August 24th, 2021
Royal Woods, MI, North Wing.
10:17:38 PM
The city's lights illuminated the night sky, as the years had gone by, the small town of Royal Woods had grown into a bustling city, with its population going from a mere 20,000 to nearly 100,000 in a matter of 10 years. Well, besides the city's government funding to build-up the small town it once was, it would also have to be because Royal Woods was the home of the biggest crime fighting team in the United States, known as the Full House Gang. Those heroes have been long gone in the last few years, leading the once peaceful and secure city into a trap for those who weren't careful or lucky enough to avoid villains.
Oh yes, the city wasn't without villains like Wildcard Willy before, but they used to be kept in check by the high deck. Once they disappeared, though, villains everywhere flocked to Royal Woods. Some wanted to make a fortune, some wanted personal minions, and others just felt like being evil. Luckily for the people, they had someone to fight for them, and be there for them when they needed protection for a long while.
However, a tragic event had occurred no less than 4 years ago, where the two leaders and co-founders of the the heroic gang sacrificed their lives in order to save the city. It left many heartbroken, thousands of people were there during their funeral before the remainder of what they could find from their fallen heroes was buried six feet under.
And what was left of the team? They continued their jobs for a while, but one day, just like a hungry cat, they disappeared, and haven't come back to this day. Yep police struggled to hold back the forces once handled by them. What exactly happened to them is a mystery to the public, though many believe that they simply couldn't handle the weight of the loss and gave up their heroic ways.
And they were right. Sort of.
"Alright, I'm in the building. What do I do now?" The quiet, voice of a little girl, no older than 5 perhaps, spoke into a tiny earpiece. Her body was clad in a dark spandex suit from head to toe, which served the girl some stealth as to not get spotted by whatever she was looking out for, and a belt loaded with, what looked like, gas bombs. She swiftly traveled through the vents, her maneuvers being quick and her steps being light like a feather, which made it almost impossible to hear her move through the vents.
"The artifact is locked inside the owners office. You may find some minor security. Avoid being spotted, burst in, and flee to the extraction point." The voice of a young woman spoke through the girl's earpiece, sounding cold and serious.
"You got it, L- I mean, Pridestalker." The girl stuttered, quickly fixing her mistake. However, the person whom she was speaking to caught ear of it.
"That's another thing, Kalulu. Even if no one is around, you never know who might be intercepting us. Never use our alter-ego."
Kalulu sighed as she approached the vent that led to the office, where the artifact she was looking for was stored. "Right, sorry. I still need to get that down." With a kick, she opened the vent entrance and jumped down without hesitation, landing without a sound being made. She made her way through the room, hiding behind piles of boxes and machinery every few seconds before getting to a door.
She heard footsteps in the room, so she quickly darted behind a large stack of cardboard boxes filled with who-knows-what. The steps got louder as they got closer to where she was hiding, yet they were none the wiser of her presence.
"So, ya think someone will be coming after it?" One of the men said to his partner beside him.
"I don't know. Just follow the orders. This thing is leaving the state tomorrow, and we'll be well paid for it." The other man responded, more concentrated on his job than his partner.
"We better be. It was hard enough to get that. Do you know what it is?"
"No idea, man, but we lost some good men trying to grab it."
Kalulu tried her best to remain still and quiet in her spot, desperately hoping that they would leave so that she could continue on her path. The door was right there, if those two knuckleheads would go away, or at least look away from it for a few seconds, she could slip by and get inside without them noticing.
"What do I do? They won't move." She whispered as quietly as she could. She didn't want to ask for help because this was her first ever solo mission (even if it was for the purpose of training), and she wanted to make her siblings proud and use what they taught her.
"Get a smoke bomb, and throw it right at them. You should have enough time to reach your target." Pridestalker replied, also trying to keep her voice down, but also feeling tired of hearing the two guards talking while Kalulu did nothing.
"R-right, I was just about to do that." The young girl reached for her belt on her waist and pulled out a tiny, round object. She chucked it at the guards and it went off immediately after contact. The room soon filled with thick, black smoke. Kalulu wasted no time making her exit.
"What the hell happened?!" One of the guards asked, coughing hysterically from the smoke.
"I dunno, but I think we're gonna need backup, we have a runt in here!" The other guard said, also coughing.
"I got this!" One of them reached for a small radio tied to his chest. "Attention, we have been breached! Requesting backup, I repeat, requesting backup."
The sound of the alarm sounded throughout the whole building, Kalulu felt herself sprint faster as her heart raced from both the adrenaline and panic. Now she understood why some of them liked triggering the alarms during heists; the feeling of knowing you have a short time limit before you get caught gets the blood pumping.
She sped through the corridor as now many more footprints sounded behind her, chasing after her, passing different inventions displayed on a podium, but none of them caught her interest since it wasn't the one she was looking for. She took a small capsule off of her belt. It opened, revealing a black and lavender rabbit mask, which she proceeded to put on her face before throwing the capsule behind her in one fluid motion. The capsule went off the moment it made contact, releasing a gas that halted the men chasing after her for a minute.
Enough time for her to steal the artifact.
She reached the end of the hallway to where an elevator was. She frantically pushed the button until it opened, and jumped inside. The guards were just about to reach her before the door closed tightly and the elevator began moving upwards. In their efforts to catch her, they had rammed headfirst into the door and each other, leaving them dazed on the ground. Kalulu chuckled to herself, as well as taking time to catch her breath.
Soon enough, the elevator came to a halt and the doors spread open, revealing a small room containing the artifact. Encased in a little glass container was a small sphere with a glowing purple triangle in the center of it, as well as other, far dimmer lines circling around it, creating a pattern of 'X's around the sphere. The beauty of the object almost put her in a trance, though she soon snapped out of it and took it, without triggering any more alarms, luckily.
"The artifact is in my possession. Where is the best way to make my escape?" Kalulu spoke in her earpiece, as the sphere shrunk in size, which conveniently fit her belt pockets.
"Hmm…" She heard the girl on the other line hum. "There's a way out back at the elevator, there's a vent in it's ceiling where you can get out of, once you're out, travel down until you see a small vent opening, it's enough for you to fit through. Travel east of the vent canal, and you should be out on the side of the building."
"Thanks, I'll be on my way out." Kalulu cut off the call and followed those exact directions. She was actually doing it, she actually managed to pull off a mission! On her own, too! Well, aside from having the group leader help her out a bit, of course.
Once she got into the elevator, she jumped up into the vent on the ceiling, using special technology in her shoes that allowed her to bounce more. It made covering long or high distances much easier. She waited patiently as the elevator slowly went downwards as she looked for the vent exit.
However, the elevator came to a screeching halt, which confused the dark-clad girl. She looked at the ropes, seeing they were in a good status to not cause the sudden halt.
"What's going on-"
Before Kalulu could finish her sentence, the elevator started working again, however, instead of lowering down slowly, it began falling freely. The scream came naturally with the fall, before she fell inside the elevator, hitting the floor, and being stunt for a short while.
"Kalulu, are you okay? Kalulu, you copy?" She heard from her speaker.
"I copy...though I might not be in my 100%"
"We'll take care of that back in the base. You need to get out of there, they sabotaged the elevator, and even more of them are coming."
The doors opened to reveal even more guards than ever before. Thinking fast, she took another smoke bomb and leap through the cloud of smoke. She pressed a button on the right side of her rabbit mask near her temples. A device that was essentially the glass part of goggles settled in front of her eyes, allowing her to see clearer through the smoke. Just to be safe, she threw yet another bomb at them. The smoke filled the entire room by the time she was out of there and making her getaway.
She continued to run, but instead of heading towards the vents, she made a run for the front door, which lead to the rooftop. She quickly reached it while the security was still busy with the smoke, so she grabbed the door handle, and pulled the door, which didn't budge. She tried forcing it, and even pushing, but nothing seemed to work. She continued trying until she heard a noise behind her. She noticed the security all looking at her, and some even have weapons. There was at least ten of them.
"So, you think that you can simply steal from us and get away with it, kid?" One of them said, approaching her. "Well, that's cute."
"Wait, isn't that one of those bounty hunters or something that's always showing up in the news?" Another one asked. "I remember a little rabbit or something like that."
"Yeah, I think I have! She was always at someone else's side, though. Usually some smartass fox-looking kid or that lion lady."
Kalulu's fearful expression turned into a smile, then a smirk, which the group of men took notice of. The expression itself was enough for them to bring out their weapons.
"What are ya smirking at, brat?" One of the guards stepped closer to her, trying to intimidate the girl, but the smirk she held didn't disappear.
They heard a faint 'tap' behind them, the group of men turned around to see a young woman, probably on her late teens or early twenties, wearing a mask over her eyes and a tight, black spandex suit with a little bit of cleavage revealing, but not much; a light gold and blue trimming around the neck and sides of her, which matched the colors of Bast, or in this case, an egyptian lioness and the headdress of a Pharaoh while a leather whip-like belt was attached as a tail around her waist.
"You should literally think about being nicer to kids." She said, after delivering one single blow that knocked the man out.
Some more guards trickled out of the building, aiming their weapons at the woman. She immediately leapt into action. Three long blades popped out from her gloves where her knuckles were. One by one, she took every single guard without even giving the time for them to react. It took only a few seconds before they were apparently out of danger.
The lioness woman brought her blades back into their sockets, and looking at the bleeding out bodies of the fallen men, with a few twitching and groaning before becoming stiff. Not that the woman really cared either way.
She looked back at the bunny girl, who looked at her with a smile. Though her smile slowly fell into a frown as she saw the woman look at her which, what she thought, was disappointment. The woman looked away and focused her gaze on the hallway, where faint footsteps could be heard.
"We need to leave, now." The woman spoke, while Kalulu nodded.
By the time the second wave of guards had arrived, the duo were long gone. All that they had left were the bodies laying on the ground, and the front door busted open. Some ran outside to search for them, but with no success. The two of them ran, or rather, the bunny girl was carried by the lion girl for a few blocks, jumping from rooftop to rooftop, even tree to tree, in an elegant and swifty style.
Once they were a good distance away from the building, the lioness stopped at a rooftop, Kalulu jumping off her back as she did and sitting down on the pavement while the lioness looked back at the building they had infiltrated.
Kalulu was too afraid to speak, but she didn't want to sit in an awkward silence either. "S-so… how did I do for my first solo mission, Pridestalker?" She asked nervously.
"Well, you did put the whole building on your track." Pridestalker said. "But, you didn't do half bad. Couple more missions, and you'll get the hang of it."
Kalulu's face brightened up. "Wow, yeah? That'd be awesome! And I'd get to join you guys on the more serious stuff!"
"But you still have more to learn before we can let you go off on your own, your inability to remain calm and unable to think straight while only two guards are at the entrance was pathetic." Pridestalker said in a harsh tone, killing Kalulu's smile almost immediately. "Don't expect for things to get easier from now on. You'll train harder, work harder, and then we'll see how you do on your own again." The lioness turned to look at the little girl, her ice blue eyes staring at her coldly. "Understood?"
"...Yes, ma'am." Kalulu responded quietly.
"Good. Now let's go back to the hideout. Just because you're one of us doesn't mean you're not a kid, and it's past your bedtime."She said as she chuckled lightly at the girl's pout to the statement.
"Humph...fine."
And so they made their way back to where the rest of their gang was, both somewhat satisfied of a job technically completed. Just because it was a training mission doesn't mean they couldn't expect some profit from it.
August 25th, 2021
Royal Woods, MI, East Wing.
2:15:20 AM
The east side of the city was on the more wealthier side, being that some of the richest families in the whole city lived in that area. Most of the rich folk were of high-class, and like most would expect, they often made fun of the lower-class families for not being 'at their level'. Lord Tetherby, who had a bit of a hand in helping Royal Woods develop, was no different from them, but the man had some respectable moments. Rarely enough.
Now, rather than being in the comfort of his king sized bed, Tetherby was waiting at his office, patiently. He kept staring back at the clock while looking back at balcony, vent, or window. Why these three you might ask? Well, it's because that's when he gets his packaged delivered. Why not by mail? Because it's much more important than normal mail, something he's been waiting to get for months now, but luckily, he had the perfect people to deliver it to him.
As expected, the old man heard a tap by the balcony. Getting up from his desk, he made his way towards the dark balcony, in which a woman was standing on, leaning against the case as she looked at Tetherby sternly.
"I was wondering when you'd show up." Tetherby spoke, approaching the woman. "Do you have it?"
"Yes, it's right here." She simply said, and showed something to him. The small sphere returning to its full size once in Tetherby's sight. He tried to grab it, but the woman pulled it back.
"Cash first, old man."
Tetherby chuckled, with a malicious tone to it. "You youngsters and your greed." He reached into his jacket, supposedly to give her her money.
"Sure… greed. Pleasure doing business with you." She said, ironically. She flashed him a grin that almost made it look like she had sharp teeth. It was just the lighting, though.
"Pleasure doing business with you as well." Tetherby handed her a big wad of money of one hundreds as she exchanged it for the sphere.
The woman jumped out and into the night, not leaving a trace.
As she left, a malicious grin appeared on Tetherby's face as he examined the sphere.
"Pleasure doing business with you, Pridestalker. Or should I say… High Card?"
