Heyyyyyy :D So, I attempted NaNoWriMo this year and thought I'd try my hand at a DC/MK fic. Ended up writing this one, which came from an idea sparked on the first day, as opposed to the one I'd been planning to do xD; As such, advanced warnings for what might be a very random plot. I don't know. I'm still figuring out what actually happens, to be honest :D; Anyway, please enjoy and thanks for reading!

Warnings: Blood, I guess? It kind of comes with the DC territory though :\

Disclaimer: I can't be bothered to write one for each chapter separately, so this will hold for all chapters of this fic. I don't own the characters or plot of Detective Conan or Magic Kaito (as much as I sometimes wish I did :P). The only claim I make is to my OCs, but if anyone else wants to use them I don't mind, just let me know first, okay? :D

Awesome. Onto an exceedingly random plot~~ Enjoy!

Wildcard
Prologue: Showtime

It only takes one pebble to start an avalanche.

Two months earlier:

In the hours of the early morning, long before dawn and the world outside lay sleeping, a man hunched over a computer in a darkened room. The only light available spilled from his computer screen, bathing him in a silvery glow. He was too wary to turn on any other lights to see better - even the backlight was too bright. The man kept his ear out for small sounds, any sounds. He must not get caught.

Fingers tapped feverishly against keys, eyes squinting against the glare of the screen to read what information was uncovered with each keystroke. Tap-tap-tap-tap-

"Come on, come on," the man whispered, pushing his fringe out of his eyes hurriedly. "I know something's up; you can't hide anything on here from me..."

A faint scuffle from outside made him freeze, eyes widening. He turned and stared into the gloom, letting his eyes adjust as they darted from corner to corner. The man barely dared breathe as he waited, listening, for another sound that could spell his demise. One hand inched slowly towards the gun at his waist. He had other means of protecting himself, but he wouldn't, couldn't use those now. Not when it might be the cause of... We must not provoke them, if what I think is true.

After long, tense seconds of hearing nothing but his heart thundering in his chest, he let out a shaky breath. Probably a mouse. Fox would say he was being a paranoid idiot for getting worked up over something like that... but then, she'd probably call him a fool-brained idiot just for being here in the first place, if she'd known about it. The man didn't care. It was his job, his duty, his life to protect her. He had to take this risk in case the rumour he had heard turned out to be oh so terribly true...

The light around him flickered, drawing his attention back to the screen to find a dialog box flashing there.

Search Results:
2 files found

He cautiously clicked the 'open' tab, having first made sure that accessing either couldn't be traced back to him. Data filled the screen, rows after rows after rows that made his eyes widen in fear. Mouth dry, he slipped out a slim black mobile from a coat pocket and, after checking again for any unusual noises or signs of another presence, thumbed out a number he knew by heart.

The man waited as it rung once, twice, three times. Come on Viper, pick up! he silently urged the man at the other end.

"Hello?" a sleep-fogged voice answered.

He frowned. "Cobra? It's Hound. Where's Viper?"

"He's out on a recon mission that he didn't need me for, so he left his phone behind." A sigh from the other end. "Hound, you do realise it's two in the freaking morning, right? What's Fox gonna say?"

"Fox doesn't know I'm calling. In fact, Fox doesn't know I'm here. But that's not the important thing - look, there's something I need to talk to all of you about. Can you call Crow and get Viper to come back?"

"Now?"

"Yes, now. It can't wait. It's important and it's dangerous. We need to move, now."

The urgency in his voice, along with his whispered tone seemed to finally break through the sleepiness of the other. The voice on the other end of the line became more professional. "Got it. I'll get them all to come in. What about Fox?"

"I'll swing by and grab her on the way. Cobra, don't let anyone else know. You know where to meet. See you in twenty," he said, tapping a few more keys to bring up another screen.

"Understood. Stay safe, Hound. You know Fox couldn't handle it if you died."

"Nah, the hero can't die, can he?" Hound joked. "It'd be a waste of a story. Hound out." He ended the call, slipping the phone back inside his pocket as he hit the 'Enter' key and typed up a quick program.

"You make a poor hero," drawled a voice from behind him. Hound reacted instantly, bringing his gun out in one swift movement as he turned around -

- to stare into the barrel of a gun held at point blank range. His eyes flicked upwards, seeking out the shadowed face of his attacker although he already knew exactly who it was.

"You bastard," Hound spat. "I should have known this was your doing, it reeks of your work."

The attacker gave a feral grin. "Sorry Hound, but Boss decided that old dogs really can't learn new tricks... so they should be put down. Don't worry, your precious Fox will be joining you soon enough!"

Hound gave an enraged growl and for a second, the room lit up with blue lightning -

BANG!

The new arrival stepped away from Hound's body as it fell, re-holstering his gun. "Stupid mutt," he murmured, stepping over the body and the growing pool of blood to peer at the computer screen. The glare illuminated the long scar down the side of his face, snaking up into his hairline where the hair had turned white. He was unperturbed by the red splatters across the glowing rectangle, squinting in the glare much as Hound had done earlier to see what the traitor had been looking for.

What he found was the last program Hound had written, steadily erasing all evidence that the man had been looking at anything at all. "No!" growled the man, pounding keys on the keyboard to try and terminate the program and only getting 'Access Denied' in response. He watched in enraged silence as his vital proof that those ones were traitors disappeared before his very eyes. Pale eyes darted to the dead man lying on the tiled floor, mocking him.

He growled again, kicking the dead body as he turned away from the screen and pulled out a phone identical to Hound's.

"It's me, Wolf. He only called one, Cobra. Take her out before she can get word out." With that, the phone was snapped shut.

.:||:.

Sometime in the future:

The roofs of tall buildings, while natural vantage points, also have the unfortunate side effect of being completely unsheltered from the wind. While normally this wouldn't have bothered Conan too much, the wind was being rather enthusiastic tonight about whipping his fringe around in his face and vision while he wastrying to use the telescopic feature of his glasses to spy on another building nearby. Plus, the frigid night air really wasn't doing anything to keep him warm. He bit out a growl and finally resorted to holding his hair back with one hand, while the other worked the buttons on the side of the frames.

A small chuckle made him send a glare to his right. Kaitou Kid lounged against the wall there, staying out of sight of anyone who might be looking from the other building. The infuriating thief was demonstrating his ever-present ability to bend reality to his will as the wind seemed to be barely disturbing his hat or cape, although logically Conan knew it was because the wall blocked the brunt of the wind. It still irked him, however, that his partner had escaped the discomfort now plaguing him, cold and wind alike. Especially when said thief was playing with fire, quite literally. The vivid azure flames of Contractor magic danced and flickered around his fingers as Kid wriggled them almost absentmindedly.

"Will you cut that out?" Conan demanded with a huff, turning his attention back to the building. "One of them might see it, or sense it, which defeats the whole purpose of us trying to sneak in."

"Yes, yes," Kid replied airily, waving one gloved hand at him. "So serious! You worry too much, Tantei-kun."

And you're not taking this seriously at all! Conan wanted to growl back, except that he knew it wasn't true. While the thief's face was impassive, a perfect poker face, he could feel the threads of worry through their bond even though Kid was keeping all his emotions tightly tamped down. It had taken him a while to get the hang of reading the thief's emotions this way, even being able to bypass the usual mask hiding them, especially when Kid had figured out the trick of disguising his emotions internally as well as externally. Not tonight, though. No amount of light-hearted mischief that his thief had masking his heart was going to fool the detective tonight.

Kid, on the other hand, never seemed to have trouble deciphering what Conan was feeling. Well, good luck to him with that tonight. There were too many emotions swirling around in his gut for even the shrunken teen to figure out what was going on.

Conan shivered slightly as he was on the receiving end of another blast of cold air, ignoring the thief in favour of studying the building again. One, two, thre-no, wait, he's gone inside... there's another one... He felt Kid's eyes on him, and a second later the magician-thief had crept over to crouch behind Conan.

"Relax," the magician whispered. He put his arms around the smaller boy, hands resting lightly over Conan's stomach. Again, that azure blue flashed around his hands for an instant and warmth crept back into the detective from the combined efforts of Kid's magic (well, it was technically Conan's magic, but really, who bothered with the details?) and his proximity. "Better now?" Conan sent a pulse of wordless thanks along their bond; Kid hummed quietly in reply.

"Don't block me out while we're in there, alright?" the detective murmured. He felt - physically and mentally - the thief's surprise, could well imagine the thief behind raising his eyebrows at him even though he couldn't see him. Conan elaborated. "I know we said we'd respect each other's privacy, but... in these circumstances... I just feel like it would be better not to hide things from each other, you know? Just while we're in there. I need to know if you get hurt, not like last time..."

Kid was silent for a few moments, making Conan wonder if the thief was going to refuse. But then the thief sighed, his breath tickling the back of the shrunken teen's neck. "I suppose I promised, didn't I?" Conan felt the thief take down a few of the mental barriers he usually kept up at all times, ever since he had first figured out how to erect them. Kid's emotions swirled in, worry and adrenaline-fuelled excitement and determination and warmth and so many feelings Conan couldn't put a name to all mixed in together. Conan had to work hard to keep himself from being swept away, eventually getting the flow of emotions/information under control before he loosened his own mental shields, allowing Kid the same courtesy.

The thief squeezed him slightly in response and asked in a low tone, "So, what do we have?"

Conan returned his attention to the building he had been watching. "There's about three guards outside that I can see, maybe one or two more beyond the way we were planning to get in."

"One of those guards on the outside won't have any chance of noticing us," Kid noted, having pulled out a pair of his own binoculars from seemingly nowhere. "The other two..."

"Can you get us in without alerting anyone?"

"My, my, Tantei-kun, just who do you think I am?" Kid countered, a smirk settling comfortably across his features.

"Oh, sorry, my bad," Conan replied, voice dripping with sarcasm.

"That's alright, you're forgiven," the thief said, blithely ignoring the sarcasm. "Now then," and here Conan felt through the Contract bond as Kid gathered himself, felt the magic running through them both pulse with anticipation as Kid picked him up. The all-too-familiar razor grin stretched across the thief's mouth.

"It's showtime."

.:||:.

Prologue End
Next Chapter: It's Started

Author Note: Just to clarify in case people are confused - the second half of this takes place sometime in the future of the fic. Thanks for reading!