A can skitters across the rough asphalt, startling the rats rummaging in the overflow of trash from the disposal area. They scatter, but a stray spark of flame catches the fattest one of the lot, charring it into cinder.

“You’ve gotten out of practice, Eunha.”

A young woman with dark brown hair was leaning against a wall, idly scuffing the ground with one boot. The leather of her jacket stood out proudly black against the grays of her surroundings, matching with the fitting leather pants that hugged her curves. Her smirk was lazy as she eyed her childhood friend and partner, who was pouting back at her.

“We haven’t had to roast rats in ages, SinB.”

The short bob of Eunha’s hair framed her doll-like face perfectly, and her cheeks were puffed out in mild indignation. She too was clad in practical darks, blending into the shadows of the alleyway they were in. In contrast to the lounge of the panther that SinB had perfected, Eunha paced idly instead, staring into her upturned hand as she waggled her fingers. Flames wisped into existence on each of her fingertips in quick succession, before winking out like blown out candles as she folded them one by one into her palm, smoke escaping from her clenched fist.

“Do you think they’ll be much longer?”

SinB pushed herself off the wall, backing up to take in the vertical angles crisscrossing the air above. This far down, the flashing neons of the greater city were a mere fairytale to those who lurked in the shadows between megastructures. The alley stank with rot, but she barely registered it. Even as advanced as the corps got, people still needed to and eat. And all that had to go somewhere.

Even in the dark, there was opportunity. They lived in between the cracks, taking what work the mega corporations wouldn’t - couldn’t - afford to advertise. Plausible deniability, with disposable assets. It was the best the SIN-less could do. It was either that or sell themselves and get high on the unregulated VR chips that so many people fell prey too, in order to escape the unpleasant reality of their lives.

A hand landed on SinB’s shoulder. Eunha came up to stand next to her, also eyeing the steel and concrete of the imposing structure they had been tasked with to crack. It was a hard life running the shadows, but they had a place to stay and a team they trusted. And they had enough to eat. That alone was more important than anything else.

“They’ll be fine.” Eunha said after a beat. “We might not even have anything to do tonight.”

SinB laughed. “Famous last words, Eunha. Bet you a chicken wing you get to fry something before dawn.”

“Synth or organic?” Eunha raised an eyebrow.

“Whatever’s more expensive, because I’ll probably win. As always.” SinB grinned, earning a punch on the arm.

It was just one more night for them. Deep in the bowels of the city, they might as well be all but rats scrambling in the dark for scraps to live. But live they did, and you could never burn them all.

“Yuju, left is this way.”

A young woman in a suit tugged at the arm of her taller companion. Their height difference was further emphasized by the fact that the shorter was in sensible flats, but the taller Yuju was in heels.

“Why do I have to wear heels?” Yuju sulked as she obediently allowed her companion to steer her in the right direction. Next to her, Yerin giggled mischievously.

“So I can do this of course.” She laid her head on Yuju’s shoulder, which was now the perfect distance with the added boost the heels provided, and looped her arm into the crook of Yuju’s arm.

“People are looking, Yerin.” Yuju muttered, but didn’t actually struggle very much. Yerin chuckled and leaned upwards to plant a peck on her puppy’s cheek.

“Relax, this is the residential area. We’re just coming back from a day at the office. Remember?”

The shorter girl tapped the nametag at her chest, which had already served well enough to grant them access into the building. The pair had already crossed a luxurious courtyard with its perfectly trimmed hedges and highly polished cobbles. There had even been a fountain whistling merrily at the center, the water dancing in a dazzling display of light.

“I don’t like it here.” Yuju had been stiff from the very moment they entered the complex, but you wouldn’t know it just looking at her. Yerin rubbed a thumb over the back of Yuju’s hand as her own hand slipped down to grasp the taller girl’s own.

“It won’t be much longer. Just up to the third floor, we get in then get out.”

Yerin’s lips were practically right at Yuju’s ear, her breath warm against the skin. Yuju twitched, but she relaxed, letting her senses flow into the artificial environment surrounding them. The marble clacking against her heels was actually the real thing, not that it surprised either of them. This was the VIP residential area for valued employees, and it was only the best for the best, of course.

Soft calfskin couches surrounded a richly embroidered carpet to one side of the lounge area they were currently crossing. A 3D display of some corporate logo spun intricately in midair, and a catchy jingle played on repeat in the background. It was all very lavish and opulent, but the attempt at taste was sadly sabotaged by the crass advertising that permeated every surface.

It disgusted Yuju. The entire place was a celebration of corporate culture, the palatial decor a stark contrast to the filth of the slums, where a majority lived. None of these people ever saw the outside of their comfortable existences, and the ones on the outside could never touch even the edges of this life, save through the chips. Augmented reality, inserting yourself into a pre-programmed existence and living a life in your own head. At least, for as long as the program ran. She had seen too many chipheads lost in fake lives, because it was better than whatever reality had to offer. And those chips came from these corps, money made off the misery of the masses.

Even the air here was carefully filtered to block out the stink of the streets. Once, Yuju had lived in a complex not unlike this. She too had been sheltered from the reality, living the carefully curated existence of a corp kid, until an incident made her parents disposable to company interests. She had survived, but her parents had not. The arm of the corporations was long indeed. There were few places they could not reach, and her parents had risked everything to burn all records of her from the system, just so she could run free. Now she was outside the system, SIN-less, and invisible to the corporate eye.

A soft touch to her knuckles. Yuju looked down. Yerin had lifted their joined hands to her lips, pressing a kiss to the lightly scarred skin. They were already in an elevator, which Yuju had no recollection of actually stepping into, but she had been lost in her own thoughts, allowing Yerin to lead her. It worked out, since Yuju could never find her way around anyway.

“You’re still pretty when you frown, but you’re prettier when you smile.” Yerin squeezed Yuju’s fingers, coaxing a half-smile from the younger girl. The subtle disguise on Yerin’s face shimmered lightly as Yuju lidded her eyes, but then again, the disguises never really worked on her. What other people saw on Yerin was very different from what she did.

“Looking at me again?” Yerin grinned, leaning in for another kiss. This time, Yuju did duck away to avoid the questing lips. Honestly, she didn’t know how to deal with the overwhelming affection half the time, but Yerin had worn down most of her usual defenses through sheer persistence.

“We’re here.” The ding of the elevator reaching the designated floor never sounded better. Yuju stepped out quickly, pulling free of Yerin’s grasp, then stopped at the split in paths. Yerin laughed as she caught up, tugging Yuju in the right direction.

The hallways were quiet. It was late, and most honest employees had already retired to bed. Their target though, was a known party-goer, and not expected to return until the wee hours of morning. Which was great, because they weren’t here for him. They were here for the contents of his safe.

Yerin slid the forged keycard against the lock, whistling triumphantly when the access turned green. Before she could step in, Yuju pulled her back, waving a quick hand at the entrance to scan for any anomalies. Fortunately, there were none.

They entered. According to their source, the safe was hidden behind a painting. Very cliched, but most people weren’t that imaginative. It took a few tries to locate the right painting, and Yerin stood back to allow Yuju to run another quick diagnostic. The soft glow around her hands never got old, and Yerin flicked her gaze up to take in Yuju’s serious expression and the unearthly shimmer in her eyes, now unhidden by the glasses that the younger girl had been wearing as a makeshift disguise earlier.

“Got the magical tripwire. All yours now.” The glow died down from her eyes, and Yuju flashed a quick smile of triumph. Yerin stepped forward, taking her tools out as she started cracking the safe. Behind her, Yuju circled the small apartment, her lips moving silently as energy pulsed unseen around her. There was nothing in the physical plane, but in the astral plane her guardians had spawned in response to her summons, alert sentinels with their tails wagging. Yuju smiled as she crouched down to pat the head of Dog spirit, sending it and its pack out to keep watch of the surroundings.

Her senses expanded, seeing through many eyes and ears. An untrained novice would be overwhelmed, but Yuju was very much not untrained. Perks of growing up with mages as parents. Her power had manifested early, but her mother had always warned her to keep it in check. She hadn’t understood why until after the incident. It was easier for an un-Awakened child to conveniently disappear off the radar. If the company had known about her powers, she would have been tagged like cattle, and more effort spent to reacquire her.

As if in response to her suddenly turbulent emotions, Dog growled. It reminded Yuju to calm herself, as the spirits were sensitive to her mood. She did not enslave these spirits, they were partners and friends, but she had to be more careful dealing with them as a result.

Wait. Yuju zoned out as her senses was tugged by one of her sentinels. She snapped back into the physical plane almost instantly.

“Yerin, we’ve got incoming. Time to go.”

“Got it!” The safe clicked open at the same time. Yerin hurriedly emptied everything into the briefcase she had been carrying, even making a point to close the safe and shove the painting back in place before hurrying to the door where Yuju was already waiting. The pair exited like ghosts, Yerin moving with swift purpose as they took the service stairway instead.

On the way down, Yerin discarded the thin gloves she had been wearing into one of the chutes. The unused maintenance hallway was dusty, but it would lead them straight out to where their team was waiting to extract them. The door at the end of the path was locked, but that wasn’t a problem for the resident stealth specialist, as Yerin liked to call herself. It certainly sounded better than “burglar”.

“About damn time!”

SinB waved at them from the top of the wall separating the compound from the street. Eunha was nowhere to be seen, but then again it was a bit unreasonable to expect her to jump a ten-foot wall. She could torch something from ten meters away, but she wasn’t exactly the athletic type otherwise.

“No alarms?” SinB seemed disappointed as she dropped off the wall, landing cat-like on the balls of her feet. She had a duffel bag held loosely in one hand.

“The point was not to have any alarms, SinB.” Yerin reminded, tossing the briefcase to her teammate. Next to her, Yuju was already loosening her tie and kicking off the heels that had been plaguing her throughout.

The duffle bag held practical footwear and clothing. The pair took all of 30 seconds to change out of the more uncomfortable parts of their earlier disguise, with an amused SinB keeping watch in the meantime.

“Need any help?” SinB offered casually as they approached the wall. There were cameras at that section, but their resident hacker had taken care of those. Before either of them could respond to her offer, SinB had started running straight at the wall, leaping entirely too high for normal human standards and proceeding to run almost vertically upwards. It took all of two seconds before she was back up on the top, saluting the other two mockingly.

“Show off.” Yerin scoffed. Yuju shrugged, raising a hand to bath Yerin with a brief shower of magic. The boost surged through her veins like the best adrenaline shot, and Yerin crouched low before jumping the full ten feet upwards without pause, landing lightly next to an unimpressed SinB.

“Cheater.” Yerin smirked back at her.

Yuju landed next to them a moment later. Her eyes were still glowing in the dark.

“Sowon’s already calling! Are you guys coming or what?”

Down by the bottom of the wall, Eunha was tapping her foot impatiently. Yuju was the first one down, with Yerin and SinB right after her, still squabbling about the ethics of needing magic to scale the wall. Eunha linked arms with her fellow mage, pulling her out of the alleyway to their nondescript getaway vehicle parked further down across the street.

Eunha interlaced her fingers with Yuju’s, allowing her own magic to trickle across their joined hands. Yuju smiled, coiling her more serene energy around the chaotic elemental tumble of Eunha’s power, a familiar game for them. Eunha laid her head against Yuju’s shoulder, idly tracing Yuju’s magical profile with her tendrils of her magic. It was calming for her to do so.

“Stop flirting with my Yuju oi.” Yerin’s voice called out from behind them. SinB snorted.

“Make me~” Eunha taunted, and a surprised yelp came from behind as a sudden flame at Yerin’s ankles.

“Be nice.” Yuju murmured. Eunha pouted.

“Don’t you love me?”

“I love all of you.”

“You know that’s not what I meant.”

“Oh god can you guys stop being so disgusting.” SinB interrupted, pushing right through the magic users and separating them as she approached their vehicle, pushing the door open.

“Oi Sowon, can you stop these unnies from being really gay I can’t take it anymore.”

Luscious blonde hair greeted them before Sowon turned, her features almost ethereal in the dim streetlights. SinB stumbled briefly, and she heard Yerin choke back a snicker behind her. The physical adept raised a middle finger behind her back to express her displeasure. The cackle only got louder, sadly.

“We have the info?” Sowon glanced at Yuju first, who nodded and pointed her thumb at Yerin holding the briefcase.

“Good, let’s move out then.”

“Aye ma’am!”

“SinB you owe me chicken.”

“Please tell me Umji is driving today.”

“It’s not over until we get back to base, Eunha!”

“Don’t be a sore loser SinB!”

Sowon massaged her temples. Next to her, Umji drove with an amused smile dancing on her lips. Her hands were, disturbingly, not on the wheel, but it was definitely turning on its own.

“Practicing?” Sowon glanced over at Umji, who had a distant look in her eyes.

“Yeah, the upgrades to the navigation systems are pretty easy to work with. Might need some fine-tuning though.” The youngest of the team was completely immersed in the digital link between her and the reinforced truck they were in. Perhaps the rest would be less assured by this sight if they had been paying attention to what was going on.

Then again, they had had to live with Sowon’s driving once. Not even SinB the thrillseeker wanted to relive that particular experience.

“Chicken for everyone after we get paid, people.” Sowon called out, settling the argument among the kids in the back instantly.

“Yay!”