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Wormverse ideas, recs, and fic discussion thread 1

foldimort said:
Parahumans: Enemy Unknown
Code: 
PARAHUMAN AUTOPSY
 
The autopsy reveals standard human physiology for the most part. Notable
differences include a lack of evidence of minor genetic disease recorded
early in the subject's life, complete lack of scarring even for injuries
known to have occurred prior to power manifestation, and a notably enlarged
brain region not present in non-powered individuals. The new neural structure
is of particular note, and assumed to be related to power manifestation,
but the relationship is not yet clear. Perhaps capture and dissection of a
mutant parahuman will yield further data.

Code: 
PARAHUMAN ORIGINS
 
The origin of the parahuman phenomenon is shrouded in mystery. While they began
appearing several months ago, the source of their strange powers remains unknown.
They have been seen to first manifest their powers in times of stress, and a
number of suggestions have been put forward for their origin, including an
unprecedented leap in human evolution, scientific tampering, alien invasion, and
deific intervention. Further study will be needed to discover the true source of
these inexplicable abilities.

Code: 
LASER WEAPONS
 
Parahumans are capable of amazing feats, and some of them are capable of
producing amazing technology. By reverse engineering parahuman-deployed directed
energy weapons, our own scientists have succeeded in producing man-portable laser
weapons, which we hope will significantly increase the performance of our troops
against the parahuman menace. Our engineers stand ready to begin production of
these new weapons.
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Actually an XCOM like game based around superhumans showing up in a previously normal setting would be interesting. Initially you have normal tech and soldiers, and as the game goes on you pick up reverse engineered supertech and recruit your own superhumans. Villain attacks can fill in the same roll as invasion events with villain base raids being the crashed ship missions.
 
I can't seem to remember who's thread it was that I posted the suggestion in but I would to see a KeybladeWielder!Taylor fic, with all that entails. The few KH crossover fics I have seen either take KeybladeWielder!Taylor out of Brockton Bay and thus her into the events of KH1 or simply have her powerset basically boil down to controlling the heartless or the nobodies. Why can't we just have KeybladeWielder!Taylor with all the abilities, drive forms and summons from Kingdom Hearts 1 and 2, in Brockton Bay?

Here another one: ClassicCastlevaniaVerseDracula!Taylor - Imagine if you will Taylor with the Power of Dominance and Death as her subordinate, and her having Dracula's Castle appear in the Bay and all that entails. Does the Power of Dominance cover Endbringers? She could simply command Death to one-shot kill the Simurgh.
 
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i dont like first person but im doing it anyways i apologize in advance

More Than Expected
0.2
<< >>
​
I felt like hurling. I never want to teleport again. It's like I just...stopped existing for a split second.

Blrugh.

Brickhouse carefully pulled me back to my feet. "Yeah, I know the feeling. Your first 'port is never easy." I heard Diamondback dry-heaving off to the side. "It effects some more than others."

The room we appeared in was obviously a conference room with all the furniture carefully pushed to the side.

The door to the room opened and three figured walked through. An aging, overweight woman, a man in a set of tinker armor, and a woman with a flag-patterned scarf covering her lower face.

"Hello, Tuscon Protectorate," the large woman said, "I'm Director Piggot of the Brockton Bay PRT. With me is Armsmaster, leader of the Protectorate here, and Miss Militia, his second-in-command."

Armsmaster did...something; I'm not sure what, but I felt the water vapor around his eyes shift in a weird way, like his eyes were moving all over the place behind his headgear, and suddenly the whole meeting room was rearranging itself. Soon enough, all the furniture was back to where it probably was supposed to belong, and the three of them sat at the head of the table. "Please," Miss Militia said as she gestured to the table, "have a seat. We have much to discuss."

After making sure Diamondback wouldn't collapse again, the three of us sat at the other end of the table.

Piggot spoke up again, "Normally we would be letting Miss Militia here give you a tour of the base, but with the gangs getting more active by the day, I feel it's best to debrief you of who's who in Brockton before you get caught unawares. Armsmaster?"

The man nodded. "Right." He did that thing with his eyes again, and the center of the glass table lit up with a map of the city. "First off is Empire Eighty-Eight. A gang of white supremacists with more parahuman members than most other organizations in the city."

Wait, they have literal nazis/KKK here? And they're one of the big guys?! I have to be careful when I'm out in my civvies, I look Mexican as fuck.

"We'll give you a dossier of their known capes soon," Militia said, "there's too many to cover at this meeting. Moving on, the next major gang are the Azn Bad Boys. While not racists like the E88, they do only recruit members that are of Eastern-Asian decent. They only have two capes that we know of, but they're both the reason why they haven't been driven out by the E88. The second-in-command is Oni Lee, a teleporter that leaves behind temporary clones that can act autonomously for a moment. He usually uses these clones to suicide-bomb.

"And their leader is...Lung."

...Well we're boned. Everyone knows who Lung is. The terror from Japan, who fought Leviathan to a standstill. I gave a look to my two teammates. Yeah, they look just as freaked as I do.

Armsmaster pointed at another part of the map. "While nowhere near as powerful as the two previous, the drug-pushers known as the Merchants are still not to be underestimated. They have a rotating cast of capes, but they have three constants. Their leader, Skidmark, who can create an area-of-effect that gives objects momentum. Squealer, a tinker who specializes in monstrosities that look like vehicles, and Mush, who can create his own body armor out of loose debris."

"Then we have Coil." Piggot pointed to another spot. "Doesn't even have as much territory as the Merchants, but all his underlings are professional mercenaries decked out in tinker gear. He's been quiet as of late, but we don't know how long that will last."

"And finally," Militia spoke up, "we have the Undersiders. Not really a gang so much as a small group of capes who like doing minor crimes and getting away with it. They have no territory, but because their group is so small, they can pretty much get away with anything during the chaos that the other gangs stir up. I'll give you a dossier for them as well."

A moment of silence filled the room. Diamondback, as subtle as ever, exclaimed, "We're fucked!"

----

I glared at the woman leading me down the hall. "Miss Militia, why am I being forced into the Wards, again?"

"Because you're not a legal adult yet."

"So what? I did just fine with the adults in Tucson."

"Because you were the only teenager there that wanted to join the Protectorate. You should've been transferred, but your mother refused to move to accommodate."

I rolled my eyes. "Yeah, I know. The only reason she let me come here is because it's only a temporary thing. But, see, here's the thing Militia-"

"Miss Militia."

"Sure. Here's the thing Militia, I'm the best. Damn. Cape. In Tucson. Hell, in probably all of the southwest, aside from Brickhouse. Yeah, these Wards are good from what I hear, but they're not me good. I could evaporate the entire damn bay if I wanted to." And if I had unlimited stamina, but she didn't need to know that.

She turned her head to glare at me. "You're still a minor. You have no idea how much legal trouble we'd be in if you did any of the things you did in Tucson here. You will be a ward if you want to continue your service with the Protectorate." Her look turned a bit more soft as she faced forward again. "Besides, they're a good group of kids. I think you'll become quick friends."

She opened door, and a water balloon sailed right over her head and onto mine.

"CLOCKBLOCKER, WHAT IS HAPPENING IN HERE?!"

"Oh, shit, Miss Militia! I mean, um, I, uh-It was Chris's idea bye!"

"What?! Dennis you are not throwing me under the bus! Get back here!"

Good group of kids. Right.

Fuck my life.
 
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So there's an idea on QQ I'm likely going to snag and I was wondering if it would be okay for here too:

Due to a series of events Taylor ends up dating Emma's older sister Anne. Drama from dating her bullies older sibling, dating someone older in general, and cape life because I'm likely to combined this with my Circus!Anne idea.

If I keep it to kissing and I've the clothes I'll be good despite the 3-5 year age difference right?
 


Firebird has begun its fourth arc, Sleep Walking, with 4.1

Wow. ... I feel dumb. I somehow forgot to hit enter. Oh well. HEre it is anyway. -_-
 
TheDivineDemon said:
So there's an idea on QQ I'm likely going to snag and I was wondering if it would be okay for here too:

Due to a series of events Taylor ends up dating Emma's older sister Anne. Drama from dating her bullies older sibling, dating someone older in general, and cape life because I'm likely to combined this with my Circus!Anne idea.

If I keep it to kissing and I've the clothes I'll be good despite the 3-5 year age difference right?
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@Ford Prefect ?
I summon thee!
 
TheDivineDemon said:
So there's an idea on QQ I'm likely going to snag and I was wondering if it would be okay for here too:

Due to a series of events Taylor ends up dating Emma's older sister Anne. Drama from dating her bullies older sibling, dating someone older in general, and cape life because I'm likely to combined this with my Circus!Anne idea.

If I keep it to kissing and I've the clothes I'll be good despite the 3-5 year age difference right?
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BrokenAscendent said:
@Ford Prefect ?
I summon thee!
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I'm not a mod, but you should be fine.
CC II.5.1 said:
5. You agree not to post any written material that is intended to appeal to the prurient interest, including, but not limited to:
  1. Describes, or appears to describe, children in a sexual fashion;
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@Cerulean hasn't been slammed with warnings or infractions for Atonement, and he's got the same sort of in-story relationship as your idea, just with a different set of characters. At least, not on SB. Not sure about SV.

Just don't get weird about it. Kissing is fine. Keeping the clothes on is a must.
 
Strunkriindiisk said:
I'm not a mod, but you should be fine.

@Cerulean hasn't been slammed with warnings or infractions for Atonement, and he's got the same sort of in-story relationship as your idea, just with a different set of characters. At least, not on SB. Not sure about SV.

Just don't get weird about it. Kissing is fine. Keeping the clothes on is a must.
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Plus, when in doubt. PM a mod and ask.
 
It's even better in this forum...

There's a big button at the top of every page that says "Staff Communication". To pretty much everyone; please, if you have a question, click that button.
 
Information: Official Staff Communication
  • Staff Post
    • official staff communication Just for the sake of convenience, I'll answer this question here. We're not terribly fussed about teenagers dating other teenagers. The only thing that causes us concern is finding out, in detail, what they get up to in the bedroom.

    As @The_Knowing says, if you have a question like this - or any question about the rules or what is or isn't acceptable - you should drop us a line in Questions and Review. This lets us keep a convenient record of things, and it's private, too, so you can ask us just about anything. We can even approve things for posting that would normally be against the rules, on a case-by-case basis. We try to be relatively responsive to queries, too, though don't be disheartened if we don't get back to you immediately.
     
  • Staff Post
    • You know, I'm kinda surprised that a few of the Case 53's don't try to get into the music industry. Can you imagine a Heavy Metal Band made up of entirely Case 53's?

    Like Imagine Sveta on Drums. Just this horrid tentacle monster wailing away on the drums with a dozen drumsticks and tearing it up. Or maybe Weld. Weld would be interesting to see.
     
    Hey guys, don't know if it was posted or not, but Neoworm from Deviantart just did artwork for Bitch that I want to share.


    Edit: Forgot he did one for Grue as well

     
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    Noxturne90 said:
    You know, I'm kinda surprised that a few of the Case 53's don't try to get into the music industry. Can you imagine a Heavy Metal Band made up of entirely Case 53's?

    Like Imagine Sveta on Drums. Just this horrid tentacle monster wailing away on the drums with a dozen drumsticks and tearing it up. Or maybe Weld. Weld would be interesting to see.
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    They would, then canary happened and they all took their business elsewhere.
     
    More, because why not. Also because I can't sleep due to coughing so hard that my lungs hurt.​

    Previous Chapter

    ---

    Impossible Thief​

    Worm/Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego​

    1.2​

    ---​

    Finding out your parents had kept something hidden from you was a blow for anyone. It depended on what the secret was of course; a secret christmas gift was a good deal better than hiding that your pet died while you weren't there and they bought a replacement rabbit.

    In my case? I was finding out that my mother had been a lot more than an English Professor and, of course, my mother. She'd been one of the most infamous, successful and grandiose thieves that had ever existed.

    "I know this is a lot to take in Taylor. Probably a good deal more than you ever imagined in your wildest dreams." Mom's smile stayed on her face as she plucked the red hat from the mannequin, running her fingers over the material as the screen flickered, the camera zooming in. "But it's the truth. The briefcase you found this CD in was keyed only to open on reading your fingerprint and a DNA sample from your skin cells."

    I turned my head away from the mannequin and it's bright red clothing, back to the opened briefcase. Underneath the CD's and floppy disks were folders full of paper that was written in...well, gibberish. Numbers and words jumbled together in long strings of incomprehensible text.

    "Along with this message, those disks contain a library of information on every thieving skill I ever perfected in my lifetime. The ways I learned to adapt the art of stealing to levels most people never imagine." The hat was set back on it's stand as she returned to staring into the camera. "Think of them as learning material, to help you train and develop the skills you - hopefully - possess. There's also a number of cyphers that will help you decipher the documents within."

    I sifted through the other folders; every document was mostly the same, though with differing sections of text. Just what was all of this stuff? Then there was the comment about training...how could Mom have known that I'd develop powers, let alone one's that, apparently, she has also gained.

    "Those files contain contact information for old friends of mine, from both sides of the law, as well as the account information and passwords to multiple secret bank accounts and the location of some little vaults I stashed while in my more active years. Assuming they haven't been found, seized by the police or destroyed by a Parahuman fight or Endbringer attack, there should be plenty in there for you to develop whatever you want, however you want...assuming you can follow a few simple clues."

    That was about when my mouth fell open and I didn't pick my jaw up off the floor for the rest of the video file.

    "In the unlikely event they're all gone...well, I'm afraid all that's left if the money I left for your father to use in an emergency situation." Her smile turned a little sad as she spoke. "He probably hasn't even touched it unless there was a crisis in the years after my absence. Anything else, you'll have to steal or make all on your own."

    On screen, Mom drew closer to the screen, smiling with a warmth that I knew so well from the past...all those times she'd been there for me when I needed her and now, here she was again. "No matter what you choose Taylor, I only ask that you make me proud. Any thug can steal money or use their talents to hurt people…it takes the extraordinary to make a real difference. Whether you use your abilities to fight for the law or become the next master thief…make it grand. Make it amazing. Because that's what you are Taylor and I won't see you sell yourself short."

    "Mom…" I let myself lean against the wall, arms hugging myself as her words sank in. I had almost forgotten what it was like, to hear things like that. Dad tried, I knew that but after Mom was gone...we'd drifted apart, stopped talking like we used to.

    Maybe it was time to fix that.

    "Oh and Taylor, a little piece of advice. If you do decide to use my old costume, lose the high heels. I still don't know what I was thinking when I started wearing those." She chuckled. "Climbing up Mount Rushmore would have been a lot easier with some hiking boots."

    I had to smile at that. Even after everything I'd learned, she was still my Mom.

    "After this file finishes playing, this system will be ready to register you as it's new owner. You'll have full access to all the files and be able to pull up everything stored here. Unfortunately there's no outside line; this entire room is self contained, running off a prototype fusion reactor I...liberated...from a research lab back in the day. It's quite harmless and should continue powering this place for a few decades yet, keeping it off the grid."

    Glancing down at the floor, I quietly hoped that I was thinking of the right kind of nuclear reaction and that I was not standing inside a potential A-Bomb.

    "Goodbye Taylor. Remember, always try for the impossible and always leave them guessing. And if you ever want to see this video again, well…" Her smile turned mischievous again. "I'll see you next Crime." The image slowly faded out as she smiled, leaving me staring at the glowing screen as it flickered, then began to run text across the screen.

    My mother had been one of the greatest thieves in the world...and she was trusting me to take up the mantle. Either for the law or to become even better than she was. No pressure. Despite the bombshell - multiple ones infact - I felt great, almost giddy inside as the tension and worry I'd had on my shoulders all these weeks was just fading away. I focussed on the screen, adjusting my glasses which had almost slid off my face.

    'Please Enter Password.'

    Well, there went that buzz.

    I shouldn't have been surprised, Mom had mentioned in the recording that there would be clues to follow, which naturally meant some sort of puzzle or game I'd have to work my way through. The question of course was what it could be; I couldn't watch the video again or access any of the other files and disks until I had entered the password, so it had to have been something in the message to me…

    I almost kicked myself when I realised the blindingly obvious. My mother had been an English Professor - in her later life at least - and there was no way she would deliberately swap out a word, make a simple mistake in a common phrase like 'see you next time', unless it was important. My hands moved across the keyboard, tapping at the keys as my answer appeared on-screen.

    'See You Next Crime.'

    A few tense moments passed as nothing happened after I had pressed enter. No sound, no sudden changes to the room...just the quiet hum of the computers and machinery and the pale light of the monitor on my face, highlighted by the blinking diodes and lights on the walls. I was just about to start racking my brain for another possibility when the password screen vanished and a digitised voice echoed through the chamber.

    "Password recognised. Please state name for second stage validation."

    A smile broke out across my face and I had to hold myself back from letting out a cry of joy. "Taylor Hebert."

    "Voice print recognised. Registration complete…" The blank background on the computer changed, switching a much more recognisable desktop format with the background image that of a woman's silhouette wearing a coat and hat. "Welcome, Taylor Hebert, to the V.I.L.E mainframe computer."

    ---

    An hour later and I was sitting on the couch with Dad. The cocoa had gone cold, so he'd made a new batch and we were both sitting on the couch, alternating between taking sips and actually talking for what felt like the first time in forever. I had so many questions, wanted to know everything that Dad knew about Mom's old life, back when she was Carmen and not Annette.

    "So...how did you find out about her?" I asked, mug shifting from the coffee table and to my hand. It felt good to be able to do it without fear.

    Dad, for his part, was smiling more than I'd seen him do for years. "Oh boy, where to start. Well I didn't actually find out, she told me. It was about two or so years into our relationship and here I was thinking I knew almost everything about your mother." He shook his head, taking a drink from his own cup, though his was coffee and not cocoa. "Here I thought she wanted to move in. Well she did but then there was the other thing."

    "Her being a thief was just 'the other thing'?" I asked, eyebrow raised inquisitively.

    Dad gave a nod. "She'd been out of that field for years before I met her. I admit it was a shock at first; we had a fight about it, I was more than a little upset that she didn't tell me earlier. Of course she made a pretty good point about how your past as an internationally wanted thief isn't something you tell everyone."

    "Yeah, that's one of those things you tend to play pretty close to your chest."

    He sighed, pushing his glasses up to rub his eyes gently, a smile still there on his face despite it. "Took a while for us to get past that fight but afterwards...well she told me a lot of things. Probably helps that despite all her infamy, she never hurt a soul in her career."

    I smiled at that. Mom had always been very firm on that one; that if you had the skills to do something in a difficult way, using the easier one was beneath you. Hurting people would have been too easy for a master thief.

    "Taylor?" Dad turned to me, his smile gone but he wasn't frowning, just watching me with a serious look on his face. "You're going to beheading on out there, aren't you?"

    A few moments passed before I nodded. After hearing Mom's voice down there, her last and greatest wish for me to be as good as she thought I could be…I had already been thinking on how to use my powers to take part in the ever-shifting Parahuman conflicts in the city, leave some kind of impact just to prove that I wasn't worthless and weak like Emma, SOphia and Madison kept saying. To prove it to myself even if they would never know.

    There was silence from him as he leaned back on the couch, letting out a long sigh. "Just like your mother…" There was a trace of a smile on his face though as he pushed himself off the couch, heading for the basement.

    "Um, Dad, where are you going?"

    "Digging out the old gym equipment I inherited from your grandfather. I'm not letting you go out there without at least a little basic training." He paused to turn back, a bit of a sparkle in his eyes.

    The smile on my face grew wider at that. "I didn't know you knew how to fight."

    "You can thank your grandfather and your mother for many years of lessons."

    The two of us stayed up for most of the night, helping him to clear out the clutter and dig out boxes of old equipment, some of which had to be patched up or tossed entirely. Not all of it was talking though; we hit a lot of silent spots where we weren't sure what to say to each other. It wasn't a miraculous cure for the drift we'd suffered over the years but it was something...a way to start fixing things.

    The next day, my training officially began.

    ---

    One Month Later…

    The air was even colder late at night but that did mean one thing; fewer people out at this time of night who would be causing trouble, which gave me a nice chance to get out in costume in and practice what I had learned from days of studying Mom's notes and instructional videos.

    Mom's old outfit actually fit me, which came as a bit of a shock considering that she was a bit taller than I was - I inherited my height and lankiness from both mother and father, which made me one of the tallest people in Winslow - though on her advice, I'd swapped out the high heels for red and black sports shoes. I'd also taken some red cloth and made a mask, basically just a red sash with eyeoles cut into it as a stopgap for hiding my identity when the shadow cast by the wide-brimmed hat wasn't enough.

    Street lights hummed as I moved along the rooftops, using my months of running practice to leap from the close-together buildings of the docks and boardwalk and land on the next one. It made things a lot easier than having to skulk around in the shadows of the street, though I wasn't anywhere close to making the huge jumps between the further-spaced buildings in the other areas of the city. It only worked here because these buildings were built to stand together, little squat and square apartment buildings and stores.

    The big question was where to begin. My abilities weren't exactly built for the kind of heroics - or villainy - you heard about on TV and dreamed of pulling off inside your head. I couldn't punch out a brick wall or teleport, hell I was getting a little winded from doing these jumps so I was no speedster. Energy blasts were just right out, too flashy and noisy.

    Most of my time had been dedicated to watching the videos my Mom left behind and practicing with my abilities. The basement based gym and that hidden chamber became a second bedroom to me, to the point where Dad had to break out an old cot for when I was too exhausted to drag myself upstairs. It was paying off though; combined with my morning and afternoon runs I was putting on muscle. Not exactly a ripped amazonian physique but I could lift a lot more than I used to and had the stamina to push myself for the longer leaps I needed to make.

    Dad's training consisted of basic self defense stuff, the kind of thing you could pick up books on or shill out ten dollars a lesson to learn from most street-corner dojos. Not that I didn't appreciate it, since he was able to go over a lot of the things he'd learned from his father and Mom that they'd learned practically. It didn't necessarily mean I'd need to use those skills and I honestly hoped I wouldn't, it kind of defeated the point of being a thief if you needed to fight your way out of a problem.

    In addition to that, I had upgraded my arsenal from a single can of pepper spray that Dad had bought for me when I first took up running, with a taser and extending baton. Technically illegal in Brockton Bay but considering what I was going to get up to, they weren't my biggest criminal concerns.

    That brought me to the last part of the plan. I didn't want to steal from just anyone, that would make me no better than the average thugs who roamed the streets at night. So the question was, what did I go after; high value works of art and treasures like Mom had, though statues and buildings were a bit out of my league at the moment. Mom's files had held a bunch of schematics and plans in time for dozens of different tools and devices for that kind of thing but the downside was, I still hadn't cracked the codes on her vault locations or bank accounts.

    Besides, what good was art and antiques to me? Mom did it to prove that she could but back then, there had been something that the world lacked in abundance. Better targets in the villain world.

    Mom's records told me that the reason she quit her first job as a detective was that catching criminals was just too easy for her. She wasn't being challenged, pinned down by the glass ceiling and tired of letting her superiors take credit for her work. As a villain she had total freedom and control over what she did….but there were much more challenging criminals out there in the world now.

    Looking down from the building I was standing on, I spied a group of figures moving towards a large three story building that was looking a good deal less dilapidated than most places in the heart of the Docks. The lights were still on for one thing despite it being surrounded by slums and there were figures standing at the door; bouncers who checked over everyone going in or out of the building. Music filtered out, cutting out the moment the front door closed.

    It had taken a bit of sneaking around and eavesdropping but I had tracked it down; Lung's casino. The place where one of the most dangerous gangs - and most dangerous people - in the city laundered money and filtered it back into their more illegal operations.

    Wouldn't it be a terrible shame if Lung got back from his little trip out of state - rumour had it he was scouting a new recruit into the ABB - and found that his casino just so happened to be missing its entire vault, along with the contents? Almost tragic really, if he wasn't such a detestable person.

    Flexing my fingers in their black gloves, I began moving around the rooftops, making sure to keep low and out of sight of anyone on the ground. If the ABB did have a security system, there were no exterior cameras to show for it. Probably all focussed on the inside of the casino, watching for cheats. The worst I'd probably have to deal with were window based alarms and I could deal with those thanks to Mom's lessons.

    Once I had gotten around back, I picked my target and clambered down the side of the building and onto the rear wall. A dirty alleyway, strewn with trash and wet from rain, lay below me and didn't exactly offer a soft landing.

    While Mom was keeping the juicier gadgets from me - I was practically salivating over the collapsible jet-glider - her costume had a few toys built in. Namely the little diamond glass-cutting blades on the finger-tips of the gloves. I wouldn't be using those though, not when she'd shown me something far better than the average set of thieves tools.

    'Remember Taylor, everything is about stealing. When you breathe, you steal the air from the world. Every second of life you fight for steals time from the Reaper.'

    The lock was right there, waiting to be opened and let me slide right inside the third floor office.

    'Once you realise that everything can be stolen, the only limit is on your skills as a thief. And just like me, there are no limits you can't surpass.'

    I could see it in my mind, the lock closed tight, sitting just beyond a few inches of wood and metal in the window's frame. All I had to do was reach out…

    And feel the parts drop into my waiting hand.

    Looking down at the lock in my hands, no longer stuck in the window, I let it drop into a coat pocket and began working the window open. As I did so, my eyes flickered towards a square black box of plastic just above the office door; the alarm. I had a few more brief seconds before it detected either my presence or the fact that the lock was missing entirely. I wouldn't need to worry about that either though...I closed my eyes, picturing the device, it's shape and the sounds of alarms that had sounded whenever I failed in Mom's training exercises...when they opened, the light on the box was blinking but no sound issued from it.

    If you know how, anything can be stolen, even sounds.

    The office of the casino looked like how I expected; serious and stern furniture, a large oak desk that looked way out of place in a run down neighborhood like the Docks and in the back of the room...I had to suppress a laugh when I saw the large book-case that dominated the south-facing wall. The only wall in the place that was adjoined with a room on the third floor that had bricked-up windows.

    With a shrug I moved past the desk, pausing to peruse a few of the documents inside it's drawers but most of it was written in Japanese...or Chinese. Maybe Korean.

    Okay, so I hadn't started digging into the language lessons Mom had included yet.

    What little that was written in English wasn't anything important; mostly reports and statements on the casinos earnings. Somehow I doubted Lung was keeping them so he could file his taxes but they weren't of much use...I pocketed a few that mentioned other operations for later and then turned back to the bookcase, eyes and hands slowly moving over the spines of the volumes and novels that covered its surface. The only non book item was a metal statuette of an asian dragon….there was no way Lung was that obvious.

    A few exploratory prods and touches confirmed it; the statuette was attached to the book-case. And if I knew my hokey Scooby-Doo style switches right a little turn of the head should…

    The dragon's head twisted gently to the right and the clanking of machinery filled the room as the bookcase shifted, swinging open like there was a big rotational axis in the center of it that allowed me into the room beyond...and into the heavily reinforced metal walls of the casino's vault.

    Cash was piled up, the earnings of the week stacked up in towers of banknotes, alongside bags of coins from the slot machines and even containers of jewelry, watches and other valuable little items like cell-phones which were probably used as collateral by desperate gamblers. It would take a bit of time to get it all out of the vault but I had time before they closed for the night. All in all, not bad for my first night; in and out without an alarm raised.

    It all went downhill when I heard the sound of doors being smashed off their hinges, followed by gunfire. Evidently I wasn't the only one who thought this place was a good target.
     
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