Shrink down, catch a flight on a bee, and sneak in through the vents.

... That was not as grand and elaborate as she had been expecting. Smart though!

She sipped her coffee for a moment as she digested the information. "When we get into the vault, we go back to normal-sized? Or is the intention to shrink everything down with us?"

She eyed the other members of their party for a moment, before turning them back to Zagan. "I can get us through just about anything, but I need to be able to reach from one side to the other or we're all gonna end up permanently stuck somewhere." If she were small, getting through a thick vault door would be virtually impossible. "Are we going to go back to full size once we're at the vault?"

It was better to be upfront about that kinda stuff, right? She liked how simple it was, and yet showed a heck of a lot of planning. Zagan must have really done his homework if he had the duct system laid out for them to use.

"When do we get started?"

Girly asked a question and it was a really good question!

“Shrink, stay shrunk. Shrink, shrank. Shrunk. Tiny stuff is easier to carry.” He supplies her with an answer.

He didn’t add that getting large would only give them reason to get small again. And that’s tax their man. He only had so much gas to give. Also that constantly changing sizes might get them caught.

Her explanation why they needed to get large again momentarily took him back. “Ah. Gotcha.” He smiled at her. “Glad you’re thinking ahead. Guess we’ll have to play it your way there. I’ll have to provide a distraction when you guys go big. Easy enough, right?”

He looked to Gary.

“Bees?” The man suggested.

“Bees, bees, bees.” Lucien agreed. “Easy.”

So when did they get started?

“Give is an hour to get Gary his hive, then we ride. Jive?” Lucien grinned.

Sooner is better than later.

—

During the hour, Lucien showed them the gear they’d shrinky dink. The fear to help them stay in touch. He showed the girl and her guy the maps and explained the layout, as well as an idea of what sorts of security they would face.

They took a minute to suit up. Everything was cool, gun metal gray and black jumpsuit with red accents. A helmet with a visor to see infrared, along with a communications array. Ear wig, mic. Built in. He figured now was better than In The car. If anyone was modest. They had toilets.



When they were ready, they drove to the bank in a white transit truck. The back was full of equipment. Computer banks, stuff to talk. Looked like a news van inside.

Lucien drove, and met them sit and talk.

Gnat man had lots to say to the girl. He was excited. He had plans for the cash. He was gonna get a big dog. And other stuff. Stuff to help his business. Make him rich. Er. Richer.

Gary had a backpack device that looked like a flamethrower. It emitted a low buzzing sound, amid the sound of humming fans. The glass tank on the back was a little murky. Dark like smoke had touched the inner sides. Through it, one could see surging motion. Something. Bees, most likely.

“It’s a big dog. Good dog. Kind you can’t find at the pound. Good breeding. Good buddies cost good cash... and those cheeks are gonna be so fluffy. Like Beethoven on crack.” Gnatty explained.

Gary stared at his bee thrower. He patted it and hummed with the fans.

They were off, even after the momentary hitch her limitation brought them. 

As soon as they had their provided gear, which was honestly more than Juniper had been expecting, she shuffled off to change with some privacy. She... wasn't sure what she had been expecting, really, but a jumpsuit was not part of it. She had not come prepared to battle back personal insecurities while taking on a very big, very illegal job at the same time... but oh @#$%ing well, she guessed. Suck it up, buttercup. 

She did a fine job distracting herself with trying to commit as much of the maps she had been shown as she could, and fandangling on all of the technological junk to the best of her ability. She'd never even seen anything that did the infrared stuff before, let alone worn something. What if she broke it on accident?! Was this how people became indebted to crime lords??

Once suited up she shuffled herself out and hid away the fact that she was uncomfortable as all heck, and then stuffed herself into the back of the van and sat.

And thus commenced what felt like one of the longest drives of her life.

Juniper, contrary to certain behaviors of hers, was not a social butterfly. She did not just sit and talk about dogs for hours. Gnat man might have been filling the silence with his grandiose plans, but she heard very little of it, even though she was looking at him. Little things slipped in here and there, like how he would be richer after the job, but she just blinked at him with a slightly pained smile on her lips and let him rant. 

She didn't wanna be richer. She just wanted to live comfortably and be able to splurge occasionally. @#$%, she was in over her head really bad on this one.

She blinked herself out of the twilight she had fallen into while Gnat man kept talking, catching the last of what he was saying and springing on it to make it look less like she had just willingly been ignoring him the whole time.

"Aren't purebreds like, really unhealthy though? If you want a big fluffy friend that lives a long time aren't you supposed to get a mixed breed?" She'd heard that somewhere, but couldn't recall exactly. 

Gnat man paused for a moment, then scoffed loudly at her and dove into a very serious one sided conversation about why Purebreds were better. Juniper turned her attention elsewhere before he sucked her in, and found herself staring at Gary and his buzzing backpack... thing. 

"So... what's all the buzz about bees?" 

The man sat up a little straighter and she pondered if anyone had ever returned bee puns with him. "That's a really un-bee-lievable backpack you have there."

... What even was her life now? God, she hated tight fitting clothing.

Gary smiled a sleepy smile, and modeled the backpack for her with a little runway catwalk spin move. For once, someone else had made the pun! And he wasn't in trouble for it. He could most definitely roll with that.

"Nice ones." He said. "Backpack's full of bees in a special gas of my own invention, that keys off my mutation's subtle wavelengths to allow me to mentally control the hive for a short duration. Long enough to provide a mighty distraction for you both with my babies. And then, I call them all back like Ma rang the dinner bell when things are good and done. Certainly a lot of bang for your buck." He met her eyes, and was silent for a second. Then, he laid one on her. "Honestly, I just think it is the bees knees."

From the front cab, Juniper would be able to hear a very disgruntled, but also very muffled "REALLLLY!?" from Lucien.

~*~

They parked a little ways away from the bank. Lucien took a moment to go over the game plan again, then had Gnat-Man step forward. It was his time to shine. He took a breath, then dropped his hands to the utility belt at his waist. From it, he extracted a few little pills. He handed one to Juniper. "Break this, and inhale the gas. Prepare yourself for a surprise."

He held one himself. But he looked at her, patiently. Waiting. He wouldn't do it until after she did it.

The pill, when broken would release a fine red mist of gas. When inhaled, it would cause the ground to shoot up towards her in a disorienting rush of size and color. Sounds would change volume. Smells would become more intense, due to proximity and size of smell molecules. And, she would be tiny. Small enough to ride upon the back of a bee.

The wait for her to take the pill felt like forever. But she had been given the run-down on the plan. She had the gear. She knew the scenario. All of that. Once she had taken her medicine, Gnat-man laughed and followed suit. In the blink of an eye, he was back on her level. The moment before, when he'd laughed, he'd enjoyed the element of looming over her. She would have gotten a fine view of his boots. But then, he was back at her size and exercising his discretion by speaking in a calming voice and telling her it would become less janky and she would get used to it. And he would help her through the whole scenario. He had a fine bedside manner, Gnat-Man. Like Christian Bale, in American Psycho. All smiles and fine words.

A giant regular-sized bee landed down next to them. It had a little two-seater saddle. Had... they taken the time to shrink the saddle and mount it on the bee's back? Or had Gary...

Gary stood tall and proud, not too far away. In their headphones, his voice murmured... he was whispering into his mic, so they wouldn't be deafened by his words.

"Yeah. I used tiny tweezers and twine to give you a saddle. Shouldn't have to worry about it getting big suddenly and unexpectedly. I'm not sure I really trust Gnat-Man's gas. He's never told me where it's been~" He sounded amused. In his element, he was coming alive. "I'm ready to send the waspy with you whenever you are. On your signal, Juniper. And remember. Bee yourself."

Laughs were had, especially due to Zagan's reaction to the puns. By the time they were stopped her anxiety had dropped a bit; she'd spent a bit of the drive compartmentalizing everything to get to a place where emotions would send her melting into a puddle of goo. 

They spiked right back up however when Gnat-man held out a pill to her and she eyed it warily before ultimately taking it. She'd tried and done a lot of things in her life so it wasn't like the act of using some foreign substance was new to her. She was still a bit hesitant about the whole shrinking thing and ultimately what that would entail. Had she forgotten to ask how they were supposed to get big again? She was pretty sure she had. After fiddling with the small thing for a moment and looking back to the man who had given it to her, she shrugged a bit and snapped it. It didn't take long at all after she inhaled the mist for it to hit her, and she had honestly never felt or seen anything like what happened directly after before in her life. She managed not to scream, which was nice since that seemed to be her default when sudden, scary things happened, but nausea hit like a mofo as soon as she reached maximum smallness and it to everything in her not to immediately hurl up those donuts all over the ground. Which was really big now. Holy @#$% the cracks in the floor looked like chasms that would swallow her whole now. 

Looking up was a mistake, also. Three absolute giants standing around her was the stuff from nightmares, especially with one of them laughing and it sounding ten thousand times louder than normal. The idea that any one of them could try and squish her like a bug was at the forefront of her mind, as well as the fact that ultimately she would have to sacrifice something on her body in order to not die completely. Goodbye, toes... you were loved.

Gnat-man was apparently merciful though, and he shrank a moment later so she wasn't alone. That left two giants and her stuck with someone who came across as a bit of an ass. Though.... he did seem a bit nicer all of the sudden. Maybe he was just as nervous as she was? He was trying to be helpful and comforting, and she actually did really appreciate it. "Thanks..." She offered back shakily, with a rare smile of her own. "This is... a lot to. um... adjust to. The fact that you do this all the time so easily is really cool." 

Heck, she was still shaking a bit from the change and had just discovered that she absolutely does not like being this small. Maybe she'd try being giant the next time something similar was offered. 

Then the bee showed up and OH GOD, bee's were HORRIFYING close up! Or, well, to her at least. The fuzz was no longer soft looking and fluffy, the eyes were too big and you could see all of the little sections in them. The MOUTH. UGH. 

She held back the flood of comments that popped to mind, because she didn't wanna insult their ride or hurt Gary's feelings, but god help her she shivered from her head to her toes. She forced her attention to the saddle and Gary's soft-loud whispering, He'd made that thing with tweezers!? "Un-bee-lievable, Gary!" She shot a tiny thumbs up at him without considering if he could see it or not. 

She turned and glanced at Gnat-man, then at the saddle, then back. "Front or back?" 

"Back."

"Alright, now... how to get up." She'd ridden horsed before, but like... never a bee? Did you mount a bee the same way? They were fatter though. "Phasing away some of her weight helped once she got her foot in the stirrup, as it was easier to heft herself up without tugging awkwardly or putting stress on the bee-with-a-pointy-stinger. She waited for Gnat-man to climb up as well, paused when she felt arms encircle her waist, and instantly felt like she'd been duped, but... by herself? She'd gone and been dumb and offered, hadn't she? Was there any room to argue seeing as they were gong to be flying and he didn't have the ability to fuse himself to the saddle? 

Keeping a slew of curse-words on the inside, she tried to settle in and found hang on, and then turned her head a bit awkwardly to address Gnat-man again. "Since its my first time on a big heist like this and all, shouldn't you be the one to give the go head? You probably know more than me, right?" Was that weird? Sounded weird. She cringed in her helmet at herself. 

"First time, huh?" He laughed at her. She cringed more and turned back around again. Okay, so many he was still an ass. A... nice ass? @#$%, focus Juniper!

"We're ready!" Gnat-man spoke into the com for her, while she stewed in her own idiocy and once again regretted everything.  

"Oh, Bee-hive yourself, Gary, or you'll set Zagan all a buzz again." She snicked into her own com, thoroughly enjoying a puny distraction from everything else.

Gary got them going and Juniper had to adjust to the feeling of flying while not in an airplane. Also, the buzzing sound from the bees wings was loud and very distracting, and sounded more like two helicopters hovering side by side than it did a cute little buzzing bee.

They were tiny. Cute. Gooood. Things were moving like clockwork and he loved it when a plan came together, to use a few old faithful phrases.

Gnat man was helping her and Gary had things set up. In the background, Lucien was doing what he needed to set things in motion. In order.

~*~

Back at tiny level, gnat man smirked at the girls reaction to the bee. And the pun. Nice.

A muted heh boomed gently in their ears. Seemed Gary appreciated it.

They got situated on the saddle. He kept his smile to himself as she struggled. Didn’t want to come off as some sort of creep, now did he? Behind the big ol mask. One of them would have had to ride in back. He’d just saved them the argument of who. Now all that was left was getting airborne.

She asked him if he should give the go ahead, it being her first time and all. And he couldn’t restrain the creep comment, dammit. Maybe it was genetic. His dad had been an ass, too.

He gave the go-ahead, and they... went ahead.

—

Above, Zagan rollllllled his eyes at all the bee puns. But he let them, bee.

Now they had him doing it. Brats.

“Okay.” He told them. “As you approach, you’ll see a vent. We’ve gone over the blueprints diagrams of the vent system. Gnat, you guide her. And just... be careful.”

—

The going was slow. At some points, they had to make a beeline down a different vent duct. Gnat drove from the backseat, and Juniper probably got to wondering why the hell he hadn’t taken point.

After several minutes of tense tiny time, they made it where they needed to be and popped down in front of the vault.

They’d have a few minutes to get what they needed, and then they would have to make their retreat as previously discussed. With as much loot as possible.

Gnat man eyed the gold, once they were inside the vault. Eyed it hungrily. And one could tell, even if they could not see the look in his eyes. It was in the way he held himself, and the way he got quiet all of a sudden. A marked departure from the smug manner in which he had directed her, and the multitude of bee puns that got left undescribed between point A and point B. That was probably for the best.

The Bee puns had been nice. Good ice breaker for a tense mission and the fact that she was on, well, a bee. She mostly kept quiet save for a few return puns here and there and focused on watching where they were going. Gnat was the one with the reigns more or less but she still wanted a general idea for how to get out if they needed it.

They landed and she slid off hopping on one foot for a second as her heel got stuck before she phased it out and tried to pretend it hadn't just happened. Re-sizing happened for them at least, and she grabbed Gnat by the hand to pull him through the vault door with her, using him as an anchor in case it was thicker than normal.

They stepped out on the other side and she dropped his hand, looking around at the neatly organized vault with rows of shelves and walls full of built-in lockboxes. Alright... now was her time to shine she guessed.

"What do you want me to tackle first, the gold or the walls safes?" She spoke, both to Lucien and to Gnat... who was physical with her.

Mentally she wasn't sure. He'd gone quiet. Maybe it was the sheer amount of gold before them? She wasn't sure. Gold didn't have much value for her personally. She couldn't like... sleep on it or eat it.

Once she got a direction, she headed for the wall safes and started tracking down by number the one she was supposed to get the documents from. It didn't take super long, though Gnat didn't seem happy about it. He was over by the gold bars stacked on shelves, touching and moving them like he was making his own little pile to take.

After reaching and rummaging around in the assigned safe, she found the manila folder with the papers Lucien wanted. Juniper turned and unzipped her suit so she could tuck the folder away there. You know, lacking pockets and all.

"Got em' Onto the gold."

She headed back to Gnat's side, "Here, let me." Reaching out, she grabbed a bar and set it atop another. Phasing them together just barely to that they became one larger bar. She quickly started saving and phasing until the majority of bars on the shelf before her were all one large mishmash of angles and gold.

"Okay... more, or is this enough?"

She asked. He told her. Lucien was nice, like that.

Safes are always a safe... bet. God. Puns. They were getting to him, too. And that really stung. Er. STUNK!! Dammit Gary.

He waited while they worked. Waited patiently.

On the other side, Gnat waited. Less patiently. Then, she came back and did something to the gold. Something that changed things.

He had shrunk them to get in. I shrunk them once they were in. Which would give them just a few minutes before some security guard checked his view of the inside of the vault and spilled his coffee is shock. Because they were visible. He’d need to shrink them again with more gas. And— because of how she’d changed the gold, he would want her with him to change it back. He couldn’t just go it alone.

Gnat was quiet for a moment. Then, he smiled at her. Held up his own bag.

“Hey, do me too?”

“Thanks.”

Once they had two bags full, and the files, he shrunk them down again (whee)! They were back in the bed just as the sounds of security started rattling their vault cage.

“Up we go!” He said. They rode the bee, phased through the door, buzzed over some idiot guards heads, and were out in the vents before you could say jack Robinson! Or jack rob BEEnson. Three times, fast.

Right, left, right, etc. They navigated the maze. As they went, gnat man... turned off his comms.

“You know...” he said, behind her on the bee. His voice was low, husky. “We could take it and flee. More for us. Turn off your comms. Talk with me. Zagan doesn’t need sh^*!”

His hands were on her sides for balance, as he controlled their mount. He kept them them steady, best he could, but some nervous jitters got through.

He licked his lips. “It’s uh, lot of gold.” He said. “We could go anywhere. Do anything.”

In her ear, Lucien’s voice crackled “Gnat just went dead. You two experience any technical difficulties on your end?”

He wanted his own gold pile? Sure. They had time after all, right? 

She squared away his own bag, not really putting too much thought into it, and spared one last look and thought at the wall safes and what could be inside of them, before clambering back onto the bee with Gnat. It was time to go according Gnat, and the sounds of people coming back. She tried not to linger on the anxiety that spiked at the thought of those security people all being adapteds. It was shiver inducing. 

Her stomach dropped as the bee took off and she tried not to let on that she'd sunk her feet partially into Mr. Bee to make sure she didn't fall off at some point. Paranoid, yeah, but it made her feel better. 

Juniper was concentrated on keeping them phased whenever they need it, which was a task all by itself considering all of what they were carrying. She glanced back briefly when he started speaking, barely even catching the way his voice had dropped. She did notice what he was saying though and it caused her to lose focus on what she was doing. Turn off her comm? Cut Zagan and Gary out?! Whaaaat? 

Oh man, was he suggesting they betray the rest of the team? She didn't know how to feel about that.

No, wait, she did. 

This @#$%ing sucked. She'd JUST gotten comfortable with the other plan! 

"“It’s uh, lot of gold. We could go anywhere. Do anything.” 

Annnnnd, just like that he lost her completely. For a myriad of reasons she would have disagreed with his offer, but the idea that she was gonna run off with this guy she just met and the gold? Sweet baby Jesus no.

Zagan's voice popped up in her ear and she battled back a flinch expertly. She needed to stay calm. Maybe.... maybe go with the idea until they were on the outside? She didn't want to get included on this plan and backstabber while he was literally sitting beside her. His arms on either sides of her hips suddenly felt like a cage.

"Uh, gimmie a sec." She said to pretty much everyone involved, including herself. Juni reached up to fiddle with her helmet. She... she didn't know how to turn her comm off! Not that she wanted too. but if she was gonna pretend here she needed to at least look convincing! "How do I- uh- This- no- wait-" Click She turned something off. Wasn't sure what, but she didn't think it was her comm.

After she felt like she'd fiddled enough, she dropped her hand back down to the bees fur and resumed her iron grip there. "Okay... I can't hear him anymore... but he knows your comm is off." She turned slightly so she could peer back at him, glad that her helmet at least hid her face a bit and made it easier for her to keep her anxiousness hidden.

"...Do you have someone to sell all of the gold too? I don't use fences. I don't like involving more people than necessary."[/i] 

@#$% @#$% sonofa@#%&$ @#$%-ity @#$% @#$%!

"...and go where? Like.. outside the states?" Maybe if she kept him talking she'd figure out some way to extract herself from the situation. 

"I know a guy." Gnat said, after giving her a long look for fiddling with her helmet. "A few states over. He doesn't ask questions and has done a great job as a fence before." 

He leaned onto her a little, and considering he was taller that left his helmeted head looming over hers and slightly off to one side. 

"We could go anywhere you want. Paris? London? Berlin? Anywhere."

She wasn't sure if he was trying to butter her up, or if that was a genuine offer. Either way it still had the effect of making her skin crawl. Not from him being overtly creepy necessarily, but from the idea of upending everything and running off to some foreign country with a criminal who was fine with betraying people. The few crime documentaries she'd watched told her that that was like, the best way to end up a murdered "missing person" or a cold case.

".... I've never been outside the states. I don't know what any of those places are like." 

He chuckled, and the bee they were on suddenly slowed. "I can show you. You just need to come with me." 

She paused before she said anything, listening to what was going on in her comm, and nodded before too long. "Alright. I trust you.... it'll be nice to have a bigger cut anyway. How... do we get out?" 

Oh boy. This was not good.

Lucien had set up the comms and told them they could go silent… but in reality. He had done no such feature. At least, for himself. When they cut out… if Gnat had been clever enough to cut out… it only shut off for Gary. And the others. He was still on the same frequency and so he heard it all.

Gnat was trying to… tempt… seduce… the girl. Get her to turn on them.

In her ear, and only hear ear, the girl (Juniper), would hear the next message.

“Golden girl. He’s lying to you. His last partner wound up dead in a ditch after he ditched them with his take.” Lucien said. And LIED. “Now. What I need you to do,” he said coldly, calmly. “Is break… or phase… one element of his helmet so it breaks. And that should solve all of our problems. Triple your take.”

There. Now that was done. Or it wasn’t. Whatever. He’d done some calculations, but in the end it always came down to personality and free will. And Lucien hated that movie.

If the girl broke the helmet, the helmet would split into two separate objects, each occupying the same headspace. Because he had used his power on it. The results would be disastrous, for Gnat. But that… that really wasn’t his concern.

People don’t go and betray Lucien, and live to dance another day. Sorry girly.