Nine Billion Dollar Heist

*Co-Authored with the amazing and stupendous Lives in Dreams and TRDancer. They are my better thirds*

Chapter One: This is How it Starts

"What's your great new plan, taking over Google? Yahoo? The makers of Star Wars?" –Emmett

EPOV

"Now, dearest Forks students, can any of you tell me why we're here?" Emmett's impossibly loud and boisterous voice echoed through the club, everyone within its many walls heard him as if he were speaking into a megaphone. He was standing in front of the large crowd of seniors that had amassed here, and though I was farther away from him, his immense height was enough to make up for it; I could see him just as well as I could hear him. He was wearing his usual hearty grin and holding his arms up enthusiastically as he held no doubt a glass of Gin in his hand. Rosalie stood beside him, holding her classic Bloody Mary and grinning up at her boyfriend with a sparkle in her eyes.

The crowd shouted rambunctiously. "Freedom!" I, like many others, had a glass of something that an underage teenager shouldn't drink in my hands, and I held it up as I yelled the same thing. I looked down at my Bella, my sweet, beautiful Bella, and she was doing the same thing with her Coke and Crown.

"Yes, it is about freedom! But it is not just freedom to the summer, no, my dear seniors. No, it is freedom to where?" he hollered out to the crowd.

"College!" we all shouted with zealous fervor, chugging down the last drops of whatever type of alcohol—or in some cases, liquor—and clinking the empty glasses to whoever was around. The Scotch burned as it went down my throat, but I welcomed it. I had been drinking scotch since freshman year when Emmett had introduced me to the fine liquid. And I had used to think that Smirnoff was the shit and-a-fucking-half…

I knocked mine against Bella's, her large and depth-filled doe-brown eyes dancing in the dim blue lights of Gerald McCarty's club, Club Nocturne. Her long and cascading mahogany hair rippled down her back, and her face had that sexy almost-there tipsy smirk that I had come to love. Her creamy alabaster-yet-toned skin played up beautifully with the not-too-tight-and-not-so-innocent blue halter dress she was wearing.

"College," she whispered. Her free hand snaked around my neck, bringing my lips down to hers and tangling lightly with my hair.

Like so many countless times before, when my lips touched hers there was that spark that lit a fire in my soul. As our mouths danced together I thought of the first time I had ever kissed her; what seemed an eternity ago in the eighth grade. It had been a more innocent time—if you can call anything that any of us had ever gotten into 'innocent'—and yet even as she had matured from that young and inexperienced fourteen-year-old, I still thought of that first time my lips had ever touched hers. It had been one of the best days of my life.

I moved my lips against hers, more and more passionately. It was easy to taste the Coke and Crown on her lips, and it mixed with the Scotch on mine. It was intoxicating—she was intoxicating. Not only that, but her fucking strawberry-Bella-sexy taste was there as well. I pulled her closer, her body leveling flush with mine and fisting one hand in her unbelievably soft hair and trailing the other down her back, my empty glass still in hand…

"Oi! Masen! I'm making a speech here!" Emmett's perpetually loud and obnoxious voice boomed, pulling me out of my Bella-funk. I looked up as eyes trailed on us, and I could see Emmett looking at us mischievously.

"Yo, get a room!" he yelled at me. I smirked.

"We are in a room," I reminded him. He gaffed in his usual Emmett fashion, and shook his head.

"My cousin's boyfriend is one obnoxious bastard… Moving on, before these two teenagers interrupted…" he noted, still looking pointedly at us. Bella chuckled and pulled away from me, but moved her hand from my hair into my own hand. It was warm.

"This year has been amazing, my Sporks friends!" he continued without a hitch. "It's great to see yet another crowd gathered for the Great McCarty End of the Year Party!" More cheers and shouts resounded. "And is it an amazing one! This is a celebration of the future! Not saying goodbye like sad babies, but embracing all we've had! We have been through sex education and calculus together; Mr. Wiggington's history class—" several 'boos' echoed throughout the club, and Emmett grinned at the lack of appreciation of his least favorite teacher—"food fights—" instigated by Emmett, of course "—and not to mention Principal Mellow's obvious lack of clothing knowledge…" We all erupted in obnoxious laughter at the last one. Principal M had been introduced to one of Emmett's classic 'rid the target of all his clothes' prank. Juvenile it was, but it was also so Emmett.

It had been an interesting day.

"Yes, I know. Who do you all thank for that?" he questioned with an expectant look on his face. I shook my head; McCarty up there was always one for theatrics…

"McCarty!" everyone shouted. He grinned like the fool that he was, and made a low sweeping bow and came back up faster than what most people would think possible for him. He had had what? Three Tonic and Gins already? Then again, Emmett had never really been truly affected by alcohol of any sort…

"Damn straight! It's been a great year, great fun, great friends," he said, allowing his eyes to trail over towards me and Bella, and then across a ways over towards where I could seen the top of Jasper's wild blonde hair. Surely Alice with him, but the little pixie was too damn short to see. Then he allowed his eyes to go down to Rosalie as he threw a meaty arm over her shoulders, pulling her close to his body. "And it's a damn shame that it all has to end. So drink up me hearties, yo ho!" he yelled. I shook my head; I knew letting him watch Pirates of the Caribbean last night was a bad idea…

Regardless, even more laughter ensued and he broke through the crowd and caught Bella and I just as Jasper and Alice made their way over towards us. Just like the traditional McCarty End-of-the-Year party, it was traditional for all of us to meet up right after Emmett's 'epic' speeches. We had been doing this—in moderation when we obviously couldn't pass for teenagers—ever since the freaking fifth grade, before we started middle school. Everyone knew the McCarty parties were ones to rival any other.

"Nice speech Emmett. 'Drink up me hearties, yo ho?' Nice finishing touch," Jasper said smoothly, his southern Texan drawl mixing in with his words. Emmett snorted.

"Yeah, well, Edward AKA Sir Grabs-Ass-a-Lot had to go interrupt," he said, shooting me a look that would have otherwise been chastising if not for the fact that he wore a wicked grin on his face. "If it weren't for the fact that you and I have been tight since the Pre-K Golden Days, I'd have to beat you for defiling my sweet little cousin Bella," he said 'sternly'. Ha, what-the-hell ever.

"Hm, no worse than what you get up to, Emmett," I told him. He grinned like a Cheshire cat, and ran his hand down the length of Rosalie's body on the side, and back up again.

"Ah Eddie-Boy, I think you might be jealous, dear friend," he goaded. I snorted, and hugged Bella closer to me, planting a kiss on the top of her head.

"Right, whatever you say. Come on, we should get our table before Newton tries to snag it again. I'm not dealing with his drunken ass knocking Courvoisier all over me again," I told everyone, wheeling Bella around and making our way through the large throng of people standing around and talking or dancing animatedly.

It wasn't all that hard to get through the people; everyone knew who we were, and it wasn't consequence that they did. People parted like the Red Sea, and it wasn't like they had to see us to do so. It was like they knew before they even saw us that we were there, and they just moved out of the way subconsciously for us.

Emmett's father—Gerald McCarty—had owned this establishment since we were in diapers. Even before we were even near the age of puberty, we had our own section devoted to us. Everyone knew that we practically owned it, and seeing as Emmett would take over ownership of the club after college, we really did. We had a whole VIP table for our own personal use.

Right beside a set of pool table and five feet shy the bar. Life was good, life was grand. And life was a fucking parade for us.

I set my glass on the bar as we passed it; I expected that there would plenty of other chances to get another swig or twenty of something else before the night was over. I saw Bella do the same thing.

We neared the familiar blue-velvet decked circular eighteen-foot across booth. The familiar dark curtain of silver-edged fabric hung over the table and a single matted and luminescent light was mounted on the wall. Per usual, there was a neatly folded name card on there that read: 'Reserved: McCarty, Hale, Masen, Swan, Whitlock, Brandon. Scotch compliments of the owner; all drinks on the house tonight. GMC." Right beside the card there was an unopened bottle of Bell's J&B Rara in a bucket of ice and six martini glasses. I smiled; Uncle McC always pulled through with the goods.

"Hey Masen! Stop standing there looking like you're about to cry and let's get some fine liquor and par-tay!" Emmett said, coming up beside me and waving his arms in the air and moving his hips around in what I could only assume was in a mock impression of dancing. I chuckled, and allowed Bella to slide into the booth before I took my place besides her.

Emmett allowed the same for Rosalie and Jasper for Alice. We were seated in our usual formation; Bella on the right on the outside, followed by me, Rosalie, Emmett, Alice and then Jasper.

When we were all situated, I reached across the table and plucked the bottle of Bell's best from the bucket of ice and twisted the top of with ease. Then each person took a glass, plunking some ice into the bottom. I did the same with my glass, and tipped the golden-bronze liquid into my glass. Bella held her glass out to me, and I poured the Scotch into her glass as I stared into her eyes. I passed the bottle to Rosalie, who poured her glass, and I assumed that everyone else followed suit. I was too caught up in Bella's eyes as she looked directly at me as she brought the glass up to her plump lips and took a generous sip to care.

My girl loved her Scotch almost as much as she loved that Crown and Coke.

It seemed that in that moment, it just struck me how lucky I was. I had Bella, the greatest girl I could ever ask for, and four friends who would go to the ends of the earth for me just as I would do the same for them. We were as tight a fucking Christmas bow on a package wrapped with love from Alice, and it had been that way ever since… hell. Like, diaper days, it seems.

Bella smiled up at me as she lowered her glass, and there was a single drop on her mouth. I reached a hand out, and wiped it off softly. She smirked under my touch, kissed my finger.

"This has been an amazing year. I can't believe how far we've all come," she said lowly. I smiled down at her, cupping one of her cheeks.

I knew exactly what she meant. It seemed eons ago that we stepped into this pattern that we had all fallen into; be fucking smart, be rich, hang out, get drunk, and hack the hell out of Forks and anyone else unfortunate enough to be fooled by a pack of six painfully intelligent teenagers. It was a way of life, as easy as breathing, as easy as loving Bella even.

As I raised my own glass to my lips, it struck me that this would probably be one of the last times that we would be able to hang out like this. Summer would end, and the future would begin for all of us.

In the fall, I would be going off to Dartmouth with Bella. I would be studying the field of medicine, and she would be preparing her career as a writer. Sure, we would be together, but what about everyone else?

Emmett would take courses for business and be taught anything that his father hadn't already taught him. That was probably not all that much, and so he would be out in a few years, no doubt. Emmett was a notoriously quick learner and despite his playful demeanor, he was a slick businessman and born proprietor.

Rosalie would be heading off to MIT, doing her thing with computers. She was the smartest person we knew in that field, and so it was always assumed that the prize gem of the Hale family would go there. She was a cyber genius, and could give Bill Gates a run for his money. She was not just a pretty face; anyone who knew her could see that. She would do great things; she was a Hale.

And Alice. That little pixie was almost as skilled as Rosalie, but she had a flare for art. She could make a perfect sketch in an hour flat, and though her parents wanted her to take the Ivy League route, they were willing to let her tour the continental United States to get her career under her fingers. Literally.

Jasper would go to Harvard and study law. He was a lawyer in the making, and he was smooth-tongued and charismatic. He could get us out of any kind of trouble, and when the parents couldn't, he sure as hell could. It was only natural that the person who got us our fake I.D.s was also the person that kept us from being thrown in the state pen for the same damn thing.

Yes, we were all different. Really, the only thing that was the same about us on the outside was the fact that we were rich. But under that, we were a group that had been made to fit. How could we possibly let that all go after all the years that we had been going at it?

I downed the last of my Scotch, and set the glass back on the table.

"Damn, I could go for another of those before the nights over," I said. Bella laughed, and it was music to my ears.

"Well, I can already tell I'm going to be DD tonight. Already committing to a few more drinks. You won't be able to stand straight," Bella said jokingly.

I laughed along with her. "You know, that's only happened once before," I reminded her. Alice snorted across from us.

"Ha, right Edward. You must be leaving out that time back in junior year when you were so wasted because Emmett got a higher score on the chem test than you did, and you were feeling up Esme's potted plants in the living room. She didn't let you go anywhere near the alcohol for a month, fearing that you would become an addict and end up living as a street creeper due to alcoholism!" she burst out.

"Oh, wait! What about that time Jasper accidently drank that half-liter of Fall's Malt Whiskey and he ended up running into the wall of my mom's bedroom over and over again, and when she asked what he was doing, he replied with 'That fat kid won't move out of my way, so if I push him, he'll hopefully fucking move'," Rosalie interjected.

"Ha! I remember that! Dad couldn't help but keep talking about it for weeks! Momma Hale made it seem like you were hallucinating or something!" Emmett laughed.

"Well, it was practically like that; Jazz thought he was beating up a fat kid…" Bella trailed off before she burst out in more laughter.

"That was funny," I chuckled out.

"No doubt about that one," Rosalie said.

"Duly noted, babe," Emmett said, pulling the bottle of Bell's towards him and tilting the bottle so that more of the drink could pour into his glass. He took a long swig of it; half of the glass was gone in just that swallow.

"Ah, nice. You know, I think all this remembering deserves something sweeter. Who's up for some Martinis and Daiquiris all around?" he asked. Hm, like usual, he was right. Reminiscence did deserve something sweet.

I think a blue-raspberry Martini will do just nicely.

We called a 'tender over, all asking for a Martini of a different flavor. When the tux-vest clad man walked away, promising that the drinks would be free of charge—once more, compliments of Uncle McC—we settled into a state that could only be described as reminiscence.

We started talking about our first years together, how it all had begun. Emmett had grown up here, as well as me. Emmett and I had been best friends since the times where our days consisted of sticking our feet in our mouths. It had been when we were around five or so when Jasper and his folks moved here, following the real estate business. Forks was a booming place of business; with close-by Port Angeles and Olympia, plus the rich cliental that provided a hefty section of profits, it was a center of economic splendor and money-making tycoons.

It also helped that Jasper's parents had been friends with Emmett's parents back in high school together.

After about three years, that's when Alice and Rosalie moved up here. From two totally different walks of art, the two hit it off the first day of third grade. Rosalie's mother had been a model in the past, and Alice's had—and still is—one of the most sought after photographers out there. As their mothers got closer through their work, the girls got closer by making Emmett and Jasper—the pathetic heart-felts—chase after them all through grade school. Of course, Jasper and Rosalie were always competing, being cousins of the same age. Even though Rosalie was a girl, she hacked it out with Jasper like any other boy would.

And then it was in the fifth grade when Bella came here. Everyone knew who she was—even before she got here. The step-daughter of world famous Phillip Collins, baseball extraordinaire. Her mother had just remarried the incredibly rich motherfucker, and had decided that simple, quiet Forks was the perfect place for her and her daughter and new arm candy to settle.

From the first day that she had arrived, she sort of united us all. She was a cousin of Emmett's—distant, however. The McCartys and Swans weren't incredibly close—and had fit right in to the society of the rich and sometimes-pretentious.

But she wasn't like that.

We went over the first years that we had begun calling our renegade group of trouble-makers the 'Six Crew'. It had really started out as just learning how to breaking into the parental units safes so we could buy bootleg DVDs from the local 'chop-shopper' of the things, Thad Richards-Delco. Back in the day, we didn't get the kind of 'allowance' that we got now.

And so it started. It bloomed into us hacking the school's computers to see our final grades before anyone else, to wiring the sprinkler systems to go off right in the middle of our least favorite classes.

And this was just the fifth and sixth grade.

It had escalated to card-based schemes by seventh grade. We were easily bored; being rich prevented you from having many things on your 'Things-I-Still-Want-to-Fucking-Do' list. I had had a fascination for blackjack ever since I was ten when Uncle McC had taught me the basics.

Rosalie would say it was an unhealthy obsession from the moment it started. And perhaps she was right.

But I loved me some blackjack; I loved me some money.

And I loved to win.

It really just started for fun, but when we all got so good at working as a six-way team, why would just keep to ourselves?

The 'Counting Revolution' as I like to refer to it led to the best four years of high school that any-damn-body could have.

"Ah, good times, fucking with Newton, good times…" Emmett chuckled, wiping his eyes of the mirth-filled tears that had formed there. He plunked his glass down onto the table of the booth, and he slung an arm over Rosalie.

"You know, I never really thought about this, us going off to college," he said once he had sobered a bit. We were silent. It was true, while we had been smart enough to breeze through high school with not much thought, we had also breezed through the high school life without much thought. We knew it would get here—eventually—but I supposed that we hadn't really ever thought about it ending, at least not anytime soon.

And really, I didn't want to think about it. I didn't want this to end; I didn't want it to be over. Call me a sentimental sap and a half, but I wanted to be able to have my friends, my girl, and my freedom with me.

And that's when the plan started forming.

I felt the gears working in my mind, much like they did any other time that I had a plan in my head that always became golden in the making.

We would have to go out, live our lives, and be something. But perhaps we could go out with a bang, a real honest to goodness bang that would immortalize the Six Crew as the hacking, heisting, swindling group of lucky bastards there ever were.

We would be gods among the men that had tried to transcend the thief's label on the card-counting society.

"Babe?" Bella asked, running a hand down the side of my face. Her voice was concerned. "Edward, what's up?"

I could feel my grin break across my face, and I looked down at Bella, her doe orbs looking up at me, scrutinizing.

"Ah hell," Emmett said across from me. He slapped a hand down on the table. "I know that look. That's the look, bro. So, what's your great new plan, taking over Google? Yahoo? The makers of Star Wars? Lord knows, Geekward, that only you would get an ass-grin like that thinking about such things," he said, leaning back in his place. He leaned back in his place at the booth, and despite his words, his eyes were alight.

Emmett was always ready for hacking it up.

"Huh, it is the look. You know, I'm all up for taking over Star Wars. I've always thought Leia was ho—" but Jasper caught himself as Alice gave him her own look. "Homophobic. Yeah, always thought that that chick was homophobic… Heh…" Alice rolled her eyes.

"Just keep your eyes to yourself, Han Solo," she warned. He grinned, and I cleared my throat. They all turned their heads back to me.

"I have a plan," I began.

"Well, we got that, Eddie. Seeing as you have the classic Masen Ass-Grin on," Rosalie said nonchalantly as she flipped her long mane of blond hair over her shoulders. I smirked.

"We're all going to be going off after the summer. Bella and I, we're going to Dartmouth. Jasper, you're starting law and Alice, you're going to be an artist. Rosalie, you will be kicking ass at MIT, and Emmett, you're going to be a fucking business tycoon. This—all of this—the hacking, the counting, the drinks together on all the days that end in 'y'. We won't have this anymore, not with the fact that we will all be scattered across the country.

Not only that, but we won't be the Six Crew anymore. We'll be just six college students who hacked it out in high school who hung out with each other, and got into some pretty awesome shit together—"

"Hey man, we aren't going to being singing Kum Bay Ya, are we? Because I refuse to hold Jasper's hand," Emmett interjected. I smirked.

"No, we will not. But I can tell you, we are going to do something that will set us apart from any other hackers. We will be immortal," I told them.

I saw Alice take a swig of whatever she happened to have in her glass.

"What, like vampires or something? I point blank refuse to go around drinking blood all eternity. If I'm a vampire, I have to be able to eat McDonalds forever."

I repressed the urge to scoff, call her an imbecile, and tell her to lay off the juice. Then again, she was a little more than tipsy, so anything that I said would go over her head in a second.

"We are going to pull the biggest stunt that we have ever tried. We are going to hack and heist and swindle the hell out of whatever poor souls that happen to be in our way."

They were silent for a while, but I could tell they were excited. The atmosphere tasted like it, and I knew I had them.

I explained my plan, the plan for total domination in the record books, the tablets, and where ever the hell else we would be inscribed.

"So we're going to Vegas—"

"—to pull off the largest gambling heist—"

"—that we—"

"—or man himself—"

"—has ever done—"

"—so that we can stay—"

"—immortalized as the Six Crew?"

They had all finished each other's sentences, and were now contemplating my idea.

"Yes," was my simple reply.

"Well, you know I'm in. Why the hell not? I have nothing better to do than cheat me some money," Emmett said, once more slapping his hand on the table.

"And as I see it, MIT could use someone who knows how to hack it up in Vegas, right?" Rosalie said. I nodded.

Jasper was next. "Sounds like a plan, Alice?" I knew he wouldn't do anything without Alice I also knew she wouldn't do anything without—

"Bella?" she asked, looking at Bella rather than me.

Bella turned her head, looking directly into my eyes.

" I'm with Edward," she said finally.

"And I am with Bella," Alice announced.

"And I shall follow Alice," Jasper told us all.

And so that was how it would begin.

I just didn't know how it would end.

Lennixx: WOW. That's all I can say: WOW. This took me FOREVER to get done. It had to be perfect, ya know? And it's pretty damn sweet. Don't you love Edward? I do. Sentimental and cuss-a-licious all at the same time XD You know what, I think I might take this Planward, and keep him in a basement only I know the location of…

Again, much thanks to TRD and Dream. I think they are amazing, and you should as well :D

But, click the little button at the bottom! It loves to be clicked!

...Excited? Is that what TRD said at the bottom? Tee Hee, excited. If anyone who reads that thinks of dirty things, then I hold nothing against to… Speaking of TRD, the Emmett line? It sweet, it was her, and it ROCKED (twhs)

Dreamer: Lex, that was amazing! I just have one thing to say, keep Jasper in the basement as well, then we could rent them out and become billionaires!! Wait, is that two things?

Well guys, read it, enjoy it, review it!

Dancer: WHEE! Plans are awesome. Dontcha think Planward is hawt? The brilliant line quoted at the top? Me, all me. Or Emmett speaking through me, whichever you like to think of it as. Aren't I smashing? Lolz.

Loved it to pieces, Lex, you're probably at least equally as smashing as I am, after all, we are all thirds of each other. I hope everyone else loves it too... get excited with us, c'mon, you know you want to say it... c'mon...

WHEE! (Brownies for those who understood what I just said there.)

Review!!!!