Cat and Spider [Bloo maybe]

The Steel City "Mega-Warehouse" while uncreative a name, was in this instance an accurate one to describe the massive storage facility. It was a marvel of construction and engineering, and was built to serve as a template for warehouses in the future. While not a skyscraper, it was still a tall and wide building that a large number of goods passed through on a constant basis. Boring details as to its purpose and design aside, it was a thief's wet dream to be able to get inside and make off with any number of possible valuables- if not for the intense security systems and labyrinth-like design. Many attempts had been made to infiltrate it and make off with something to make a fortune, they all failed. Under normal circumstances, Diana would've let that record stand uncontested- but she got a job that paid VERY well for someone to get a record of its inventory. Didn't even want any material thing, they just wanted to know what was being kept there and what was going out. That was something she could definitely do- in fact she was confident that she could've gotten anything a client asked for specifically if she was careful.

So with that in mind, she spent some time preparing some tools and things she thought she'd need while also trying to see about trying to gain as much information on the layout of the place as she could. That required another trip down at City Hall to get a copy of the blueprints- it was a headache reading it. She wasn't an architect, but from what she could gather the structure wasn't multiple floors so much as multi-story shelves. For structural integreity there were a couple floors interspersed between them, but everything was built around a strong series of central supports that reached up through the entire height of the building with these floors containing security, administration, and utilities. It was administration where she'd be able to get what she needed for the job. After some more digging and poking around, followed by some light recon one night, Diana felt more confident she could pull this off and so got everything together for the job.

During her recon, Diana discovered two things. A lot of the loading and unloaded was automated, either through robotic limbs or various robots with little human supervision. However the second thing she discovered was that there were military-looking types going in and out of the place to the point some seemed to be acting as additional security. She didn't recognize the uniforms, they weren't national guard or anything but looked like they were carrying some heavy duty equipment. Another interesting thing she discovered while poking around was that things passed a series of automated scanners, whether or not this was to easily add the contents to the manifesto or to catch "unwanted" cargo she didn't know.

So she was back at the warehouse again, moving her way through the shadowry plane by memory toward where administration was. Her huge advantage over more conventional thieves was not lost on her as she emerged into a vent over the administration office. During her recon, there were a couple of people here to supervise what was going on and keep an eye out for anything strange. Tonight there was a third one, a girl in a straiped hoodie. Who was she and why was she here of all places? She didn't look like she belonged here, but neither of the other two seemed to care. The three of them were even chatting as if this was completely normal. Was she... a coworker who was just allowed to wear what she wanted within reason? Or was she with the army types? No, that couldn't be it. Either way this complicated things with the extra set of eyes to worry about. She needed to take care of them so she could work in peace. So she pulled out a gas canister she got through her contact, stopping when the girl left. Diana put the canister away again, she could easily take two of them on before an alarm was sounded.

If she was taking a smoke or restroom break, the girl wouldn't be gone for long probably worst case scenario but that'd only be one other person to deal with. Using her shadow, Diana sank through the vent and quietly lowered herself down into the room. Then willing her shadow again, she sent two large shadowry claws stealthily toward the two remaining in the room. In unison, Diana dragged them both away from their work and quickly slammd them into each other to knock them out, and then she moved them away from the center of the room so it'd take a moment to realize something was wrong. Stepping over them, Diana checked each monitor and terminal before finding the one she wanted; casting wary glances over her shoulder as she did so. She first tried to see if she could just access the manifesto as is, she could. Diana popped a data stick into the terminal and it was only when she tried to copy it onto that where the computer gave her trouble- permissions needed huh?

She came prepared for this and popped in a second data stick, which as soon as it was connected, gave her more access to the system. Diana kept casting glances over her shoulder, also keeping her ears open for any unwelcome sounds as she once again started the download process. It'd take several minutes for everything to get downloaded, which meant she'd definitely have to deal with the girl once she came back- IF she came back. Diana hoped that she was going home for the night or atleast wouldn't be coming back to administration any time soon, so she waited while mentally trying to calculate how long it'd take for her to get back from the restroom versus the download time, and likewise if she went for a smoke. Then the room became illuminated by what could only be described as a portal, light pouring out of it and startling the hell out of her as the girl hopped out. Diana had on reflex sank back into the darkness and moved, trying to get her bearings back as the girl almost immediately thought something was amiss. Diana had not counted on her being a meta, and for the first time since coming here was feeling very nervous.

The girl reached into one of her hoodie pockets which gave off a fainter glow of light, and pulled out what looked like an energy blaster of some kind. Diana had made sure to hide the two warehouse workers but all she'd have to do is look around for a few seconds to find them. But would she notice the download? Diana wasn't going to give her that chance as she moved a shadow across the floor toward her, trying to grab her and pull her down to the ground hard enough to knock her out next. The shadow managed to almost get that far, managing to grab a hold of the girl before it moved toward the ground- and then she just... shifted to the side. She then spung around and trained her blaster at the Shadowry appendage, shooting at the base of it before reaching up to her ear. "Chessa here, I need a defensive perimeter around the whole building. We have a cat burglar," she reported in, and Diana moved into action once again. This time shadows from all across the room, all trying to subdue the girl who shifted the furthest away from them. Diana just needed to buy time for the download, and would be safe so long as she wasn't found. The girl had by now pulled out another blaster seemingly out of thin air, when she did something more unexpected- she opened another portal. Only this one covered most of the ceiling, and looking up Diana could see into the warehouse women's bathroom. The sudden shift of light from the brightly lit room hurt her eyes for a moment, but also dispelled the active shadows moving about. Diana internally panicked as the girl now safe to move, took the chance to look around before moving toward her position.

Diana pulled out the canister of knockout gas, slipping on a portable gas mask as the girl walked out from around the computer banks she had been using for cover, a wide grin on her face as she trained one of her blasters on her. "Found ya kiddo~" she said before Diana charged her, pulling the pin from the canister as expectedly, the girl teleported to avoid whatever Diana was going to do when the gas started to hiss into the room. "Eetz... rude to... pazz... gazz... when you," the girl started to get drowsy right away as the gas filled the lower half of the room as planed. The portal at the ceiling seemed to be letting some of the gas escape, but that was why Diana charged her. She wanted to hit her with some of the gas while she could. The girl then tried to shoot at her, getting very close despite the gas kicking in and slowing her down. It was only a moment longer before the girl... just vanished. Diana blinked but could hear shouting and boots. The portal still being up was something of a problem as she checked the download- nearly there.

"Miss me kiddo?" Diana nearly jumped out of her skin as the girl, sounding fully awake again, started to shoot at her from the portal into the bathroom as it continued to close. Diana was pelted with painful, burning stings of blaster fire before the doors to the room were kicked in. It was the army types, and before they had a chance to bark at her, Diana shadow stepped into their midst and sent one flying into a wall from a kick. She was in full panic mode now, things had gone to shit and she NEEDED to get out of here but she also needed to get that datastick. The other armed soldier immediately tried to smack her with the butt of his pulse rifle, Diana catching it and flipping him over her. She tried to then kick his head and knock him out, but he rolled out of the way before the girl from before was now in the room again with them to fire at her some more. Another shadow step out of harm's way, Diana tried attacking the pair with shadows as the portal in the ceiling was much smaller.

This was just a distraction though as she made a mad dash to the datasticks, the download was complete, and she had no reason to stick around any longer. The girl teleported in her way though, and just fired at her with reckless abandon. Diana's shadow quickly moved into the way, the darkness being made real and fleshy as the makeshift limb lashed out at her. Diana was starting to feel alittle light headed, not used to exerting her abilities quite this much as she quickly pulled the datasticks out and sank into the floor through her shadow. Freefalling from the administration office, she threw a shadow tether out to latch onto one of the shelves and grappled her way upwards as more soldiers spotted her and took a few shots at her. But all she needed was to get into a nice dark place, which she managed to reach after pulling herself up and ducking between a pair of large storage crates. It was only when she was within the plane of shadows that she took a moment to catch her breath, adrenaline still pumping through her body- it made her feel nauseous but she couldn't throw up where she currently wasn- didn't know if that was a good thing or not.

She eventually left, putting distance between herself and the scene of the crime before emerging once more in a random alley- hissing slightly with pain as her new burn wounds felt the cold air. If she hadn't been half demon, she may have been even more hurt. She considered calling out of work at Sconehenge for a few days- briefly. Diana pulled out a burner phone, and dialed a number given to her by her contact. She briefly considered what would be the value of this information to someone else, but couldn't think of many buyers- there was just the one as far as she knew in fact. Everyone else typically wanted something more material in nature, so she pushed the thought out of her mind as she called her contact. "I have the manifesto," she said simply.

"That's not surprising to me at this point. When are you going to sneak into a bank vault?" Her contact deadpanned.

"Where am I taking it?" Diana ignored it and just wanted to get paid. Once she got the details from her contact, Diana hung up and slipped back into the darkness. If it hadn't been for that metahuman, this would've just been another easy job, but it did concern her why she had been there at all. Thinking back, it was now obvious that she had been with the army types. She still didn't know who they were or why they were in Steel, she didn't often pay attention to the news but felt like there had been a news report she had missed somewhere or something. Diana wondered if she could get paid alittle more for the injuries but didn't put much stock in it, potential "hazards" were expected. Once she arrived near her destination, she found herself a secluded place to emerge and hoped that she'd be able to get paid and just go home to lick her wounds...