An armoured van was making its way quickly down Swanston Street in the middle of Melbourne, having just completed a pick up from an automated teller machine.
Danny watched it go by, momentarily standing still as he contemplated where it was going.
He, along with everyone else on the footpath, was stunned to see a robotic squirrel go slamming headlong into the side of the van. The vehicle veered out of control, toppling onto its side and coming to an abrupt halt as it slammed into a concrete streetlight pole. A security guard clambered out of the door which faced upwards, his gun raised and a trail of blood leaking down his face.
Danny thought the squirrel looked familiar. He remembered seeing a flying robotic squirrel at the airport on La Perdita when he had left the country, and he wondered for a moment what the odds were of two flying robotic squirrels existing in two separate parts of the world.
The squirrel circled in the air and shot down towards the guard, pushing him off the van. The guard landed hard on the asphalt, rolling to a stop. He raised his gun and fired at the squirrel, watching helplessly as the bullets bounced off the flying rodent's hide.
Danny wondered if he should help, standing still while the people around him ran for safety. He stepped forward, then thought better of it as his drug addled body wavered on him.
He was confused to see a shiny robotic ostrich emerge from the same side street the squirrel had come from, and race towards the van as the squirrel kept the guard occupied. A robotic eagle followed shortly after. The ostrich leaned into the van's open back door, and picked up a steel box that was presumably filled with cash. The eagle simply tore the side of the van off with its huge robot talons, and ducked inside to pick up two more boxes.
Danny ran forward, then stopped again, torn between uncertainty and bravado. The ostrich turned and spotted him, looking him up and down. Danny was frozen in his tracks. The ostrich opened its beak and something looking suspiciously like a gun emerged from it.
Danny ducked for cover behind a nearby park bench.
The robotic eagle rose quickly into the sky, taking hundreds of thousands of dollars with it. The ostrich and the squirrel quickly followed, the squirrel flying off on the tail of the eagle and the ostrich high tailing it into a nearby alley.
On a flight bound for Melbourne, three Vanguardians were sitting in economy class seats. Bruteforce had the window seat, as Grissom and Phil had decided that neither of them wanted to climb over him if the need to pee arised. Phil sat in the middle and Grissom had the aisle seat, the complimentary headphones placed over his head.
"Are you sure Robo Squirrel will be okay?" Bruteforce asked.
"He's fine," Phil replied.
Audible to no one, a lonely metallic 'beep' echoed in the dark confines of the plane's luggage hold.
"Guys," Grissom said, lifting one headphone away from his right ear.
"Yeah?" Phil replied.
"Put your headphones on. Check out the news radio station."
Phil and Ben did as Grissom had requested. The three listened in silence as details of the daylight robbery that had occurred only moments ago were read out over the radio.
"Shit," Phil said softly.
"We need to get to the bottom of this. ASAP," Grissom said to his two teammates.
