be 
antagonized by you."
	A sadistic grin spread across Nick's face.  "That puts me in a position of power, 
doesn't it?"
	"Damien is pissed at you too, Nicoli," Koshiro contributed from the back of the 
room."
	His grin left.  "What's he mad about?"
	"Downtown LA is after us, it seems," Zeek filled him in.  "They found us after 
the little light show we put on in that slum and sent him a letter saying they'd send in the 
bastards in blue if we didn't pay for the damages."
	Nick was positively stunned.  "Holy crap, man!  We must have done hundreds of 
thousands in property damage!"
	"Six hundred forty-four thousand three hundred dollars-worth, actually," piped up 
Koshiro again.
	"Where in the nine circles of Hell are we going to come up with…?"
	"Bank robbery," interrupted Zeek.
	Nicoli wasn't quite sure he heard him right.  "A robbery?  But I thought we were 
the GOOD guys."
	"We're taking money from the city, then handing it back to them in a cute little 
bundle tied with pink ribbon.  Not exactly original, I know, but it's a great idea.  Koshiro 
didn't like it either, but he's over it now."
	He thought this over and found that he couldn't think of a better alternative.  He 
raised an eyebrow at Zeek.  "Well, what do you need me for?  Koshiro is the thief of the 
group, remember?"
	"Am not!"
	Zeek let out a deep belly laugh at them and explained Nick's part to him.  "We 
have no idea where city hides its money.  It's not in any of the banks on record, it's not in 
a big safe in City Hall, it's nowhere to be found.  Not in a public record, at least.  You 
think you can give us a hand and hack their computer archives and tell us where to 
strike?"
	He chuckled, worried he was being recalled to help with the heist.  "While I'm at 
it, I could just swipe all the online dough for myself… er… us."
	Zeek huffed at him annoyedly.  "Where's the fun in that?"
	Koshiro liked the idea, though.  "If it's online, go ahead and transfer it to our 
account," he hollered from the back of the room.
	Another argument erupted between them over how to steal LA's money.  Nick 
shook his head with a grin on his face and opened up a browser window that displayed 
web pages in a combination of hexadecimal and HTML code; it was his prime tool in 
hacking anything electronic from anywhere.  Every major city had a web page, and Los 
Angeles was definitely no exception.  A quick look on its page revealed a hidden link to 
an officials-only web page, where Nick was prompted with a password.  He plugged his 
other prime hacking tool into the Zip disk drive:  a swift code-breaker that could hack 
into the FBI archives in less than thirty minutes.  He gave that control of the computer 
and watched it fiddle with various values in the hexadecimal portions of the web page, 
looking for a way around it.  In the meantime, he brought up his video phone to watch the 
argument between his friends, only to see that it had died down and Zeek was waiting for 
him impatiently.
	"Well?" was all he had to say to Nick.
	"I'm working on it, give me a little time," he retorted.  "You know the Rubik 
takes a while to work."
	Zeek huffed again, wanting to figure out where to strike before it got too late.  
Most of the larger cities always increased security around midnight for some reason or 
another, and if there was one thing Zeek hated, it was cops.  The Rubik let him know 
where to go quickly enough, though.  It broke into the records web site in barely over 
seven minutes.  Switching back to the browser, Nick read the hex as quickly as he could, 
but found some unfortunate news.
	"Well, Zeek, you're not going to be happy about this one," he tried to break the 
news to his tiger ally gently.
	"What is it?" Zeek replied, thoroughly agitated at having to wait so long.
	"There's three places to strike."
	Zeek cringed.  "Well, that's not so bad."
	"One of them is the Online banking account; obviously, I'll take that one.  
Another is a gold reserve.  And a third is full of bonds."
	"Yecch!  Gold.  I hate lugging around gold."
	"But bonds are out of the question," Koshiro observed casually.
	"Well, I'm not doing everything.  Zeek wants to do something, and lugging gold 
is that something.  I'll grab half of the money we need from the online account, and you 
guys get the other half in gold, deal?"
	Zeek nodded.  "Fine, fine, we'll do it."
	"Get cracking on the 'gold' replacements you'll need, then."
	Zeek snickered.  He knew that "gold" replacements meant making gold-colored or 
gold-plated lead bricks of a specific weight, calculable by density of lead and all that 
mathematical drivel.  Koshrio looked confused until Zeek explained this to him; then 
both of them smiled and nodded at Nick.  "Alright.  We'll swipe the gold.  Then what?  
We can't exactly pay in gold, after all."
	 "Give it to another country for cash, then pay the bastards."  Nearly all of the 
civilized countries had converted their money reserves to ones and zeros by now, making 
many a hacker very happy.  Only America was lagging behind for sentimental reasons, 
go figure.  That might make things hard for poor Zeek, but Nick was already busy with 
his own mission, so it wasn't his concern.  "Oh, and one more thing," he added.  "The 
gold reserve IS under City Hall, contrary to what you found."
	Koshiro started up with a childish "I told you so."  Zeek promptly bade farewell 
to Nicoli, assured him that they would do their part, and turned off the phone, sparing 
him from the ensuing pounding he was going to give Koshiro for acting like a kid.  After 
laughing out loud at his crazy sidekicks, he proceeded to break in to the First Online 
Bank of Los Angeles with the aid of his Rubik device.  He sighed to himself while the 
device searched for a valid login and PIN number.  He was on two missions at the same 
time and hadn't made any progress in the first one.  He figured this to be okay, since 
Damien had told him his interview was on Monday, but he still felt like a slacker.  The 
Curse of the Perfectionist, Zeek had called it teasingly, although he himself had a high 
standard for his work.  He watched the monitor as little green digits flashed about his 
custom-made gas-plasma screen, yawning quietly.  The little clock in the corner assured 
him that it was rather late at night, approaching nine o'clock.  Nick smiled to himself, 
remembering where all the time had gone.  He wondered what Annabelle was doing; to 
tell the truth, he hadn't believed her when she made her life sound so boring.  He decided 
to resist the urge to spy on her telepathically.  That would give them something to talk 
about the next time they met.
	He started staring off into space, sighing softly, when a small window appeared 
suddenly on the monitor.  "You look bored," a voice said as the window displayed the 
sound waves generated by the speech.
	Nicoli gasped quietly, then grinned, knowing who it was that was talking to him.  
"Hello, Damocles.  Don't worry, I haven't forgotten about you."  The individual speaking 
to him always had a different name, but its favorite was Damocles.  He was Nick's pet 
project, an artificial intelligence program he had been working on since he was a 
sophomore in college.  He had forgotten about his loyal friend when he moved into the 
apartment and had not rigged up a few hardware components he and Zeek designed, 
specifically, the infrared "eye" through which he could watch the proceedings of the 
whole room.  "I'll have you all set tomorrow, okay?"
	"I find it rather insulting that you spent almost three hours with that rodent when 
you forgot about me, Nick."  The AI finally had mastered inflection; his voice was 
lowered and hurt.
	"I'm sorry, Damocles."  He wondered if the computer had also managed to get the 
hang of jealousy.
	If he had, he didn't show it.  "It's alright.  Do you need help getting into the LA 
bank?"
	He checked the web browser.  "I think the Rubik is handling it, but you can give it 
a hand if you like."
	"You know I don't have hands, Nick."  
	He chuckled at the computer's sarcasm.  "You know what I meant."  He swiveled 
his chair around, stood up, and stretched his arms and legs.  He wondered why he ever 
thought of being a pure Computer Programmer instead of an Engineer; he would 
probably go insane if he had to sit down at a desk for hours upon hours at a time, clicking 
away at a keyboard until Doomsday.  He padded silently to the fridge to look for an 
evening snack, more out of boredom than out of hunger.

	Koshiro coughed violently when he entered the Work room.  He was instantly 
angry with Zeek for not warning him that he would start spray-plating the lead bricks 
without him, then wondered where he got the lead.
	Slipping on a gas mask he pulled out of thin air, he padded up behind Zeek and 
tapped him on the shoulder.  Zeek yelped and jumped forward, which isn't a good thing 
to do when a block of lead is hovering in front of you and is covered in hardening 
"instant plating," an ingenious chemical they had stolen from another terrorist group.
	"Gyaaah!"  Clunk.  "Ow!"  He started to hop around on one foot, cursing Koshiro 
for making him drop the chunk of lead on his foot and turn it a dull golden color.  
Koshiro was doubled over with laughter and barely heard the derogatory comments 
directed at him.  The commotion continued until Zeek was able to concentrate hard 
enough to teleport Koshiro's gas mask back to the supply room, making him inhale a 
cloud of yellow smoke and nearly choke to death.  Then Zeek started laughing and 
Koshiro started cursing.  Eventually, they both calmed down.
	"The hell do you want?  Sneaking up on me like that, I swear…"  Zeek mumbled 
incoherently though his gas mask as he tried to clean his now-gold shirt and foot with 
another Kinetic technique, simply called "Repair."
	"I told you to wait for me," Koshiro retaliated once he got his own mask back.  
"But did you?  No…"  He drew out the "no" for a few seconds to get his point across.
	"I can do this on my own, I don't need help."  Zeek levitated his halfway-plated 
"gold" brick back into the air and picked up the spray-plater to start working again.  
Koshiro followed suit, getting a pre-made lead block and setting it afloat in the air.  
	"Where did you get the lead to make these?" he shouted above the hum of Zeek's 
plater as he started to make the block a brilliant golden color.
	"You don't look in the storage room a whole lot, do you?"  He chuckled, 
sounding like Darth Vader though his gas mask with his deep voice.  "There's all sorts of 
stuff back there, you just have to look.  I think Damien uses the lead either for sculptures 
or bullets, but I can't find any gunpowder, so that leaves sculptures."  Zeek was talking 
more to himself than to Koshiro, who had already started thinking about another 
question.
	"How many bars have you painted so far?"  Zeek didn't hear him, so he raised his 
voice.  "How many of these things have you done already?"  He growled when Zeek was 
still unresponsive and reached out to smack him on the arm.  Zeek's brick wobbled in the 
air and almost fell when he turned his head to glare at Koshiro.
	"What NOW?" he bellowed at him.
	"I SAID how many bricks have you painted?"
	He blinked.  "Oh.  Two," came the simple reply.  "They're down here."  He 
motioned with his free hand toward his feet.
	"I can't see squat in here, Zeek."  Koshiro had to squint just to see what he was 
doing a few inches in front of himself.
	"Trust me, they're there."
	The two of them painted in silence, talking occasionally about whatever struck 
them at the moment.  Typical Zeek-Koshiro chitchat.  They kept plating the lead blocks 
until they had the equivalent of seven hundred thousand dollars worth of gold by volume, 
which was roughly thirty medium-sized chunks that weighed a ton, figuratively speaking.  
Zeek had convinced Koshiro to swipe a little more than they needed as "payment" for 
saving downtown LA from the gangs.  Zeek looked up at a clock through the yellow fog 
and sighed disappointedly.
	"Crap.  It's already ten.  Looks like we'll have to wait till tomorrow to put these 
to good use."
	"They have to harden, anyhoo," Koshiro answered.  "I'm more worried about 
what kind of security they have down there."
	"Down there" referred to the gold repository that Los Angeles still had, which 
was located half a mile underground.  It was only accessible by one elevator, Koshiro had 
noted earlier, which was located in City Hall itself.  Needless to say, neither of them had 
any idea whatsoever how to get down there.
	"We have to figure out how to get down there unseen first, Koshiro."
	"We?  You mean me."  Koshiro started to leave the room, heading to the living 
room to sit down after the time-consuming work of making fake gold bricks.  "If it were 
up to you, this mission would have a higher body count than Hiroshima."
	"We're even.  I'm over-zealous and you're a wuss."  He chuckled to himself, 
laughing harder when Koshiro started to turn red with anger.
	"Wuss?  I'm careful, not a wuss!"
	"I'm surprised you're not dead, too."
	"I'm surprised YOU'RE not dead!"
	The constant bickering was starting to annoy Damien, who happened to be in 
earshot down the hall in the kitchen.  "Oh, both of you just die and save my ears some 
trouble," he shouted down at them to shut them up.  Contrary to his predictions, it 
backfired and drew their attention to him, making the argument that much larger.

	Nicoli's computer sighed audibly.
	"What?" Nick said through the Twinkie in his mouth.
	"Your friends are arguing about something stupid again," came the metallic reply.
	Removing the Twinkie, Nick laughed to himself and shook his head amusedly.  
"They never stop, do they?"
	"Not since I've been around."
	He sat back down in his recliner and switched back to the web browser that 
showed LA's bank account.  A smile crossed his face when he found that the Rubik was 
done and he was logged into their account.  "Excellent, excellent," he muttered, returning 
the Twinkie to his mouth so he could type with both hands.  A few keystrokes activated 
the Rubik's "Bank Macro," a set of commands Nick devised to make his thefts of 
ungodly amounts of money nigh untraceable.  First, the Rubik logged him on to thirty 
more banks in the feline continent of Europe, where he had savings accounts under thirty 
different names.  The Rubik then transferred random amounts of money between one 
hundred and three thousand dollars to each account, which Nick found was the average 
"unsuspicious" amount; nobody really looked into transfers of less than five thousand 
dollars.  Once these transfers were done, it ordered the transfer of that money to one of 
those accounts chosen at random.  The command looped again, using thirty of Damien's, 
Koshiro's, and Zeek's "names" and bank accounts.  Once the Rubik was done doing its 
dirty work, Nick had nabbed three hundred and twenty thousand dollars, a little less than 
half of what he needed.  The whole ordeal took no more than fifteen or twenty minutes, 
which was the true beauty of the Rubik.
	"Mission accomplished," Nicoli chimed happily as he logged out and put the 
Rubik back in its black box.  "Now to trust them to get the other half of the loot."
	"What are you going to do now?" Damocles inquired.
	His question was met with a yawn.  "I think I'll hit the hay.  I'm tired."
	A hint of dejection crept into Damocles' digitized voice.  "Already?  It's kind of 
early, you know."
	He smiled at his computerized friend.  "Yeah, there's not much else to do.  You 
just wanna chat, don't you?"
	"Well, you did forget about me when everyone else came over, and you talked to 
them…"
	"Oh, I get it."  He let out an amused chuckle.  "I never knew you had learned 
jealousy, Damocles.  Well, don't worry, I'll shoot the breeze with you first thing in the 
morning, alright?"
	After a short delay, he replied, "Okay.  Good night, Nick, and rest well."
	"Night, Damocles."  He shut him down with a few mouse clicks and padded to 
the bedroom, flopping down on his cushy bed with another yawn.  He was too tired to 
brush his teeth.  "Eh, one night won't kill me," he thought out loud.  After stripping down 
to his boxers, he slipped in under his down comforter and dozed off, ending his first day 
in the apartment with happy thoughts about the other furres he had met that day.

	Zeek and Koshiro were not so fortunate.  Damien ordered them to get working on 
their mission ASAP after their argument ended, which put them in the heart of LA at ten-
thirty at night, right in the middle of its modernized City Hall building.  They had decided 
to initially watch the guards there to look for an opportunity to rush the elevator and get 
to the gold down below.
	"This sucks," mumbled Zeek as Koshiro distracted the guards near the entrance 
with childish questions about their routine.  He pulled out one of Nick's little "toys," a 
transceiver the size of a pinto bean, and placed it on the top of a nearby security camera.  
He nearly had a heart attack when he turned to the right and saw a guard turning the 
corner at the other side of the room, and he quickly slid to the side, acting as 
inconspicuous as he could.  Koshiro didn't see he was finished, though, and continued 
questioning the guards until they got pissed off at him and escorted him out the front door 
violently.  Zeek soon followed, pulling out a small PDA.
	"Let's see, now…" he muttered as he patched into the camera through the 
transceiver.  "You wanna watch, too?"
	"Sure," came Koshiro's bored reply as he brushed himself off.
	They both sat down at a close-by bench and watched the low-resolution images 
the PDA was picking up from the camera for a while.  The elevator they wanted was 
located in the main lobby of City Hall.  It was labeled as being "out of order" and was 
situated at the end of the line of working elevators that led to the upper floors.  There 
were guards constantly in the lobby, making it nearly impossible to get to the elevator 
without attracting attention.  If that wasn't enough, neither of them had any idea how 
many cameras were in the rooms they needed to pass through.  There were a total of 
seven they saw in the lobby alone, including a camera hidden behind a reflective dome on 
the ceiling.
	"How in the nine Hells are we going to get in undetected?" Zeek whispered after 
watching the guards pace around for fifteen minutes.
	Koshiro started to point at the far hallway on the PDA screen, but stopped 
suddenly.  "No, that won't work," he whispered back
	"Maybe we could knock them all out?"
	"We have to make sure they don't remember it, and I think they'll recall that.  
Especially if they drop in mid-step."
	Zeek chuckled, imagining the multiple guards dropping to the floor in heaps of 
flesh and clothing.  "That'd be a hoot to watch, though."
	Koshiro rolled his eyes and leaned back against the bench.  He remained silent as 
he continued to think of ways to break into the gold reserve, while Zeek watched the 
PDA for a little while longer.
	"What's a floor up?" he asked suddenly.
	"Huh?"
	"I asked what's above the lobby.  Maybe we can get into the elevator through the 
top, instead of the front.
	 Koshiro pondered this for a moment, then shook his head.  "No, it doesn't go any 
higher than the lobby.  Therefore, the machinery that works the elevator is just above it, 
on the second floor."
	Zeek frowned, but decided to stay on the topic of entering from the top.  "What 
about the vault itself?  Maybe we can dig into it from out here."
	"There's a Psi-Barrier around this place."
	Zeek waved his paw in the air, moving a few pebbles around on the ground.  "No 
there isn't."
	Koshiro perked up.  "There isn't?"  Zeek moved the pebbles again to show him.  
"Well, I'll be damned!  Those cops aren't as smart as we thought!"
	"Not so loud."
	He grinned sheepishly and lowered his voice back to a whisper.  "Good idea, 
Zeek.  Let's try digging into it.  It shouldn't take long if Damien will help us."
	"Why Damien?"
	"Well, he's an Earth Psionicist.  He can get us there quickly and efficiently."
	"I can blast out way there," Zeek retorted, looking proud of himself.
	Koshiro only looked annoyed.  "We can't be seen, remember?"
	"Oh, right.  Well, where can we dig, then?  There's more guards out here than in 
City Hall."
	"I hate cops," they both muttered in unison.
	"Looks like we'll have to tunnel in from afar," Koshiro pondered aloud.
	The PDA's little red LED started to blink, indicating a new message.
	"Looks like Damien was eavesdropping," Zeek said as he read the e-mail out 
loud.  "Look, you lunkheads, how thick do you think a safe's walls are?  Think that times 
two.  There's no way you can drill into the repository without setting off an alarm inside 
it.  Use the damn elevator, and that's final."  He turned the PDA off and growled softly.  
"Use the elevator," he repeated in a mocking tone.  "Ha!  I'd like to see him do it."
	Koshiro shrugged.  "Guess we'll just have to keep watching the guards and 
looking for an opening."
	Zeek answered his suggestion with a yawn.  "Tomorrow.  I'm tired.  And you 
know what happens after midnight."
	"Yeah.  No way we'll get through twice as many of them."
	"Oh well.  I don't care what Damien told us to do, I'm going home."  He handed 
the PDA to Koshiro.  "Here.  Set it up to record what the camera sees."
	"Why me?" Koshiro growled, taking the PDA.
	"Because you have it, sucker."  He laughed and teleported back to his room, 
leaving Koshiro fuming after him.  He turned back to the PDA and noticed something 
odd.
	"Huh?  They're all gone!"  He couldn't believe what he was seeing.  All the 
guards had vanished from the lobby.  Instead of questioning his luck, Koshiro called Zeek 
back telepathically.
	"What in the hells do you want NOW?" Zeek bellowed as he returned to their 
bench.
	"Look!"  Koshiro shoved the PDA in his face.  "No guards!"
	"Well, that's weird.  I wonder where they went."
	"Who cares?  Let's override the cameras and get in while we can!"
	Zeek grinned.  "Now you're speaking my language."  He snatched the PDA back 
from Koshiro and pressed a few buttons.  The transceiver on the camera sent a small 
electronic pulse into the camera, freezing it where it was and deactivating it.  The only 
way anyone would notice is if they looked at the time on the monitor showing what the 
camera sees; it was frozen, too.  All of the cameras in the building were similarly 
affected, but that didn't matter much.
	
	"Wow!" all the guards howled in unison.  They cheered at the big screen TV in 
the Rec room installed by popular demand on the second floor, hooting and cheering at 
the robots on screen.  BattleBots was their favorite show, and it happened to come on at 
eleven at night, which was more than fortunate for Zeek and Koshiro.  Unfortunately for 
them, the replacement guards scheduled to start their shift at midnight marched their way 
toward the lobby an hour early.

	"Get moving!"
	Zeek huffed under the weight of the gold bars.  "Give me a break, these things are 
heavy!"
	Koshiro opened the elevator door and stepped in, holding it open until Zeek had 
entered too.  They both listened intently as footsteps rung out in the lobby behind the 
door.  They started sweating, hoping they wouldn't check the elevator.
	"Now what?" Zeek mouthed silently.
	"We can't move now," he mouthed back.
	"We have to."
	"They'll hear us!"
	The footsteps started to fade, the guard making them moving farther down the 
hall.  Zeek decided they had to move then and turned to Koshiro.  "What's the code?" he 
whispered to Koshiro.  The elevator had a keypad on the inside, instead of outside the 
door.
	"I don't know," he snapped back angrily and silently.  "Give me a minute."  
Koshiro kneeled and pulled a vial of powder out of a pouch around his waist.  He took 
out a handful and blew it on the keypad, looking carefully for fingerprints, claw marks, or 
shreds of fur on the keys used in the code.  "Four… nine… zero... and three.  Those are 
the ones with marks on them."
	"Well, start pushing them!" Zeek hissed.
	The code took Koshiro two tries to get right: 0934.  The elevator was surprisingly 
quiet in its operation, and surprisingly fast.  Zeek and Koshiro both felt nearly weightless 
as they plummeted down the shaft.
	"Huh.  Guess the LA police aren't as smart as we thought they were, leaving this 
elevator in plain view."  Zeek chuckled, enjoying their momentary success.
	"Rather clever, though.  Leave what you don't want people to find in plain view, 
only disguise it as something mundane.  And in this case, broken."  Koshiro sighed with 
relief, grateful that they weren't dead yet.  "Nice going with the bug."
	"Thanks.  Good job bugging the hell out of the guards." 
	Koshiro chuckled and nodded.  "Hey, it was fun."  A puzzled look crossed his 
face.  "Do you think this is too easy?" he asked Koshiro.
	"Easy is good, don't question luck."
	Zeek shrugged.  "Still… aw, nevermind."
	The elevator's descent slowed after a few minutes.  They both looked around for a 
place to hide, in case guards were there to greet them, but there's really nowhere to go in 
an elevator.  The door took up the entire front of the elevator, leaving them no wall to 
protect themselves behind once it opened.  As the elevator jolted to a halt, they prepared 
to fight, instead of run.  The door slid open, revealing a short corridor with no signs of 
life.  Koshiro, confused, stepped out of the elevator.
	"Well, this is new."  He looked up and stared directly into a camera on the 
opposite wall.  The red light on the front of it was off, showing it was connected to the 
same circuit as the ones in the lobby.  The opposite door resembled a safe, though it was 
much smaller, about the same size as standard double doors.  Another keypad sat 
innocently to the side of the door, along with a retinal scanner.
	"Well, it's simple and to the point," Zeek commented as he took a step out and 
placed the bag of "gold" on the floor.  "Now how do we get in?  I doubt out retinal 
patters are valid."
	"How about another one of those bugs?"
	"They only work on cameras.  I don't think we have anything to get around those 
things."  Zeek motioned to the scanner.
	Koshiro thought for a moment in silence.  "Well, we can't cut out way in.  
Someone will notice that as soon as they come down here."
	His partner shrugged.  "What choice do we have?  Besides, I doubt anyone will be 
down here for a while.  Why would they?  To admire the gold?" 
	"Fine, we'll cut through," Koshiro conceded with a sigh.  He padded up to the 
safe's door, pulling out a small object resembling a laser pointer.
	"I wonder why there aren't any guards here," Zeek muttered aloud after a 
moment.  "Or booby traps." 
	"They probably have escorts from the lobby and booby traps in the safe itself."  
Koshiro turned the pointer on and placed it near the edge of the door.  Sparks flew as the 
laser emitting from the device cut a hole in the door the size of a pencil toward the right 
edge.  Koshiro looked through the hole and winced.  "Crap.  This thing is thick as hell."
	"Well, get moving already!"  Zeek stretched his arms out above his head, 
enjoying the sound of his shoulders popping.  He still looked worried about their mission.  
"I still say this is too easy.  I have a bad feeling about it all."
	"I wonder what kind of alarms are behind this thing," Koshiro muttered as he cut 
a line along the height of the door, ignoring Zeek completely..  He moved the pointer to 
the left, making another line long enough to fit himself through if he turned sideways.  
After he completed his makeshift "door" with another cut, he motioned for Zeek to come 
over to him.  "Gimmie a hand with this thing," he instructed. 
	Zeek saluted him mockingly and padded over.  "It's about time.  Now move 
aside, let the big guy through."  Koshiro moved to the left on command and Zeek took his 
position in front of the severed door, which was balanced upright on the floor.  Zeek put 
all eight of his fingers on the top of the slab and pulled toward him, grunting with the 
effort.  After a few seconds of straining, the door started to lean toward him.  Zeek caught 
it with a grin and tried picking it up with the aid of his chest, but only managed to drag it 
backwards a few inches.  He growled and walked backwards, easing the door to the floor.  
"Voila!  Go right on in."
	"Nice.  But keep your voice down."  He motioned through the now-open 
doorway.  "There's some acoustic sensors in there."
	"Aha!" Zeek whispered.  "I knew there'd be something like that around here 
somewhere.  Are there any lasers?"
	   Koshiro poked his torso through the door and glanced about.  "I don't see any," 
he whispered back to Zeek.  "Just the acoustic things."
	"Okay, now I'm really worried…"
	"Oh, shut up."  He stepped through the door and turned around.  "Now hand me 
the…"  The humming of the elevator starting back up cut him off.  "Oh hell…"
	Zeek whirled around, wide-eyed and sweating.  "Wha…?  Aww, shit, now we're 
screwed!"  Despite his terror, he somehow managed to continue whispering.
	"Oh well!  Move it!  Give me the bag!  Let's at least try to do what we came here 
for!"
	In a flash of orange fur, Zeek retrieved the bag of lead blocks and handed it to 
Koshiro.  He disappeared into the safe while Zeek watched him through the doorway, 
which was too small for him to fit through.  "Faster!" he whispered after him.
	"I'm going as fast as I can!"  Koshiro exchanged the fake bricks with the real ones 
at a speed that amazed Zeek, who watched him swap five of them in less than thirty 
seconds.  Another two and a half minutes was all it took for them to get their loot 
together.  He hopped back out of the safe and tugged the bag out with him.  "Now what?" 
he hissed to Zeek in a panicked tone.
	Zeek only shrugged at him and sighed quietly.  "Let's try to weld that piece of the 
door back in."
	"We can't.  It'll never look like it did.  Besides, it took me half an hour just to 
open it up."
	He tried to blame this snafu on Koshiro, but couldn't think of how he could have 
worked any faster and remain unnoticed.  "I knew this seemed too easy!" was all he 
could mutter.
	"Well, you were right, okay?"  His mind was buzzing with last-ditch ideas.  He 
darted toward the elevator door.  "Help me short this thing out!" he called back to Zeek.
	"No way!  If we did that, we'd never get out!"
	"Come on, just do it!  I have an idea."  Koshiro pulled out his laser pointer and cut 
the keypad next to the elevator open, leaving the circuitry intact.  "Did Nicoli ever teach 
you how to short out things like this?"
	Zeek padded up to the keypad and pointed to a pair of red wires.  "Cut these and 
switch 'em."
	Koshiro didn't bother to waste time asking him how he knew that and did as 
instructed.  Nothing happened.  "Now what, genius?" he growled to Zeek, turning 
crimson with frustration and fear.
	"I dunno, I just picked a few wires at random.  You try."
	"We don't have time!"  They both panicked together for a few minutes before 
resolving to fight whatever came though the door.  A quiet ding announced the return of 
the elevator.  They both got into combat stances at the door opened, revealing the one 
individual solely responsible for scaring the living hell out of them.
	"Mission accomplished," Damien said with a grin.  He laughed at their looks of 
shock.  "You two oughta see your faces."
	"Damien!" Koshiro yelled at him, forgetting about the acoustic sensor behind 
him.
	"Quiet, or we're all dead!" Damien warned him with a scowl.
	"Why are you down here?  How did you get here?"  Zeek was just full of 
questions, which the black feline silenced with a chuckle.
	 "After hearing your idea for tunneling in here, I thought you might need some 
help.  Guess I was right."  He motioned toward the hole they cut out of the door.  "Let's 
fix that up, shall we?"
	Both Zeek and Koshiro heaved sighs of relief and nodded, thankful for the help.  
They all worked together to weld the door shut again, making use of the oxyacetylene 
torch Damien snuck in.  Once they had repaired the safe, they piled into the elevator with 
the gold and made their way back to the lobby.  Damien stepped out first and turned to 
the nearby canine guard.
	"Evenin', sir," the guard said.  "How did your check go?"
	"Everything's secure.  A fly couldn't get in without being noticed.  I had no idea 
how effective such a simple setup could be."
	He nodded with a smile.  "Your associates couldn't get in, eh?"
	Damien turned to his friends with a grin.  "Nope.  They only managed to override 
the cameras."  He pulled the bug they had placed on the lobby camera out of his pocket 
and showed it to the guard.  "They used this to hack the closed-circuit camera network 
and shut the whole thing down."
	Zeek and Koshiro stood motionless while the guard chortled at Damien and took 
the transceiver.  "Well, I guess that's it," he said.  "We'll be seeing you again next year, I 
take it?"
	"Yup.  Come on boys, let's go.  Grab your tools."  Damien motioned for the 
others to follow as he padded out of City Hall.  Zeek and Koshiro followed with 
dumbfounded looks on their face.  Together, they teleported back to Damien's office for 
their debriefing.

	"Okay, what just happened?" Zeek stammered out, still confused beyond all 
belief.
	"Check your PDA," was all Damien replied with.
	Koshiro took the PDA out of his pocket and read the new message out loud; it 
was short and too the point.  "You don't stand a chance.  I'm coming."
	"Hmph.  We did well," Zeek grumbled.
	"Yes, but that laser of Koshiro's is for cutting, not welding.  You would never 
have made the door look natural.  Besides, it's time for their annual security check-up, 
which is how I got in."  He removed a small bronze badge from his pocket and placed it 
on his desk.  The other two stared down at it; it identified Damien as being an inspector 
from Ainix Security, Inc., from whom the city of LA buys all their security devices.
	"Looks real to me," Koshiro observed.  "Where'd you learn what they looked 
like?"
	"I found a picture of one on Ainix's homepage."
	Zeek chuckled.  "And you said the LA cops were smart."
	"But as you saw, most of the guards are canines.  The ones on the street, like the 
ones that followed you, are felines."
	"Lucky us," Koshiro and Zeek said at the same time.  They all laughed together, 
but Zeek had one more question.
	"If you had that badge, why didn't you just help us from the start?"
	"Yeah, why not?" Koshiro backed him up.
	Damien replied with another sly grin of his.  "Well, you were bored.  Why should 
I work when you will for me?  Besides, what do you think I pay you for?"
	Damien dismissed them, permitting them to finally go to bed.  They both fell 
asleep as soon as they plopped into their beds, both of them missing Nicoli immensely.  It 
had been so long since they had to split up that they forgot how boring it was without him 
around.
----------------------------
To be continued ASAP.  ^.^

-M2D