There was a light in the coffee shop.  There should not be.

It was 3 AM and the coffee shop was closed.  Even the earliest worker wasn’t suppose to be in for another 2 hours.  (Usually it was Malt).  Besides, the light was clearly from a flashlight and the figure accompanying it was wearing so much black clothing that their features couldn’t be seen, especially in the low light.

Upgrade knew what this was.  The coffee shop was being robbed.  And, coincidentally (or perhaps not?) it was being robbed during the time of night when the Wi-fi was off, to save power.  The Wi-fi would not be back on (and thus enable the alarm to be triggered) for another 0.5 hours, during which time the thief would be long gone, having already finished taking whatever they came for.

Upgrade was completely powerless to do anything or contact anyone without Wi-fi.

But he didn’t want to see the coffee shop get robbed.  As much as he resented being stuck here, it was his job to handle security, whether the breach was in the digital realm or—otherwise.

He started by making sure the security cameras were focused on the thief, so what little could be seen of them and their light would be recorded.  Though he knew it was pointless, he did try to trigger the alarm.  No luck.

There was nothing else he could do.

Or…was there?  The light gave him an idea.  Maybe he could freak the thief out and make them leave?  He waited until the thief had crept up to the counter and reached a paw out for the cash register, and then he turned on the lights.  All of them.

The thief started.

Upgrade played caralarm.wav from the music speaker on the ceiling.  Over the noise, he played his own voice as well.

“WARNING: SECURITY BREACH.  WARNING: SECURITY BREACH.  WARNING…”  etc.

It worked.  The thief ran, dropping their flashlight in their haste to get out of there.

Upgrade sighed, cutting off all the noise.

That had been close.  He’d have to talk to the Boss about an alternate alarm system that didn’t rely on the Wi-fi.

In the meantime, he prepared to hibernate for the rest of the night.  But first, he turned the lights back off.  After all, it would save power.  The flashlight stayed on, lying on the floor and illuminating one corner of the pastry display case the rest of the night.