Three days of training felt like three weeks.
Alfred drilled them relentlessly. Silent movement—learning to place their feet to avoid any sound, even on creaking floors. Timing exercises—moving through narrow windows of opportunity with split-second precision. Coordination drills—working as a unit where one person's mistake could doom them all.
"Again," Alfred said as Vivi triggered a holographic alarm for the fifth time. "You're rushing. The gap between guard patrols is exactly seven seconds. Count them. Feel them. Don't guess."
Dan spent most of the time building equipment. Small devices that fit in pockets—signal jammers, lock bypasses, emergency teleport beacons ("only use if you're literally about to die," he warned). Tadano watched in fascination as Dan's green Tech Magic flowed through components, assembling complex mechanisms in minutes that should have taken hours.
"How does it feel?" Tadano asked during a break. "The magic."
Dan paused, considering. "Like... thinking really hard and having the universe agree with you. I imagine what I want to build, down to the smallest circuit, and the magic makes it real. It's not like your traditional magic where you're manipulating elements. I'm manipulating possibility. Making things that could exist actually exist."
"That sounds lonely," Vivi observed. "Fire magic is alive. It wants to burn. I have to convince it not to sometimes. But yours—"
"Is all in my head. Yeah." Dan smiled, but it was softer than his usual grin. "That's why I built Alfred. Why I'm building this resistance. Tech Magic is powerful, but it's solitary. I needed... people. Connection. Something outside my own mind."
Tadano understood that feeling more than he wanted to admit.
The night before the heist, Alfred gathered them in the operations room.
"Final review," the robot said, projecting the holographic bank again. "Master Dan, your role?"
"Roof access, vault interface, extraction coordination." Dan rattled off without hesitation. "I handle all technical aspects and maintain communication."
"Vivi?"
"Rear guard and emergency combat. If things go wrong, I provide cover while we retreat." Vivi's hands sparked with controlled flames. "Also backup vault opening if Dan's method fails."
"Tadano?"
"Forward scout and close combat specialist. I lead through the building, handle any guards we encounter quietly, protect Dan while he works on the vault." Tadano's hand rested on his new sword. "And I don't let anyone get hurt."
"Acceptable." Alfred's optical sensors dimmed slightly—his version of approval, Tadano had learned. "Master Dan, the escape route?"
"Same as entry. Back through the storage room, up the access shaft, across the roof. Emergency protocol if that's blocked—out through the second-floor window on the east side, fifteen-foot drop to the alley, stealth transport waiting three blocks north."
"Contingencies?"
"If we're discovered before reaching the vault, we abort. If discovered during vault access, I grab what I can in thirty seconds and we run. If discovered during escape, Vivi provides covering fire, I deploy smoke bombs, Tadano leads us out." Dan's usual playfulness was gone, replaced by sharp focus. "No heroics. No unnecessary risks. We survive first, succeed second."
"Good." Alfred looked at each of them. "This is a real operation against real enemies. The Darks don't arrest revolutionary thieves. They execute them. Are you certain you want to proceed?"
Tadano met Vivi's eyes. Saw the same determination he felt.
"We're certain," they said together.
"Then try not to die. I've grown somewhat attached to having humans around."
2:30 AM.
The roof of the Central Millbrook Bank was exactly as the ant had recorded—flat, covered in ventilation units and maintenance equipment, accessible via a neighboring building's fire escape. The three of them crossed in silence, dressed in dark clothing Dan had designed specifically for stealth.
"Comms check," Dan whispered into the small device attached to his collar.
"Vivi here," came the response in Tadano's ear.
"Tadano confirmed."
"Good. Remember—quiet voices only, minimal chatter. The comms are short-range and encrypted, but sound still travels." Dan knelt by the ventilation unit, quickly removing panels to reveal the access shaft beneath. "Entry in thirty seconds."
Tadano peered down the shaft. Dark, narrow, but manageable. At the bottom, maybe twenty feet down, he could see the faint outline of the storage room entrance.
"I'm first," he said. "Then Vivi. Dan last so you can seal it behind us."
"Agreed." Dan pulled out a small device—one of his Tech Magic creations—and attached it to the shaft entrance. "This'll mask our heat signatures from any sensors. Should give us a few extra minutes before anything registers as unusual."
Tadano climbed into the shaft, finding handholds in the metal framework. The descent was easy, practiced. They'd done this route in the holographic simulator fifty times over three days. He reached the bottom and tested the storage room door—unlocked, just as the ant had confirmed.
Vivi landed beside him moments later, barely making a sound. Then Dan, who sealed the shaft entrance above with another small device.
"We're in," Dan whispered. "2:39. Eight minutes until the bathroom rotation."
The storage room was cramped and dusty, filled with old filing boxes and broken furniture. They moved to the door, and Tadano eased it open a crack. The hallway beyond was empty, lit by dim emergency lights. Exactly as expected.
They waited.
2:44. 2:45. 2:46.
At 2:47, Dan's device beeped softly—twice. The signal.
"Now," Tadano breathed.
They moved into the hallway, silent as shadows. Tadano led with his sword half-drawn, ready but not aggressive. Past the first corner. Past the guard station—empty, as predicted. Down the corridor toward the vault level.
Three minutes and twenty seconds. That's all they had.
They reached the vault floor at 2:49. Two minutes before the guards returned. The vault door stood before them—massive, imposing, covered in both technological and magical security measures.
"I've got this," Dan whispered, placing both hands on the door's control panel. "Watch the hallway."
Tadano and Vivi took positions on either side of the corridor, weapons ready. Tadano's heart hammered against his ribs. Every second felt like an eternity.
Behind them, Dan's hands glowed with that green luminescence. He closed his eyes, and Tadano could almost see the magic flowing from his fingertips into the door's electronic systems, speaking in a language of circuits and code.
"Come on," Dan muttered. "Just let me in. That's right. I'm supposed to be here. Yes. Good system. Nice system."
2:50.
The vault door clicked. Then groaned. Then slowly, impossibly, it began to swing open.
"We're in," Dan said, triumph in his voice. "Vivi, help me with the—"
"Contact!" Tadano hissed.
Footsteps. Coming from the direction they'd entered. Not the guards from the bathroom rotation—those should still have ninety seconds. These were different footsteps. Unexpected.
A Dark soldier rounded the corner, carrying a data pad, clearly not expecting to see anyone. For a heartbeat, everyone froze.
Then the soldier reached for his weapon.
Tadano moved. His sword was out and at the soldier's throat before the man could draw. "Don't," Tadano said quietly. "Don't move. Don't call for help. And you live."
The soldier's eyes widened behind his helmet. But his hand was still moving toward the alarm panel on the wall.
"Tadano!" Vivi's flames erupted in her hands, ready to strike.
"No fire!" Dan hissed. "The sensors will—"
The soldier slammed his hand down on the alarm.
Sirens exploded through the building. Red lights flashed. And somewhere below, Tadano heard dozens of boots hitting floors as the entire guard garrison mobilized.
"Go!" Dan shouted, abandoning the vault, abandoning the plan. "Emergency protocol! Move!"
Tadano shoved the soldier away—alive but stunned—and ran. They sprinted back down the corridor, away from the vault, toward their entry point. But already they could hear guards thundering up stairwells, blocking their escape route.
"East window!" Dan gasped. "Second floor! Move!"
They took a hard left, bursting through a door into a stairwell. Guards below them, guards above them. Vivi sent a wall of flame down the stairs, buying them seconds. They hit the second-floor landing, crashed through another door into an administrative office.
The window. Their emergency exit. Dan was already at it, his green magic dissolving the lock.
"Out! Now!" He shoved it open.
Vivi jumped first, dropping fifteen feet into the alley below. Tadano was next, hitting the ground hard, rolling to absorb impact.
Dan came last—and as he jumped, a Dark soldier burst into the office behind him. The soldier raised his weapon, aimed—
Dan hit the ground. The energy blast from the soldier's weapon scorched the air where he'd been a second before.
"Run!" Dan commanded, and they ran.
Through the alley. Into the street. Ducking down side roads as more alarms blared behind them. The entire city was waking up, Dark soldiers pouring out of barracks, search protocols activating.
They reached the stealth transport—a small vehicle Dan had hidden three blocks away. Piled in. Dan's hands glowed green as he interfaced with the engine, overriding the start sequence.
The vehicle roared to life and shot forward.
Behind them, the Central Millbrook Bank blazed with light and sound. Guards flooded the streets. Search parties formed with terrifying efficiency.
And in the driver's seat, Dan was laughing.
Not his usual cheerful laugh. Something wilder. More manic.
"That was close!" he gasped between laughs. "That was so close!"
"We failed," Vivi said, breathing hard. "We didn't get anything."
"We got out alive," Tadano corrected. "That's what matters."
"But the money—"
"Forget the money," Dan said, his laughter fading into a grin. "We tried. We failed. But we learned. And next time—" his green eyes gleamed in the darkness, "—next time we'll be better."
The transport carried them away from Millbrook, away from the failed heist, back toward the hidden facility. Tadano slumped in his seat, adrenaline draining, leaving exhaustion in its wake.
Their first real mission. A failure.
But they were alive.
For now, that would have to be enough.
Behind them, distant sirens wailed into the night. And in the Central Millbrook Bank, Dark soldiers were reviewing security footage, analyzing the breach, identifying the intruders.
Three teenagers. Unknown organization.
The hunt had begun