The Robbers immediately split up into three groups as per the original plan. The first group would be comprised of Eva Sion and Darken Mysterius, whose main jobs were to evade capture and stay alive. Fairé Enuff and Locke Smith began to recon the second level in order to steal the sauce, whilst Haxxx and Dee Seption were on support.
On the Cops end, Over Thortit and Shu d'Ferst were on offense, whilst Gude, Bade and Norton headed up to the second level, aiming to hopefully set up their base in the Kitchen area, whilst at the same time securing "the Secret Sauce".
And yet, things immediately got a little strange.
First of all, there appeared to be another Cop in their squad that they didn't recognise.
"Who are you?"
"My name's Inspector Ross. I'm a Cop too."
___
The Robbers had encountered the same issue. There appeared to be another guy present who was apparently also a Robber.
"Uh... Who are you?"
"My name's Steyk. I'm a Robber as well..."
___
The Second Level of course, was where the preliminary skirmish began. The Cops had arrived at the Kitchen, quickly secured "the Secret Sauce", and set up their defenses.
However, they didn't have it easy. That was because Dee Seption and Haxxx were already messing with them to buy time for Faire and Locke Smith to get a chance to "Steal the Secret sauce" for themselves.
Nortón set up his preliminary defense, Fire Wall, but it was frankly, quite sh** and Haxxx easily bypassed it like a fist through soggy toilet paper. The Cops' comms were immediately inundated with Haxxx's trash talk and rendered useless.
Nortón grimaced, but there was nothing he could do.
Over Thortit scowled. He made a mental note to slash his funding at the next budget meeting.
No matter. Nortón might still be useful, he figured…
The Cops therefore ditched the comms and began to rely on their individual talent.
Whilst in Norton's case, this was nothing to write home about, luckily, the other members were actually quite good at what they did.
As Haxxx let out a snicker, Over Thortit immediately triangulated their position from the sound, and made a secret motion to Shu d'Ferst, who fired with exceptional precision, headshot-ing him using just one bullet.
That was one down.
___
Holy sh**...
That was terrifying.
Dee Seption had fortunately thrown out a mirage causing Shu d'Ferst to miss them, but it had been a near thing.
___
Meanwhile, Gude and Bade had gotten some ideas.
"Hey Bade, did you hear of some guy called Inspector Ross who's meant to be a Cop?"
"Nah man. Can't say that name's crossed my mind." Bade was confused.
"But he could be telling the truth right?" Gude said.
"Yeah. or he could be lying… He might actually be a Robber who's just pretending to be a Cop." Bade replied.
"Maybe we should give him a chance." Gude suggested.
"Maybe we should just kill him to be safe." Bade countered.
"But if he's actually a Cop, then wouldn't we be killing our own?"
There was only one way to find out.
"Uh, guys... I'm right here..."
Inspector Ross obviously wasn't used to this, in particular, the entire exchange had taken place as they casually chatted - right in front of him.
"Well, in that case, gents, perhaps we should start our collaboration…"
"Not so fast. We don't know if you really are who you say you are…"
"We're gonna have to get you to answer some questions…"
"Get him."
Inspector Ross paled as he suddenly realised what was going to happen, but it was too late.
He put up a valiant struggle, but all too soon, his head was covered with a hessian cloth bag, and everything went black…
___
Meanwhile, Steyk Steeler was a bit smarter, though that wasn't saying much, and not by a lot.
"Oh, don't mind me. I'm not a Cop, I'm just here for the Steaks."
"So… you're a Robber? What do you do?"
"Well… I'm good at steeling things."
Hmm… Fairé hadn't heard of a Steyk Steeler being part of their squad, but anyone who wasn't a threat was a potential ally.
"Well… In that case, we need you to do an initiation… to make sure you're one of us."
"Sure. What do you have in mind?"
"Our primary aim is to stay alive, but since we are Robbers, we need to steal as well."
"It's kinda like part of our Identity yeah."
"Like, who we are. You know, being authentic to our true selves."
"For me. My calling is picking locks. And other things too." Locke said, as he picked his nose.
"And I, I love tricking people into believing something that isn't actually true." Dee Seption smiled.
"I like hacking things, computers, body parts, and also starring in Adult movies. It's part of my core identity." Haxxx said.
"I like being Fair, skincare, and feeling worthy, like I'm enough." said Fairé Enuff.
"I'm Eva. I like dodging and avoiding things. It started off with homework, but now, I also save a lot of money on my taxes too."
Steyk's heart tenderised, as he took in these… authentic people.
Initially, he had been considering just killing everyone in order to reach the Steak Dinner, but now… now he felt seen, understood, like he had made friends.
"I'm in."
"So... what would you have me do?"
___
Accordingly, Steyk had decided that he was all in. He would help the "Robbers" for real, to steal the Secret Sauce, and they would all enjoy the Steak dinner together!!!!