Bulwark and Scarlet neared the door to the hideout, however, it was slightly open and the flickering lights from inside leaked out into the dank exterior tunnels.
Scarlet trot ahead and took up a position near the door, listening intently for anyone who might be inside. She could her the slight murmur of voices and assumed it was Access and Sheet Rock who’d managed to get there before they did.
Bulwark however stopped her before she could pull open the door, and without words spoken, implied they should wait for a moment.
“Mister Coffee, I don’t have much patience left.” Riot growled.
“They’ll be here, Riot.” Chilled Coffee assured. “I told them exactly what you told me to.”
“As I understand it, you said this place was shared. How can you be sure that they themselves will show up?” Riot said as he scanned over the messy hideout.
Chilled Coffee frowned. “Either way you’ll get what you want.”
Riot nodded. “Yes, I suppose I will. I hope for your sake that I do, I’m about at my limit for your stalling ways.”
Outside the hideout, Bulwark and Scarlet were in disbelief, and they each drew their weapons and reached over to the door’s catch, and with a nod to Scarlet, Bulwark booted the door open.
Every storage space that they could see had been broken into, their terminals sat broken on the ground, and every nook and cranny had been ripped open in search of whatever the two had been looking for.
Bulwark was merely upset at the situation, but Scarlet was positively livid with Chilled Coffee at what he’d done.
“Chilled.” she stated plainly. “Talk. Now.”
“This isn’t what it looks like.” he said hurriedly.
“It doesn’t take a brain surgeon to know what you were referring to, Chilled.” Bulwark added. “We aren’t stupid. You seem to forget we look out for our own, like we looked after you.”
“You always got a cut of the pay we received from jobs, why did you have to work with this maniac against Access and Sheet, and then have the bucking audacity to do it to us too?”
“Spare me the lecture, you don’t have families to take care of, or responsibilities for that matter!” Chilled Coffee barked. “Does that justify my actions? Probably not, but I had to do what’s best.”
“I’m sensing some animosity here.” Riot remarked as he drew his own weapon, a rather nasty looking heavy caliber sidearm covered in runes. “How about we talk like civilized ponies for a moment before we start blasting?”
The room felt like a powder keg that was dangerously close to exploding and both sides weighed their options, though neither wanted to start a fight in such close quarters, instead, Chilled Coffee attempted to cool things down.
“Look, we all knew this was going to happen eventually. Access and Sheet have been doing this for years and eventually, someone was going to take notice.”
Scarlet growled and fired off a single warning round into the concrete at Chilled Coffee’s hooves. “Keep your mouth shut, and stay right where you are. You’ll leave when we tell you to.”
“Actually Mr Coffee, how about you ignore her so myself and these ponies can have a civilized discussion?” Riot ordered. “You’ve done your part, so leave and never speak of this again.”
Apprehensively, he walked toward the door, but as he did so Scarlet whirled around in anger and went to fire off another shot at Chilled Coffee. Her anger would be short lived as Riot fired a shot of his own into Scarlet’s hind leg and she collapsed into a heap on the floor.
Bulwark growled gruffly and readied his weapon, and himself, for a firefight but a small and disturbing chuckle from Riot gave him pause.
“Lower your weapon and we can talk, you’ll give me my employer’s stolen property and then you may go about your day.” he warned. “The moment you start shooting is the moment my team storms the tunnels, granted you just might frag me, but you wont be getting out to alert your friends.”
“What would I have to gain? I’m old, I don’t have much to lose.”
“Apart from your friend there. You should probably tend to that wound of hers.”
Snowy and the newly modified van hurtled down the street at high speed toward the market, and by extension, the bar. He’d completed his modifications ahead of time but found himself doing ‘just one more thing’ before he brought it to them, he may be a synthetic but his sense of pride and duty often overrode his common sense.
After a brief drive through the damp streets of the sprawl, Snowy pulled up beside his companions, and with a slight smile he got out of the drivers seat and presented the newly modified and improved van to his companions.
“So this is why you didn’t come with us.” Star remarked, inspecting the van with a certain level of intrigue.
Snowy shrugged. “I figured I’d make myself useful while you were gone.”
“So what did improvements did you make?” Access asked as he approached the side door.
“I’m glad you asked, bare with me.” Snowy said as he remotely opened the side door.
Inside was rack after rack of weapons, various forms of equipment, boxes full to the brim of medical supplies, and finally, multiple additional seats which were all upholstered in luxury black leather. The sheer amount of storage space Snowy had packed into the back of such a small van was astounding, and yet everything they had bought from Ammo Can earlier was here.
“How did you even fit this all in here?” Access said. “Better yet, how did you afford it all?”
“Trade secret.” Snowy joked. “In truth, the young miss has many favors with many different kinds of pony and I thought it was time to cash them in.”
“She just lets you do that?”
“She trusts me to make the right decisions, if that’s what you’re getting at.”
“Are we ever going to meet these benefactors of yours? I have a few requests that I’m sure they could fill.” Access asked hopefully, his hooves raised into a pleading gesture.
Snowy smiled a little and strapped himself into the rear seat sat opposite the side door, he didn’t answer but his expression said volumes. The rest of the crew clamber into the front three seats and buckle up, unaware of the situation they’d soon be faced with.
Bulwark and Scarlet were distressingly quiet, and it was expected they would’ve checked in by now but they hadn’t, despite clear instructions not to charge in without using their heads.
Sheet Rock started up the engine and pulled away from the curb, and nudged Access in the side gently. “Explain what’s gonna happen from this point forward, I need to keep an eye out.”
Access nodded.
“Really though, this is for your benefit, Star, Snowy. You’ve inadvertently done the first part of the plan for us though, that being packing up the useful stuff.”
“The second being finding somewhere to hide, yes?” Star remarked.
“Yes, exactly!” Access chuckled. “Good thing we already have somewhere we can do precisely that.”
“That’s assuming Bulwark and Scarlet didn’t run into any trouble.” Sheet Rock added. “They haven’t checked in yet.”
“It’s far underground in the ruined area of the north sprawl, basically nobody goes there and even fewer even venture underground.”
“It’s the perfect hiding spot then.” Star said, a little relieved.
“Young miss, please temper your expectations. We still need to make sure any miscreants haven’t made their home there.”
“Present company aside, of course.” Access pointed out, a large smile on his face.