Thieves, Scoundrels, and All Kinds of Riffraff
Chapter 7
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Author's Note:
Yeah, ok, finally we get to the actually heist. Anybody notice that Carey has disappeared for the past two chapters? Truth be told, I don't really know where he disappeared to. I'll come up and tell y'all when I think of something. J I know, terrible me. But my muse has evaded me at this point in time. Maybe he'll come back to me soon, after he comes back from clubbing all night!! (Yeah, I envision my muse for this particular fic as a guy. Heck, my muse for my Psylocke fic is a guy, too. So much action and all that.)
And I'll do my best to incorporate the romances, too. But as of the moment, the only one working is Gabe/Addy, as Carey has disappeared off the face of the earth and the person that I wanna pair Raykel with isn't even introduced yet. And to erm, Duncan, is it (you never really signed with a nickname or anything) 'Stormy', Remy, and our two rascals will show up next time, along with our disappeared Carey and my muse!! Who still isn't back from partying yet!!
* * * *
Beverly Hills, California
* * * *
Gabriel LaFacentia was lounging in the front lobby of the mansion that he now called headquarters. They were scheduled to leave for their heist any time now, but Eclipse was nowhere to be seen, and neither were the 3 other women- Adrienne, Raykel, and Fayre. Jay had disappeared as well, presumably to procure the crew a 'transitory vehicle', as Adrienne called it.
Adrienne. Now she was fine. Not that the others weren't, though. Being the hot-blooded, heterosexual man that he was, he had to admit that Raykel was fly, and Fayre's exotic looks made her quite the attractive lady. Eclipse was… attractive in her own way as well, if one went for maroon skin and that attitude, but her personality more than neutralized any possible attraction that any man alive could have for her. In Gabe's opinion, at least.
Amethyst, however, was a whole different ball game. He knew that she and Carey had been pretty serious for a while, but then, something had happened, and they had broken up. As far as he knew, Carey still had feelings for her, and well, he wasn't interested in going after somebody that his pal still had the hots for. Heck, he wasn't even comfortable with going out with somebody that his pal had dated seriously. Too much trouble, and way too much emotional baggage. He didn't know her all that well, but enough to know that there certainly wasn't any attraction between him and her.
Then again, acknowledging that somebody was attractive and actually being attracted to her were 2 different things altogether. And while the others were good-looking, he couldn't help but constantly turn his attention back to Adrienne. Perhaps it was the fact that she had changed so much since the last time he had seen her. When was that, when she had just graduated from high school? Yeah, he thought so. Damn, but college had done wonders for her.
Gabe frowned. Now, he was in a dilemma. What should he do? Normally, he wouldn't even have paused to think when it came to chasing down somebody he was attracted to.. But then again, he'd never been attracted to his best friend's sister, either. Ok, suppose I do go after Adrienne. Now how on earth am I supposed to keep this from Carey? And what if she rejects me? He'd never had any problems with rejection. After all, not only was Gabe French, he was extremely handsome as well.
Just then, Fayre sliding into the seat opposite to his interrupted his thinking. "Are the others down yet?" she asked, looking around.
"What do you think?" he asked, raising one eyebrow.
"Adrienne said to be down at midnight, sharp."
"Glad to see that you remembered my instructions." Adrienne's voice floated down the stairs, and she appeared at the top of them seconds later. "Sorry, but I was a little held back by Jay's call. He's boosted the van, and he's on his way now. Where's Raykel?"
"Just done with my swim." The brunette walked into the foyer, and started up the stairs, a white terrycloth robe wrapped around her so that she wouldn't drip all over the place. "I'll be down in a few."
"And E-" Adrienne continued, but she never got to finish her question.
"Right here." The shape shifter appeared from nowhere, and even though this tendency had startled many of them at first, most of the crew was already immune to her rather annoying habit of appearing out of thin air.
"Great." Adrienne surveyed the crew, and noted with approval that all of them seemed refreshed and ready for the heist. Granted, this wasn't all that big of a heist, but this would give herself a chance to see if she could handle the group, and take a look at how well they worked with each other. Not to mention the fact that the floor plans were an essential part of her plan. How would she strategize and keep the rest of the crew up-to-date if she didn't have floor plans?
Gabe watched all this like a hawk. Adrienne had a lot of potential when it came to being a criminal, actually. She had the inventiveness, the intelligence, and the street smarts for this. But what counterbalanced all her good points was the fact that she had absolutely no experience at all. Nada, zip. And this made him more than a little worried. This whole team was too newly acquainted, too unfamiliar with each other for Gabe to feel comfortable with them when it came to pulling off the heist. Throw in an inexperienced leader and it made him more than just a little jumpy. Sure, everybody here was a professional, and had more than enough experience points underneath their belts. Still, this was too hasty, too last minute, too fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants for his liking. He'd learned the hard way that one should always be as prepared as possible for anything that might go wrong on a heist, regardless of how big or small it was.
Just then, a loud honk sounded from the other side of the mansion's doors, and Jay pulled up the driveway in a 'procured' vehicle. Fayre got up and hauled the massive oak doors open, to reveal Jay sitting in a large blue SUV outside. The window rolled down and he gestured for them to get in the car. "Come on! We ain't got all day! I wanna dump this thing as quickly as possible before the cops put a tab on this baby!"
Gabe could see that both Fayre and Eclipse weren't very happy at the idea of the car booster shoving them around, but they got into the car anyway, knowing that to argue would just have been a waste of time. Gabe got up, and ambled over to where Adrienne was standing. "Aren't you going to get into the car, oh fearless leader?" He asked, a small grin tugging at the corners of his mouth.
Adrienne rolled her eyes in exasperation and shook her head. "Oh puh-lease. I'm waiting for our dear Miss Moon to grace us with her presence, that's what." She then looked at him. "I see that the uniform fits well, huh?" Unlike the others, most of whom were dressed in black from head to toe; Gabe was wearing a security guard's uniform. Later on, his partner Eclipse was to morph into a security guard as well.
"It's a little small, but other than that, yeah, it's fine." The plan was to have the two of them get to the buildings when the first shift of guards were to finish their watch, knock out the replacement guards and take over the watch for them. It was no wonder then that Adrienne was nervous. If they were late, they would have had to resort to a plan not quite as easy, and much more unpleasant as well.
"You think she's gonna come down soon?" asked Gabe, following Adrienne's line of sight up the stairs, and to the second floor.
"She'd better. We can't afford to be late." The beginnings of a scowl were starting to appear on Adrienne's face, and Gabe quickly moved to calm her down.
"Why don't you call for her instead?" Before Adrienne could snap a reply at him, whether through sheer coincidence or perfect timing, Raykel waltzed down the stairs, dressed in form fitting black, long chestnut hair sleeked up into a bun tied at the nape of her hair.
"I'm finished!" Spying the SUV and Jay waiting outside the door, she sprinted down the rest of the steps, calling out, "I get shotgun!"
Before she could reach the car, however, Adrienne stopped her dead in her tracks. "I don't think so, Missy." Snorted Adrienne. "If you had been on time, you might've gotten a shot at sitting up front, but now count yourself lucky if you get to sit even remotely near the air conditioning. I'm sitting up front."
With that, she walked past a dumbfounded Raykel and slid into the seat beside Jay. The woman raised her eyebrow and looked at Gabe. "Who got on her case?" she asked.
"You did." Answered Gabe, shrugging nonchalantly. Gabe's answer was simple, and he brushed past her before getting into the car. Raykel paused, thinking for a bit, before shrugging and getting into the car as well. I suppose I do deserve it.
* * * *
Downtown LA, ½ Hour Later
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Jay pulled the car to a halt behind the building, and allowed the two security guards sitting inside to get out. Gabe was the first one off, followed by Eclipse, who had already morphed, and lastly, an invisible Fayre. Raykel noted that it was rather disconcerting, seeing the door slam shut by itself. Seconds after the first half of the team had alighted, Jay stopped the car again, this time, in the alley beside the building. He dropped Adrienne and Raykel off at the dumpster, and leaned out the driver side window. "I'm gonna be waiting for you in the parking lot across the street. Make it quick. This is gang turf. I wanna be in and out of here fast."
"You don't say." Snapped Adrienne. With that, Jay drove off, leaving both women in the alley.
* * *
At the front of the building, Gabe and Eclipse walked side by side, keeping an eye out for any sign of the relief guards. Behind them, an invisible Fayre followed, the only thing betraying her presence being the footsteps left on the ground after she stepped in the puddles of water that lay on the floor. "Do you see them?" muttered Eclipse, looking around.
Out of the corner of his eye, Gabe saw two security guards walking up the sidewalk towards the building. "Yeah." For Fayre's benefit, he pointed in their direction, and elaborated on their appearance. "Dressed like us, both heavyset guys, mid-40's, talking about doughnuts."
"Got it." Fayre's whisper was ghostly, and barely audible, as she slipped past Gabe and Eclipse. In answer, both of them melted back into the alley in order to ensure that the guards didn't see them. As they drew closer, Gabe could hear the guys chatting with each other.
"-these doughnuts gave me indigestion the last time we bought 'em!" Gabe heard one of the guards complaining. His companion was about to reply, when he heard a pair of loud smacking sounds as Fayre knocked the two guards down. This was followed by the thud of flesh on concrete as the two of them fell to the ground, presumably unconscious. Both he and Eclipse took this as their cue to step out of the alley, and the two of them quickly tugged the two unconscious men back into the alley.
After this was done, the trio walked towards the building at a brisk walk. Adrienne and Raykel were waiting at the side of the alley, and if they stayed there too long, it would be too suspicious. Opening the doors, they stepped into the lobby, with Gabe holding the door open for a fraction of a second longer than he needed to, just to make sure that Eclipse would be able to get in. The two guards on duty then greeted them. "Finally! We've been waiting for ages."
"Relax." Grumbled Eclipse. "We're only 5 minutes late. Traffic was bad."
"Whatever. What happened to Jim and Johnson?" The other guard asked
"Sick." Said Gabe, putting just a bit of persuasion behind his words.
"Huh." The guy whom Gabe had replied to grunted. He turned to his partner. "Let's get outta here." He grabbed the sign-in board and tossed it to the two of them. "Have fun, you two." He then signed the keys over to them. The three mutants waited for what seemed like eons for the three guards to leave the building. When they finally disappeared out of sight, all three of them sprang into action. The keys were picked up by Fayre's invisible hands, and quickly headed down the hallway towards the alley where Adrienne and Raykel were both waiting.
Gabe looked over at Eclipse in faint surprise. "Well, that wasn't hard."
The shape shifter sat down, and frowned, contemplative. "No, it wasn't hard at all. In fact, it was too easy."
You better not jinx us. Gabe thought to himself. But deep down inside, he had a sinking feeling that Eclipse was right. It had been too easy.
* * * *
Fayre was running down the hallway, moving as quickly as possible. She was nearly at the door, when she stumbled, and dropped the keys, which slid into a nearby corner. Growling in annoyance, she stalked over to them, bending down to pick the keys up. Then, her eyes fixed upon a fearsome creature nestling in the corner, just mere inches away from the keys, and she froze. Oh, hell. She stared at the deadly little creature sitting there in the corner, squatting on it's 8 legs. No way am I gonna let that touch me. The little spider turned around to face her, it's eight, beady little eyes staring straight at her. What am I gonna do?!
* * * *
Meanwhile, Raykel and Adrienne waited outside, and Adrienne was getting more than a little bit impatient. "What is taking them so long?!"
Raykel, who was relaxing back against the far wall of the alley, was scrutinizing her nails as best as she could underneath the light that filtered in from the street. "Relax. If you're this stressed during such a small heist, you're gonna have a nervous breakdown when it comes to the actual thing."
Adrienne glared at Raykel. "Oh, shut up." The both of them then fell back into silence as they waited for Fayre to open the doors for them.
* * * *
Ok, take it easy, girl. That thing's not gonna bite you. You can take down full-grown men twice your size, a little spider's nothing to you. She squeezed her eyes shut and reached out a hand, slowly. She paused for another moment, and then finally snatched they keys off the floor. Phew! See, I knew you could do it! Then, she felt a strange tickling sensation on her bare arm. Looking to the source of the irritation, she found- "EWW!! SPIDER!!!! Argh! Get it OFF me!!" Fayre starting jumping wildly up and down, shaking her hands with as much strength as she could, shrieking loudly enough to wake up the dead. Unfortunately, Fayre's attention was so focused on the spider and getting if off her that she forgot one very important fact.
"Oh no." Fayre realized that she wasn't invisible any more.
* * * *
Inside the booth where one old, tired security guard watched the television screens that were linked to cameras all over the building, he saw an impossible sight on one of the flickering gray and white television screens. Blinking, he rubbed his eyes, once, twice, as he stared, unbelieving, at the girl who had appeared in the corridor of the first floor, out of seemingly thin air. "What the…" the whisper died on his lips as he remembered his duties, and reached out for the walkie talkie that sat on the panel a few inches away. "There's an intruder, boys! In the east hallway!! Some woman who…" he paused, wondering if saying that she had 'appeared out of thin air' would discredit him with these young 'uns.
Both Gabe and Eclipse started in surprise as the walkie-talkie sitting on the desk crackled to life. "-here's an intruder, boys! In the east hallway!! Some woman who…" The two mutants exchanged glances, and Gabe immediately reached for the walkie-talkie, questioning the old man.
"Who what?" His voice was hard, and urgent. It was possible that Fayre slipped up, somehow. If she had, they were in trouble.
The old man wondered if he should tell them. Then, he decided not to, and hollered back over the line. "Never mind! Go and check it out."
Gabe looked over at Eclipse, and he tossed the walkie-talkie to her. "You heard him. I'll go up and take care of the old man. When you hear me give you the signal, open the door and let Adrienne and Raykel in. We don't have much time. There's no telling who else he alerted." They then both headed separate ways, getting ready to do their best to salvage this heist.
* * * *
Outside, Adrienne's ears perked up, as she heard something. "You hear that?" Looking over at Raykel, she noticed that her partner had ceased to worry about her nails, returning Adrienne's gaze with concern in her eyes.
"Yeah. It sounded like a scream."
"That's not good." Those three words were like a stab in their hearts, as fear started to creep in.
* * * *
Gabe rushed up the stairs, trying to remember where exactly the control booth was located. He nearly barreled past it before realizing that he had reached his destination. Flinging open the door, he stepped inside, menacing. The old security guard looked up at the intruder, surprised, and just a little bit afraid. "Who're you? Where's Jim? And why're you here?"
Gabe took another step towards the old man. Ushering as much strength as he could, he put the full force of that behind his words, looking the elderly security guard straight in the eye as he talked to him. "You will not remember any of this. You will forget about seeing that woman in the hallway, and you will think that I am Jim. You will got to sleep now, and you will attribute that to a lack of coffee. Do you understand?"
"I…under…stand…" The security guard's eyelids grew heavier and heavier, and took on a glazed look. He then slumped forward onto the table, the soft sound of snoring indicating that this man was sound asleep. At this, Gabe lunged down to grab the walkie-talkie sitting on the table beside the now asleep security guard.
"Eclipse, he's asleep. Open the door and get Adrienne and Raykel in. Find Fayre. I'll erase the tapes of tonight."
"Got it."
* * * *
Fayre, no longer invisible, was running down the hallway, towards the door that she was supposed to open, when she was knocked to the opposite side of the corridor by a powerful body check given to her courtesy of Eclipse in her security guard disguise. "Fool. You ruined the heist." The voice that hissed out was definitely Eclipse's, there was no mistake about that.
"I'm. sorry." Growled Fayre. With that, she shoved the shape shifter off herself, and used the keys to open the door out to the alley. Standing there were a very disturbed looking Adrienne and Raykel. Unease was written all over their faces, and worry lines creased their brows.
"Is everything alright? We heard a scream." asked Adrienne, and she and Raykel quickly stepped into the building.
"It is, now. No thanks to Miss Screw-Up over here, who's screaming you had the pleasure of hearing." Eclipse punctuated her reply with another look at Fayre, who returned the stare with an equal amount of hostility.
"In case you didn't wonder, now is definitely not the time to argue." Raykel was snappy, and it was easy to see that this had affected the normally easy-going security expert as well. With that, both Raykel and Adrienne brushed past them, heading straight for the stairs.
"Watch the entrances, and notify Jay that we'll be done in about 5 to 10 minutes. And don't screw up this, time." Adrienne looked at Fayre, and rolled her eyes. "Both of you." She emphasized, this time looking at Eclipse. She then turned around, and ran up the stairs after Raykel.
Eclipse and Fayre pause, and looked at each other, unsure of what to do now. "I'll contact Gabe." Muttered Eclipse, and raised the walkie-talkie to her lips. "How is everything up there? Over. "
A crackle of static followed her question, and then Gabe's reply came back. "Pappy here's out like a light. Are Adrienne and Raykel in yet?"
"Yeah." Eclipse started walking back towards the front of the building, where the security guards were supposed to be stationed. "Any luck erasing the film?"
"On it right now." Gabe was pressing eject on all the video recording buttons, and the CD- burners all ejected the discs that they had been writing to. Grabbing each of them, he held it ceremoniously between his fingers, and then in one swift move, snapped them into pieces. "It's not the smoothest job, but it'll do. Should I get down there?"
"Yeah. Adrienne says that they'll be done in 10 minutes, tops. And Fayre's gonna get Jay."
"Why me?!" protested Fayre. "Who said that you could order me around, anyways?" She was about to continue, when she realized just how whiny and childish she sounded. Ignoring the smirk on Eclipse's lips, she rolled her eyes and shrugged. "Oh, alright. I'll go. And I'll take this, thank you very much." Plucking the walkie-talkie from Eclipse's hands, she turned around and walked away from the shape shifter.
"What the…" She stalked over to Fayre, and put her hand on Fayre's shoulder, spinning her around with quite a modicum of force. "Who the hell do you think you are!! Nobody takes anything from me like that. Nobody!!"
It was now Fayre's turn to snort and look condescendingly down at Eclipse. "Oh please. It's nothing as petty as that. I need this so that you can tell us when we should drive up to the building. You really didn't expect us to wait at the driveway, did you?" She turned back around again, and waltzed off. Ah, sometimes work was the best thing there was. Pressing the talk button on her walkie-talkie, she informed Gabe about the change in ownership of the walkie-talkie, and headed outside to join Jay in the SUV.
* * * *
Upstairs, Adrienne and Raykel were peering at the plans that they had dug up from one of the folders. "Is this it?" whispered Adrienne. Raykel took a look over her shoulder.
"One of them, yeah. We need a few more plans. Head over to the Xerox machines and make the copy first, ok?"
"Yeah, sure." Adrienne was already at the machine, and it soon whirred into life, humming as it made copies of all the plans that Raykel was passing to Adrienne. Once this had been done, they put the plans back, neatly where they had found them, and left the room. "Come on, let's get out of here." Said Adrienne.
Gabe watched the two women exit the room, and grabbed the walkie-talkie. "Adrienne and Raykel are heading on down, repeat, they are heading on down to the pick-up point." He then waited for the women to pass out of the line of sight of the last security camera, and pressed the eject button for that CD-burner. Destroying that disk as well, he stuck new CDs into all the burners, and exited the room, heading downstairs to regroup with the rest of the crew.
* * * *
In the alley opposite the building, Jay was sitting in the escape vehicle, watching television on the LCD screen that came with the SUV. On his dashboard sat a modified piece of equipment that he had jacked from an older car that he had boosted once- a radio transmitter tuned to police frequencies. He had a feeling that this would come in handy, and he was right. There had been occasions that the cops had come near them, but never close enough to warrant an abort for the heist.
His hand was pressed absently on the button that changed the channel, and his fingers were currently very busy. Nope. Nope, nope, nope. Boring- who cares about wedding rings? Nope, nope, nope… Yowza!! The Playboy channel!! He was about to settle down for a long time when suddenly, out of nowhere, he jumped in fright when he heard someone rapping on the windshield of the car. "What the hell?!" He looked up in fright, only to see Fayre standing there. He quickly unlocked the car door, and she climbed into the seat next to him. "What the hell was that for? I was very busy mind you!"
Fayre took a glace at the LCD screen, and raised her eyebrows. "I'll say. But you can watch that some other time. Right now, we have to go pick the rest of them up. Adrienne and Raykel are almost done with their stuff."
"Oh, alright." Jay reluctantly turned the LCD screen off, and started up the engine of the car.
* * * *
Eclipse was waiting impatiently at the lobby, tapping her foot. When Gabe finally arrived, she frowned, glaring at her partner. "It's about time. Have you alerted the rest of them?"
"Yeah, Jay and Fayre are on their way. Where are Adrienne and Raykel?"
"Here." The two women opened the door leading to the fire escape staircase, and appeared in the lobby as well. Both of them had large pieces of paper in hand, and both seemed more than ready to get out of here, which exactly echoed Gabe's sentiment. "What about Jay and Fayre?"
"In the car. They should be arriving at any moment." Sighed Eclipse. The other three were not the only ones who were happy to get out of this place- this whole heist had been bothersome, ill-run, and tiring. After some time, a few minutes which had seemed to drag on for all eternity, Jay and Fayre finally drove up, and the four mutants surged towards the car, glad to finally get out of the building.
They all piled into the SUV, and Jay, looking annoyingly cheery, adjusted the rear-view mirror so that he could get a better look at his teammates. "So, how did it go?" All he got in response was a loud groan and a lifetime's worth of deathly looks in his direction.
"Yeah, I had a good time, too." At this, Raykel leaned forward and punched him on the shoulder.
* * * *
Author's Note:
PHEW!! Ok, that's done. Finally. I contemplated giving them some more complications during the heist, but then I decided against it. I'm tired, and I've got class soon. So there. :-P