<img alt="" src="http://i.imgur.com/vhkpNIz.png?1" style="float:right; padding:6px;"/><br/>It was too early.  Nobody should be awake this early.  Most were still in their beds snoozing the morning away, but of course there were still the early birds around to open up shop and kip just enough to conveniently forget the activation of their daytime security.  It was the best time of day for an armed robbery.<br/><br/>Joey didn't care much for subtly, either.  In fact, it wasn't terribly difficult to pick her out of a crowd.  She had numerous bio-augmentations; she had a subdermal scalp implant which made her hair grow out pink- her hair, which, was shaved on one side and hung in a short tail of dreads in the back.  She wore two studs in her right ear and one in her nose, and her eyebrow had a distinct gap where a previous piercing fell out.  The lass was missing an arm, her right one, which had been replaced by an amateur mech-surgeon.  It was a botch job for certain, but she found it to be rather handy (as she so humourously put it.)  It was fixed with an array of illegal tools, such as slots in her fingertips for print swapping, a switch-knife in the wrist, a re-loadable shotgun which emerged from her elbow, and a bottle opener in the thumb.  Not that a bottle opener was illegal, but she still found it to be fairly useful.<br/><br/>She dressed as any punk would whom grew up in the slums.  Archaic, early 21st century type rags joined together in any way possible made for quite a unique fashion culture.  The miners on the outskirts of town often outfitted themselves with shoddy safety equipment, like kneepads and steel-toes strapped on with old belts or boot legs with the foot inserts cut out.  They recycled just about everything, and had to find a way to make things work.  They were natural tinkers.<br/><br/>Really, though, Jo wasn't one for the dog-life.  She wanted to live with the higher classes, and there was only one way someone like her could do it.  Taking it from them was, and would always be, her profession.  Plus, she liked shooting things.<br/><br/>Being robbed by an outlaw wasn't precisely an everyday sort of thing, but security was still an issue.  Many buildings were armed with a range of different measures to keep the bad guys outside, from a series of fibre beams to a simple android guard.  The androids may or may not be a simple matter, depending on the quality of the make.  Most could be shut down with an overcharge, but there was a new model hitting the market that was resistant to them, and it was rapidly becoming popular.  With the amount of technology available to the average citizen, the police forces could only intervene so much.  One wrong move could get you killed.<br/><br/>Her target was a high-end augment retail, the kind that always had two or three combat androids inside.    There didn't seem to be much else by way of security, as she'd spent the last week or so learning.  It was important to scout, and more important to sabotage whilst scouting.<br/><br/>“Bloody thing hasn't got a charge, its gone wonky it has,” the old cashier was busied on his cellphone, presumably speaking with a repair agent.  His guards mysteriously lost power to their core generators.  Jo smiled innocently under her helmet.  She wore it because the cashier had already seen her several times, and she didn't want him recognising her whilst she held him at gunpoint.  The man finally cut the call and turned to help her, only to come face to face with Jenny, her .5 amp 50k volt gun.  Beam rifles could put a hole in your heart, but volt guns could hurt<span style="font-style: italic">and</span>kill.<br/><br/>“What do you want?” the man seemed more irritated than anything, knowing he was defeated without his robots.<br/><br/>“Only your core implants,” she said pleasantly.  The cashier scowled at her.  Of course, she had to rob him of the most expensive pieces of equipment in the shop.  The core implants were basically a second heart.  They were frequently used by athletes and soldiers, allowing them to run for longer distances and jump higher and all that neat stuff.  Jo didn't need it.  Only the cash.  Speaking of cash, “I'll take all the money in your vault while you're at it.”<br/><br/>“You're scum,” the man growled at her, but nonetheless set about collecting her requested items.  He was quite old, perhaps nearing his seventies.  Those androids were his only line of defence, as he didn't seem to have any weapons on his person.  He filled her backpack with the cores, and topped it off with a mound of cash.  Joey zipped it shut quickly and slung it over her shoulder.<br/><br/>“One more thing,” she said, backing away.  “Say cheese!”<br/><br/>“Say wha--!”<br/><br/>A dart to his neck silenced him.  Jo giggled and turned tail as he collapsed over the counter.  It wouldn't kill him, but the neurotoxin would make it impossible for him to recall what had happened here.  When the police got involved, he wouldn't be much help in their investigation.<br/><br/>She threw off the helmet a block away, letting it roll into a side street.  Of course, she wasn't daft.  She couldn't keep these cores, they were hot and needed to be rid of quickly.  Conveniently, she'd run into another storefront framed in a flickering neon.  It was called Discount Tech, which she guessed meant it was a parts shop.  Usually, places like these dealt in secondhand merchandise.  A lot of it was android parts, and implants like these could just as easily be used as they would in humans.  It was uncommon due to the quality of these parts, but not unheard of.<br/><br/>She stepped inside cautiously, blue eyes darting to the seemingly random assortment of items.  She kept one hand on her backpack and the other fell to her hips.  Everything here was cluttered and looked as if someone had simply chucked it all into a heap and left them that way.<br/><br/>“Anyone here? Helloooo…?” Joey called into the dark interior.  She was briefly distracted by an eyeball in a glass box.  It blinked and rolled around in its holding case, pausing a moment on her.  Jo shifted her feet uncomfortably.  Androids parts were creepy.