The sewers were a disgusting place to most people, but to people like Holly, it was a home. The only members of the police that came down to the sewers were drones, both because of the smell and because it was [i]too dangerous[/i] for them. Holly snorted to herself at the thought; any normal guy or girl that walked the sewers would be greeted by the friendliest of criminals; so long as you didn't mess with them, they didn't mess with you. If you helped them, they helped you. The homeless in the sewers were given phones and made to be lookouts for food. If a drone came down, they'd call up, and those upstream would hide until it passed. The only time they really had to move is if they had to knock out a drone, because other units then poured into that section of the sewers to find out what happened to their precious drone. A part of the sewer was unsettled by the criminal underworld, and purposefully so; it was a hunting ground. Drones were hunted for sport and parts simultaneously. A few times, the pigs had tricked the hunters by having patrols a safe distance behind the drone, so as soon as it was knocked out the culprit would be caught, but it was irregular: even the police were smart enough to know if they pulled that trick with every drone, they'd stop catching people because they'd stop hunting drones.

Holly was getting ready to leave one of the sewer hideouts, patting herself down to make sure she had everything on her. Withdrawing her phone, she was just getting ready to take a skim of the local news when the screen changed.
[i]"You are not alone."[/i]
Chaos ensued. Lookouts were calling to the main hideout that they had similar messages play on their phones. Someone was smashing their own phone, and someone else was walking around with a hammer, demanding everyone hand over their phones to be smashed. It was clear that they all thought they were found out. Holly wasn't sticking around, and she wasn't smashing her phone either. She slipped her phone into her pocket and quickly made her way out of the hideout and into the sewer tunnels, scrambling up the ladder to the surface. Whatever that message was, she wasn't sticking around for someone to track her down. She was going to break her phone, but before she did that she needed to find the hotspots, the places that the police currently were and weren't. Then, she was going to go phone shopping; it looked to her that there would be a market for that soon in the criminal underworld if [i]that[/i] was happening to mobile devices.

However, it became obvious to Holly as she walked through the alleys that it wasn't the police that sent the message. There was no reason for them to do so, to give warning of an attack that they were going to perform on a criminal hideout. It could have been another fellow criminal, [i]warning[/i] them of an attack to come soon, but they would have said more than just [i]you are not alone[/i]. That, and if it [i]was[/i] a fellow criminal, he would be regarded as a friend to some, but an enemy to others, to the smarter ones. A lot of people had things they didn't want to share, some of which were on their devices. If someone managed to get in like that, they would be regarded as a breach, a target to get rid of before they spread secrets. That meant it was someone else, an unknown.

Someone that Holly didn't care about. If even the homeless lookouts had gotten the message, then it clearly wasn't some special message. It wasn't for her directly, and she wasn't affiliated with that hideout gang, just stopped by every so often to give them stolen goods in exchange for cash or other tools or just to rest. It didn't effect her, so it didn't worry. To her, it looked like another justice junkie. Well, he was going to be found and arrested like the rest. And then his home, with a now arrested owner, would get broken into and his possessions looted, the rest thrown out by the landlord.

It wasn't long before Holly got an update. Police were apparently investigating a crime scene at a house somewhere not too far, but far enough for Holly to sweep a nearby small electronics store. Quickly confirming that the store was closed, she slipped her phone back into her pocket and walked her way to the electronics store. It was a store connected to a larger mall building, so all she had to do was pretend she owned the place and she'd be able to get into the back areas. The best part was that nobody would know because there were plenty of other stores attached and until she got into the back of the store she was targeting everybody would think she just came from a different store. It was easy enough unless there was an overzealous security guard standing around.

Once she arrived, everything went to plan. She carefully trailed someone that was in a staff uniform for one of the shops in the main mall area until the reached one of the doors leading into the back areas. When the employee opened the door, Holly walked in with her. [color=lightgoldenrodyellow]"Thanks,"[/color] Holly says, making it all the more seem like she was meant to be there, and closed the door behind her. [color=lightgoldenrodyellow]"Saves me taking out my card."[/color]

"Sure thing, these cards don't work half the time anyway. Had to try my card twice there before it actually opened," the employee says, before walking off. Holly went her own way, giving friendly smiles to whoever she walked past. Holly had been to the electronics shop once before, and she knew it was either the grey door or the door next to it that lead to the back. This was where the problem was going to begin; both doors were alarmed, and if she didn't scan her nonexistent card the alarms would go off a few seconds after she opened the door. Most people didn't pay attention to the first few moments of an alarm, they were always going off as employees fumbled with their alarm fobs, it was when the alarm [i]didn't[/i] stop that suspicions would arise. 

Before she tried anything, Holly activated Pause. Everything slowed, giving her some time to think, to try and remember which room it was. She visualised the room from the last time she had been in it. Most of the phones would be locked away, but there were always a few phone boxes left out; whether it was because employees were too lazy with their underpaid jobs to lock them away or they needed to be out in case phones in the front ran out and more were needed quickly, Holly didn't know. She just knew that it was an easy catch so long as someone wasn't walking about when she left the room. After a moment of thought and trying to remember where the phones were last time, she was farily sure it was the grey door. So, she opened the first, grey door.

Luck was on her side, as she recognised the interior immediately. Quickly stepping inside, she spied four rectangular boxes with various phone brands on them. She mentally counted seconds in her head as she slipped her bag off, opening the zip and quickly lifting each of the four boxes in one-by-one; The weight of each box confirmed there was a phone in each. As she was putting in the second phone she heard the door alarm. Shovelling in the two last phones, she closed the zipper and quickly walked out of the room. Nobody was there, but she knew that would change quickly.

Holly quickly walked back the way she had come, peeking over her shoulder behind her. Just as she rounded a corner, she heard someone calling out behind her. Taking no risks, Holly broke out into a run. She only stopped as soon as she was at the door, where she opened it and quickly blended into the crowds, walking to the exit as security swarmed. In no way did Holly know she was safe, or at least, safer, until she was outside of the building, and immediately trotted into the alleys to move in the safety of the darkness.