Small-time thievery (open)

[Snow White]

"... "

Hildegard had her doubts, was this really the only way to survive? She just dumped the corpses of her former comrades in a nearby dumpster while nobody was looking, and now she had planned to break into a nearby supermarket she noticed while she was performing the vilest of betrayals.

It was nighttime already and Echo should in theory be sleeping, so the soon to become guilty of committing thievery girl sneaked out of the room where she was supposed to stay and went towards the door leading to the outside. The veil of the night had already covered the city and through the windows she could see that hardly anyone at all was in the streets, it was the perfect moment to commit a crime to survive. Hildegard was well aware that she lacked of any identification and that would make very hard if not impossible to find an honest job, so something had to be done to bring food to the table, she had to take care of Echo after all and she herself needed something to eat to survive.

The albino looked back to make sure Echo didn't follow her and to her surprise, there she was in all her cutesy glory, not looking tired nor sleepy at all. Knowing just how clingy she was, it would be impossible to convince her to stay behind, so Hildegard had to improvise a lie to keep Echo away from learning about the foul side of the world.

"I'm going to do some shopping, if you want to come with me, put on some darker clothes that are comfortable for outdoors activity"

Just exactly what was she thinking when she decided to bring Echo with her? That was so ... nonsensical .... but then again, she had a hard day and she wasn't thinking very clearly with that thing about witnessing the murder of her friends and suffering of the horrible guilt of betraying them. Also, how could she say no to a girl so cute?

[Amazo]

Echo spent some time showing the strange new girl her place. After all, if they were going to wait for daddy together, she should know about things here. Maybe she could help with keeping this place nice and tidy! Echo was diligent, and cleaned things up always, but since the complex was so large, she was not able to clean one part without allowing another to fall pray to ever-present dust. She was a bit of a neat freak in that department, constant strive for nothing less than cleanliness drove her to continues "chores".

However, unlike the little amazo, the other girl could not last within the dark place forever. Eventually, she got hungry. Echo needed not food, she was completely self-reliant considering energy to operate, and needed not food. But Hilde was a human ... sort of, she needed to eat, so it was only a matter of time before she figured they must find some. Or, to be exact, Hilde figured. Echo was in blissful ignorance of whatever motives were driving her. It was during one of those moments when she caught her newly found "family member" planning on leaving somewhere.

- Where are you going? - the girl in white kimono asked. Answer came shortly. "Shopping". Daddy used that word often when leaving the lab, but he never explained what it meant. Neither did he take her with him. All she knew was that after going "shopping" he returned with things... Like food, or, or... OR NEW LIGHTBULBS! They should totally get some! This place would not be so dark and depressing then!

- Alright, I will go change. - she replied on reflex and went into the room, but then stopped. Wait, why should she change clothes literally? She can form other clothes at will! She was a nanomorph robot sorta kinda, she was able to get any outfit desired, if not change her appearance quite completely. But ... what kind of clothes should she make? Hilde said dark and comfortable... Alright. She was going to do that. Concentrating for a second, she formed a ... different set of clothes around her.

What she came up with was ... well, very good actually. Black pants, black turtleneck sweater, black shoes. Black cap to hide her hair in. Even black gloves (!!!) She couldn't have invented this, could she? Robots were not known for creativity, they could not invent something from scratch. This set... she should have seen it somewhere before. But where? Even Echo herself didn't know. Instinct? Maybe. But what she picked was perfect for their little "shopping trip",

- I am ready. Is it good? - Echo asked as she left the darkness of the room, now blending with the darkness surrounding her so much, because of her thief outfit. - I have never been outside, daddy never took me with him. Are you sure it will be alright?

[Snow White]

"You are a good girl ..."

That's all Hildegard could say as Echo left to change clothes. She felt dirty for having to bring such a pure and innocent girl to a place where they would commit burglary, hopefully yet another lie and some wordplay would eventually make her realize that was a needed evil, but until then this was going to be just a happy shopping session.

Not much time passed before the little girl returned, she was wearing completely black clothes very fitting for thievery, maybe too fitting, but who cared about that? that would at least keep her concealed from curious eyes as long she remained hiding in the shadows.

"It is really good, and all will be right, I'm your big sister and I'm going to protect you from anything dangerous"

It is almost as if the real Hildegard never died; Otto used to be quite overprotective about his younger sister and even scared away boyfriend-wannabes and his sole moment of strong will were when he had to protect his sister from the cruel world outside. It was a bit sad, but the new Hildegard was treating this completely different girl the same way she treated her sister, almost as if she wanted to use her as a replacement.

"Now don't separate from me, there's a nice place where we can get nice things near"

In retrospective, maybe it wasn't really a good idea to dump the corpses of her comrades in the first dumpster she found: the one only a block away from the supermarket she was going to break into, she could almost hear the accusing voices of the dead, demanding punishment for the one who betrayed them and tarnished the honor of the group. She walked faster as they passed next to the dumpster and soon arrived to the supermarket, it looked like it was a popular one because it was relatively big, so that also meant they had lots of things they could need. However, now the problem was to find a way to get inside, Hildegard didn't really think very well how to do it >_<

"Echo, be a good girl and look around for a nice place we can use to enter, like a hole or an easier to open door"

The main entrance was an obvious place where to begin, but it was obviously the most protected entrance as well, another entrance had to be found. The night was young and there was plenty of time to find how to enter.

[Amazo]

- Do not worry. I can protect myself. - Echo's echoing voice was heard, as the overly excited Hilde said that she would protect her. It was a nice jest, and Echo probably could have appreciated it, but thing was, that she was supposed to be the one protecting things from danger. Little did Hilde know that beneath the surface of the little girl with white hair lied a poly-alloy nanomorph combat chassis. In other words, scary robot. But the amazo did not mention it yet - did not felt the need. Should she be asked - she'd come clean, she always did, but until then...

She followed her so-called big sister through the alleyways. It all seemed so new, so strange, so unfamiliar to the girl, who spent all her "life" inside a confined environment, in that concrete tomb of a home, in cold laboratory. This was a whole new world, to her, so big, so ... interesting. The sounds, the images, the smells even! It took much concentration not to be carried away by the sensation all her sensors felt upon immersing in this ... information - rich environment...

They reached a one-story building shortly - Hilde made some reconnaissance, so she knew where to go and lead to it fairly quickly. What was this strange new place? Was it where daddy got the goods all the time? It certainly looked so very interesting... Echo could not help it but glare around eyes wide opened, so much new things ... big buildings, fresh ... relatively fresh air in comparison to stuffy one of the lab... Oooh, what was that thing gleaming with three lights? Red, yellow and green? It was so very interesting her childish curiosity was awaken ... she wanted to stick her nose virtually everywhere.

But a sudden request to find an entrance inside managed to snap her out of that curiosity - induced trance. A way inside? Why did big sis ask her? Nevermind, it was of no consequence, the android was given a task, an order, and she was going to execute it. The expression on her face quickly turned from curious and astonished back to cold and calculative ... like one of a machine. Her eyes moved slowly across the perimeter, running scans and analyses...

One of fringe benefits of being a highly sophisticated robot is the fact that they install many useful gadgets in you by default. Aka nightvision, etcetera etcetera. The door was closed, so she deduced it was not an entrance. An entrance is something not closed, through which they can enter. Alas, all windows were closed too... And there no seemed to be any other way inside... For now, they just needed to keep looking more.

- No entrance on this level. - she sounded frighteningly competent, as she approached the water drain coming from the roof down, and quickly climbed it, to get upstairs. One could not be expecting such ... agility from a child who lived in the lab all the time. In truth, the amazo was strong enough to pull herself up effortlessly, which she did, and ended up on the roof. "Handprints" remained from where she was climbing, so much force she applied to the tin pipe, but who cared? She was up, and now scanning the upper level for any sign of entrance. Then ... her gase fell upon the ventilation shaft. It was covered with some sort of metal barred thingy, but it was easier to get rid of than bashing through the glass, right?

- This is the only one I can find.

[Snow White]

Little Echo was really, really competent, no sooner Hildegard requested for her assistance, she immediately started working and in a mere fact of minutes she was already reporting her discoveries while Hildegard was still looking at the lock in the main door, wondering if she could lock the pick somehow. Anyway, she abandoned that silly idea of trying to be a master of unlocking and went where Echo was looking for an entrance, surprisingly the little girl climbed the waster drain pipe and was on top of the building.

"Don't do something dangerous like that next time, if something bad happened to you ..."

The frail mind of Hildegard was already scarred enough after all the previous experiences in the old world, were she to lose Echo in an accident right after "adopting" her as a new little sister, things would get real nasty and could potentially become suicidal.

Worried about what kind of things could happen to the secretly robotic girl, she climbed as well the pipe albeit slower than the Amazo, it was a bit bent in some areas but fortunately it was strong enough to sustain the weight of another small-sized person. Once on the roof of the supermarket, she saw how little Echo was quietly waiting for her next to a ventilation shaft, that could actually do the trick!

"Good work, little sister .."

The stunt little echo pulled was dangerous, or at least it would be for a real human girl, but she did succeed to secure a way to enter into the supermarket. Hildegard ruffled the little albino girl's hair and examined the ventilation shaft, it was big enough for them to slip inside and its cover was made of frail and thin metal bars that could be easily removed, probably it was put on there to prevent stray cats from falling inside and the supermarket owner never imagined small enough burglars would attempt to use it. Needless to say, it was immediately removed as it was not welded to the frame of the air vent.

"I'm going first, you go down once I'm inside"

Thank goodness the air vent was as wide as it looked from outside, Hildegard slipped through it with no need for reducing her size and soon found herself inside the supermarket, it was quite dark and maybe it was a bit dumb to forget bringing a flashlight, but with some trial and error they would eventually find the light switch. Nevermind, Hildegard remained next to the exit of the air vent and waited for Echo.

"Now descend carefully and don't be scared, I'm going to be next to you"

[Amazo]

The newly-found sister was again being too worrisome. She should have worried more about herself, she was a normal human girl around here, sorta kinda. Echo was completely-self reliant in most things, she was a robot after all, a fact probably mentioned too often. And yet she was treated like a normal little girl. It was ... strange. Daddy treated her like so, nobody else... And yet he was the only one to interact with her. To Amazo, it was ... a delightful experience. She was not offended to be treated like a child, it was supposed to be this way...

- I am not afraid. - she said following through the vent. A robot knows no fear, and she did not wince in front of dead corpses, and spent years in darkness of the lab. A little vent was not able to scare her. And I doubt anything else would. She moved through silently, being very careful in her movements, slithering through the vent like a snake, before jumping down to the ground, landing softly on her two feet. She looked around.

It was dark in here, only dim lights coming through the glass windows and doors, it was not enough to light up the place. Not that she needed any, again, she was a robot, she could see in the dark. But Hilde couldn't - she looked lost in the darkness. Echo decided to help. Soon she found a lightswitch and flicked it on, lighting up the place with artificial lights. Maybe it was not the brightest idea... Since people from outside could see what is going on inside, but Echo didn't know they were committing crime in the first place.

- Is this where daddy goes shopping, sister? What do we do now?

[Snow White]

"You are a brave girl ..."

Hildegard wished she could say the same about herself, she ran away from everything that actually mattered and abandoned every single bit of pride she had as a man and freedom fighter to dedicate to a quiet and uneventful life .... the shame of a cowardly traitor.

The german traitor quietly awaited for Echo's arrival, feeling uneasy for the complete darkness inside as it reminded her of the days hiding in unhealthy hideouts from the aliens, even the smallest of lights could be detected by their highly advanced technology and give away their locations and lives. Living under those circumstances was like living permanently in a state of fear, but now that was all part of the past, she had to concentrate in procuring supplies and forget about those aliens, they weren't here to ruin everything.

Eventually Echo arrived and almost immediately found the light switch, once more surprising Hildegard. That poor girl surely lived in the darkness for so long that her sight was adapted to low illumination she thought, it was the only reasons she imagined little Echo could find it so fast, that and maybe she was burn under a lucky star and had a lot of luck.

"Oh, about that ... yes, this is where people goes to shopping, now let's get a few bags and pick edible things and other nice things like cleaning products and .. a flashlight, sister "

It was quite heartwarming to hear Echo call her sister, she was quite easily accepted into the little girl's family and now nothing could go wrong, they would first begin with this hopefully one-time act of thievery, then go legit somehow, find a nice job, rebuild that old laboratory into a nice and comfortable home, and spend together the rest of their mortal lives .. or at least that was the plan, little the shapeshifter knew that the shapeshifting aliens were immortal and could easily live forever thanks to their ability to simply keep a youthful shape.

Anyway, she proceeded to pick a few bags with the logo of the supermarket and tossed inside a few edible foods, mainly milk, bread, some soda drinks and ... wine, good ol friend of people who simply wanted to forget about everything and drown their sorrows with alcohol. She quickly put a bottle inside one of the bags along a coke and hoped Echo didn't notice that, the last thing she needed was for the child to learn some bad habits from her.

[Silver Stray]

It was another cold night, but Stray was getting used to it now. She had no delusions that running away and surviving on her own was going to be easy, but it was a lot harder than she had expected. Trying to live as a human was pretty much impossible. She had to stretch what money she had left as far as she could stretch it. Finding even a minimal paying job was difficult at best for a 14 year old living on the streets, and getting one that payed for the expenses involved in the whole super hero gig at the same time was pretty much impossible.

That said, she had been spending much of her first year on the streets just trying to stay alive and get to know the streets and local animal population. She hadn't even had a chance to do anything about crime in Metropolis, which was getting worse and worse all the time, which was very disheartening. She had these powers, and yet all she could do was use them to survive. At least living like an animal, her options were a bit more open. An animal didn't need government standardized food. Anything edible out of a dumpster was just as good for a variety of animals. Plus endearing herself to the local restaurant owners made mooching off their scraps a lot easier.

Stray had been asleep underneath a dumpster, curled up as a mouse beneath the cover of a discarded newspaper. She had expected a quiet undisturbed night, now that the store was closed and there was little reason for anyone to approach the back end of the supermarket. There were no guarantees when living on the streets though, and her expectations were shot as she was awoken by the vibrations felt from the footsteps of two people, walking around the market.

She cautiously poked her head out from beneath the dumpster, and could just make out the two people who had disturbed her rest. While she wasn't too concerned about them being a possible threat to the supermarket (who would risk jail for anything but money and valuables?) but there was a possibility that they were on their way to commit a crime somewhere else. She began tailing them, darting between cover as she followed them around the building towards the front door.

Oh come on, you two totally didn't expect this place to be open this late did you? She thought as the two stopped near the front door, appearing to have honestly come for the supermarket. She simply held her position, her sensitive ears picking up their conversation. They aren't ser--- oh, they are. She thought. The sound of the first girl climbing up, crunching the tin drain pipe rang through her ears. She was caught between realizing that at least one of them was a metahuman, and thinking about how stupid these two were. Did they honestly think they were going to pull this off being that noisy?

She sighed and bolted around the building. While the duo seemed to be making a rooftop entrance, she had her own entrances. She ran along the edge of the building's foundation, not far along the wall was a crack. She then shifted form, turning into an ant, and crawled through it, making her way through the wall until she found herself in the stock room. She immediately headed for the door to the main area of the store. Once she had crawled beneath it, she took the form of a mouse once again.

She dove into the nearest shelf, hiding behind a few boxes. Moments later she was glad she did so, as very suddenly, the store was flooded with light. For a moment, Stray could only stand where she was amongst boxes and boxes of crackers, completely dumbfounded by the foolishness of these two criminals. By now, she wouldn't be surprised if they went up to the nearest phone and called the cops on themselves right then and there. They might as well already with all the noise and light. Well, I guess I am lucky to get an easy gig for my first night as a hero.

There was one thing that required a bit more thought here though. What was she to do next? She had caught them red handed. How was she to reveal herself? Most of the superheroes she had heard of started off with some sort of one-liner to get the criminal's attention. Stop evil-doer! She thought. Even in her head, that sounded poor. Her mind raced to think of something, but they were drawing near. She had to make a move. "Drop the loot thieves!" She called out suddenly. Seconds later she jumped out of her hiding space, taking on the form of a German Shepherd. "I, the Silver Stray will not let you criminals get away with even the most petty and poorly executed of crimes. You're going to jail, and if you co-operate, I won't have to maul you."

[Amazo]

Echo just stood there, glaring at her "big sister", as she picked the goods she required for herself. The robot didn't help her much in that department - she knew little to nothing about these shiny packages she never saw before, what they were needed for or what they might do. She did not need food for herself, for obvious reasons, and decided that Hilde should just pick what she wants. However, there were some things she knew must be picked, like these long lightbulbs. She silently approached one of the shelves and picked two of those things, which were almost her height, and passed them over to another Albino.

Now that she were giving it a bit more of a thought, Echo actually did find some things she was interested in. Like that fancy new mop she saw in the aisle with cleaning products. She knew a thing or two about good mops, and her own one was all worn out a long time ago. She needed a new one. Without any hint of reluctance she took the most expensive one out there, along with a new broom - yes, she needed that one too, and brought them back to her sister, saying:

- We are going to need these too. My equipment is all worn out and is in need of replacement. - her pattern of speech sounded a little bit weird, calling broom and mop "equipment", but it was still possible to figure out what she meant. A bad habit possibly, to sound like some sort of an inventory management machine, but hey, she was a machine after all. Upon retrieving said items, she would have gone off to find some more - her cleaning arsenal still needed much more, but they were interrupted by a sudden voice...

-Drop the loot thieves!I, the Silver Stray will not let you criminals get away with even the most petty and poorly executed of crimes. You're going to jail, and if you co-operate, I won't have to maul you. - the threat was heard, and soon after that a big scary-looking dog jumped out from behind one shelf, looking most menacingly. For a human, that is. Echo did not even bat an eyelash, moving silently in front of Hilde. For no meaning at all, her inner workings only reacted in such a way to threat aimed at BOTH of them. Though her mind did not quite process the words the way they should have been.

- Nice to meet you Silver Stray. My name is Echo, and this is Hilde. - her voice was solemn and a bit creepy, mostly because her facial "muscles" barely moved as she said that, and her eyes were just two black voids devoid of any life or emotion, and focused on the canine. She was looking right into her eyes, not knowing that one should never ever look in the eyes of an animal, even if it was a shapeshifter in disguise.

- And we do not commit crimes. We came here shopping, like daddy did. Didn't we, sister? - Echo asked, looking at Hilde with a bit questioning glare. She did not know they were technically committing a crime, neither she knew daddy went shopping during the day, and paid with money. And what was money anyhow? She did not know. Also, the dog mentioned one more word little amazo did not seem to recognize, and that word was...

- What does the word "jail" means? - she asked, turning her head back slowly to face the shapeshifter again...

[Snow White]

"That's fine too, pick anything you think we need"

How lovely, little Echo really liked to do the cleaning, she even got a new mop and a broom, that made her resemblance to the woman she was serving as replacement even more noticeable, she too liked to work hard and perform all the duties in the house while studying for the exams. The little girl even went to look for more cleaning supplies, but then the activities of both thief-wannabes was interrupted by the arrival of a TALKING DOG!

Hildegard got quite startled about the she-dog's arrival, she had never heard or read anything about talking dogs and this one even fashioned herself as a hero who stopped criminals. She was half-tempted to pick her gun and shoot at the heroic canine, but that would only cause the burden of her sins even bigger .... something else had to be done.

She stepped in between Echo and the dog and wanted to say something but Echo went ahead and said some words that clearly expressed her naivety and lack of understanding of how society worked. Under other circumstances that would've been very cute, but it wasn't right now, that would only make angrier the dog if she had a short temper.

"Little Echo, we ... yes, this is shopping, and we are going to pay for the goods once we have some money,because as the doggie said, bad people who doesn't pay go to the jail, and we are going to pay"

Partially that was true, it was in her plans to try to find a job where an identity document wasn't required and eventually pay for what it was stolen today, but why would that K-9 believe her? Surely many thieves said the same thing only to never honor their words and most likely policemen and heroes were tired of that so common lie, unable to recognize when somebody genuinely planned to honor the promise.

She then looked at the talking dog, shielding the little Echo from anything the big, bad german shepard might do, and begged for a peaceful solution.

"I promise we will pay when we have money, please let us get away with this and we will never shop like this anymore"

Hildegard was tired of fighting for survival, so she was more than willing to negotiate a peaceful negotiation, fighting did her no good at all in her life and she was also deep down a coward who wanted to run away from all the troubles.

[Silver Stray]

Now how would they respond? Would they make their first intelligent decision of the night and come with her quietly? Would they try and run? Would they try to psyche her out? Or would they attempt to fight her? Ooh the possibilities. She pondered what the younger one said. Either they were taking the playing dumb route, or it was possible that the younger one was truly unaware of what was happening and the older one was taking advantage of the younger one's ignorance to gain a free set of hands to do her dirty work. She did find the little one's apparently emotionless expression disturbing, though it could be resultant from possible abuse, which would be possible if the child was indeed being used by her companion.

Stray's attention then shifted to the older one. She too maintained that they weren't criminals, though unlike the child, there was no attempt to appear stupid, and rather she backed herself up with logic. Her logic though, was extremely flawed. "You aren't exactly correct. Shopping is when you go to a store when it is open, and you purchase items with money given to the cashiers before taking them. Breaking and entering, and stealing is a crime regardless of any intention to pay for the items at a later date."

This encounter was anything but what she was expecting. Criminals acted out of selfish greed. They stole valuables and money, not common household stuff off of grocery store shelves. Were they seriously doing this because they didn't have money to buy food themselves? Once upon a time, she might have just flat out called bull shit on this idea, but over the past year she learned just how hard it was to get by. She however, didn't steal for what she needed, and it hadn't even occurred to her as an option. She was perfectly good at charming people into giving her food, and if things were desperate, she wasn't beyond browsing the dumpsters of vaious restaurants and food stores.

She looked back forth between Echo and Hilde. Were they serious, or was this some sort of an elaborate trick? Her mind buzzed as she went through the possible reasons for criminals to be stealing from a grocery store. Stupidity was already up there. Beginners was also a likely possibility. Maybe they were a decoy? Perhaps there was another crime happening elsewhere and these two were doing this for the sole sake of providing a distraction from a more pressing crime. It certainly would explain their audacity, and perhaps they were attempting to delay her more by confusing her like this.

Well, she had to figure this out somehow. She... Had no restraints on her, so capturing them wasn't much of an option. Being a beginner at the whole hero deal, she had no intention of going after the primary crime if these two were indeed a decoy, so she wasn't too concerned about them drawing the encounter out. There was simply a matter of deciding whether to believe them or not. "So I take what you are trying to get at, is that you don't have money for necessities and have chosen to steal for them instead." Stray said as she eyed the items they had in their hands. "I might believe you if it was just the necessities of life you were taking, but I wouldn't call that mop for one a necessity. You can live without a clean floor."

[Amazo]

- The entrance was opened... - Echo sounded a weak excuse, and pointed up at the ceiling, where there was that black gaping maw of the vent. Or at least it was weak from a logical point of view, because the girl said it with such dead-pan seriousness it sounded like she never doubted the thought. Maybe to her a vent and a door were equal-status entrances, or maybe there was another explanation. Still, there were no cashiers to go around, and they had no money... What was money again anyway? She remembered daddy mentioning it a few times, but nothing more. Needless to say, the scientist did poorly as a parent - the girl knew little to nothing about the outside world.

And the second remark about living without a clean floor sent Echo into confusion. She was cleaning the lab for eons for her daddy, and this ... talking dog said it was not needed? All those 5348 square meters of concrete to be left without proper care? Why, this was ... infuriating. The girl clung to the mop and refused to let it go or put it back on the shelf. It was just a stupid cleaning utensil, but for Echo that little chore duty was just as important as eating for Hilde, or any other normal person.

- The laboratory won't keep itself clean for daddy's arrival. Everything must be clean when he will finally return, or he will think I am not a dutiful daughter. What must I do in order to keep the mop without it being a crime? - she asked, still not letting go of the damn thing. A small, almost untraceable hint of desperation broke through her standard unwavering and ... robotic intonation. Taking the broom away from her would be like taking a loaf of bread from a hungry person. But she did not wish to commit a crime, or make the silver dog go angry...

[Snow White]

"I haven't found a job yet and we don't have any food, please only for this time ..."

She repeated again her plea for freedom to steal the edible goods. What she called "shopping" was indeed small-time thievery, but it was because they had nothing else they could do, Hildegard had just arrived to this world and came hungry and tired and as an illegal immigrant, the lack of documentation made highly unlikely to find a legit and honest job and in the case she could a job, it would in a bad place like a seedy bar or maybe ... "work in the streets".

Well, at least she had to try begging again, because little echo's innocent and cute logic wasn't helping them at all. She could imagine the dog facepalming with her paw after hearing Echo say the "entrance" above was open, that would make them look rather bad and maybe even infuriate miss she-dog.

"My little sister is keeping the house clear for her dear dad and we could get sick if our house is filthy. We can pay for the mop later so it's not a crime any more"

Ugh, being a thief was more troublesome than it was worth, it was a really stupid idea to break into the supermarket in first place and maybe she should've just endured the hunger and thirst and get a job first .... although that would mean little Echo was going to have to endure that sad situation as well, and a growing little girl like her needed her milk and cookies to grow strong and healthy.

Hildegard actually had some money in her pocket all things considered, but they were Deutsche Marks, also known as German money. It was more than obvious it had no value in USA and it was even more obvious it wasn't going to work even in Germany because due the alternate version of the events, it had a different design with different images stamped on them, they wouldn't even pass for fake money >_<

[Silver Stray]

"Open as in the store is running, and the actual front door is open, and the store's employees are allowing customers to come in and shop." Did she have to explain everything? She didn't look any younger than 10. Any child her age should know that kind of stuff. What exactly were they teaching in schools these days? "If you want to have the mop without commiting a crime, you'll have to leave it here for now, come back tomorrow when the store is open with money, and pay for it."

Stray then shifted her attention back to Hilde, who was still begging for her to let them get away with this crime. When thrown the 'we could get sick' excuse regarding the mop, Stray could only roll her eyes. "Myth." She snorted unsympathetically. "I've been living on the streets for over a year for Christ sake. If dirty surroundings were as bad for one's health as people make it out to be, I'd be dead by now."

She sighed. She wanted to just chew these guys out, chase them out of the store and teach them never to step a toe out of line again. That's how it was supposed to go right? Heroes hunt down villains, capture them and throw them in jail. Villains were selfish lunatics who paid no heed to laws and did whatever they please regardless of the consequences. That's what she ever learned about heroes and villains, but these two were doing it all wrong! Villains weren't innocents just doing what they could to survive! That just blurred the line between villain and innocent.

"I shouldn't even be talking this out." Stray growled in exasperation. She couldn't help but wonder if the old time heroes like Batman or Superman ever encountered this problem, and if they had, what they had done. Everything she heard about a hero's efforts made right and wrong seem so clearly defined. That there was a specific line that dictated that criminals were all villains and good guys always obeyed the law. She just couldn't blame them for simply trying to survive, but they were still trying to commit a crime.

"I'll tell you right now, that no matter what you say or how much you plead, I will not let you walk away from here with any goods from this store. Coming back and paying for it later won't make it any less of a crime." She said flatly. That, was what she could say for certain. She couldn't throw them to the police for simply trying to gain means to stay alive, but she still would not allow this crime to be committed. "However, if you do need food, I could show you some good places to get food without it being a crime."

[Amazo]

Echo frowned when she heard what the silver dog said. She did want to keep the mop, buuut she did not want this to get violent because of her desire to obtain an object. It was illegal, a crime, she remembered not to do all that again. Hesitating a little bit, she put the mob back, and then the broom, the washing things, and everything else they managed to loot. This was bad, and they should not have done this if the silver dog says it was bad.

- We should return when we have money then, sister. Whatever that is. - she said without any hint of emotion still. And yes, she did not know what money is too. She was mostly oblivious of anything having to do with outer world, her own revolved around her father and brothers, but now that they were gone ... her shield was gone too, and she was left exposed to all this new ... and sometimes harmful information.

However, when the dog proposed to show a place where to find food, it was a good thing to hear. Echo did not need food, but she was worried about her sister - she was a human, she needed food to function. But maybe the wise canine knows where to get free brooms and mops too? She would certainly appreciate the information - the lab was rather big, and her mop was very worn out.

- Do you know where I can get a mop and a broom without it being a crime? I have 2379 square meters of surface to maintain in clean condition for daddy's arrival, and my current utensils are in very bad state, beyond repair. I would be most grateful... - she asked, sounding a little bit hopeful. She was a neat freak, after all.