THE x HEIST x UNDER x THE x GRID
⟢───── Ashes × Aether ─────⟣
NATION OF X’OMNERA — THE BACKLINE APPROACH TO THE TOWERS DISTRICT
The alley stayed quiet long after the last drone vanished.
Triple Kill didn’t move at first.
Rain not killing them wasn’t comfort, but it was information.
Talla broke the silence. Her voice low, almost thinking aloud.
“Why let us walk?”
Riven wiped rain water from his jaw. “Maybe we weren't his target.”
“No,” Set said, eyes still on the empty sky. “He read us. He came down here for a reason.”
Talla nodded slowly. “Yeah. But not to stop us.”
The realization hit all three at the same time a pressure behind the ribs.
Rain had every drone in a ten-block radius hovering over them.
Rain had their signatures.
Rain had their faces, their breathing patterns, their tells.
And he still walked away.
Riven let out a breath like he had just confirmed it to himself. “Guys like that don't miss.”
“He didn’t miss,” Set said. “He got what he came for,"
"Just can't figure out what that was."
Set finally turned toward The Spire. The massive crystalline tower cutting the rain into shards of silver.
Talla’s tail lowered, the unease settling into her posture. “That's the part eating at me.”
Riven exhaled. “Yeah, then what was that? A warning?”
“No,” Set said quietly. "A dec—"
Just then, a distant rumble rolled through the district.
A boom from far north, deep in the industrial blocks.
Riven’s eyes snapped toward the sound. “That wasn’t thunder.”
Talla put it together faster. “Cartel's making its move.”
Set didn’t look away from The Spire.
If the cartel just hit the XPA depot…
Rain would almost certainly respond.
Meaning every drone, every circuit, every free enforcer would pivot north.
“…Otto just gave us our window,” Set said posture readying.
Riven let out a low whistle. “So Ottos playing chess, and this whole time I thought he was using us as the ploy.”
"Dudes annoys me, but I gotta give it to em'"
Talla tied her hood tighter. “Ok. Then we go now.”
Riven nodded once. Set was already in motion.
No hesitation.
They ran through the rain toward The Spire.
Three hunters on a mission, slipping into the only blind spot X’Omnera would have all night.
And none of them forgot the truth pressing behind their ribs:
Rain didn’t spare them.
He just targeted the bigger prey.
⟢───── Ashes × Aether ─────⟣
The backline doors of The Spire weren’t meant for citizens. Only workers who didn’t ask questions.
TK slipped through a drainage trench, climbed the service ladder, and pressed into the narrow gap behind the coolant pipes. The building hummed around them. Mechanical and racing with energy.
Riven checked the first corner.
Just like he did at Lilly's, he placed two fingers on the wall.
Tap.. Tap.. Tap.
“Two guards. Light patrol. They’re distracted.”
He wasn’t guessing. He felt the pattern of their boots.
Slow turns, lazy pauses, the kind of pace men walk when they think the action is happening somewhere else.
Talla kneeled forward, tail flat, eyes scanning the dark.
“They pulled half the floor to cover downtown. Otto was right.”
Set didn’t acknowledge it. His attention was on the rectangular outline of the maintenance hatch ahead.
He pressed fingertips to the latch. Listened.
Inside: nothing. No shift of weight. No breathing. No cycling gear.
Perfect.
They slipped in.
The maintenance corridor was colder than expected.
Lined with dormant generators and outdated engineering frameworks coated in dust. It looked abandoned, forgotten in an expansion rush years ago.
Riven whispered, “This is exactly the type of place people go missing and you never hear about them again.”
Set nodded once. “Storage should be at the end.”
They moved.
Quiet.
Precise.
Every step measured, every sound accounted for.
Halfway down the corridor, a light flickered. The only active bulb in the entire hall.
And beneath it stood a man.
Mid-40s. Soft uniform. Holding a data pad.
Maintenance staff.
He turned at the sound of their steps.
His face shifted instantly from tired annoyance… to realization.
Fear widened his eyes.
“You— you can’t be in here,” he stammered. “This level is restricted. Identify your—”
He stopped when he saw Set’s pupils narrow, the talons on his hands, the tension in his shoulders.
He knew exactly what they were.
Summoners.
Not the nice kind.
“…You’re not with the cartel, are you?”
Riven smirked.
Talla’s ears lowered.
Set was cold.
“Nah, we're just visiting,” he said, tone low.
The air thinned.
A single decision hung between all four bodies.
Talla was the first to move. One step forward, quiet, ready.
Riven shifted weight, eyes cutting to the ceiling checking for cams.
Set didn’t move at all.
He just watched the man realize he was alone in a dead hallway with three predators.
The maintenance worker swallowed.
“I— I can log that I never saw you,” he whispered. “Just… just go.”
Riven glanced at Set.
“Up to you.”
Set didn’t wait.
He closed the distance in two quiet steps, stopping so close the man had to look up at him.
Set studied him his pulse, breath, stance.
Not a threat.
Purely a man who’d been in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Set spoke low still.
“You open the door. You walk away. You don’t turn around.”
The man nodded so fast the data pad trembled in his hands.
He keyed the lock.
Storage Unit 1-07 hissed open — cold air spilling out over their feet.
Before anyone changed their mind, he vanished down the hallway, footsteps shaky but alive.
Talla exhaled.
“Poor Greta,” she murmured. Half joking.
Set didn’t answer.
He stepped into the storage unit and the glow of stacked emitter frames washed across his face.
There it was.
A single untouched XPA-grade Emitter Core stored inside a transparent case.
Clean.
Perfect.
Exactly what Otto needed.
Exactly what they needed.
Riven whistled under his breath.
“Easy part’s done.”
Set looked back toward the dark hallway.
“We’re not out yet.”
⟢───── Ashes × Aether ─────⟣