Disclaimer: I don't own Fire Emblem
The Big Bang Job
Part III: Finale
HBI Safehouse
Leila Gryfflet
"I feel kind of useless, you know?" Matthew said with a yawn.
Leila nodded, silently agreeing. They had all seen Kellam Anderson back at Solution. Each and every one of them knew there was nothing they could do. Leila was pretty sure none of them wanted to even try.
"It's a different playing field with people like him," Leila said quietly. "We've been thrown into the field without knowing the rules or the players. We'd be killed very quickly."
Matthew nodded and changed the subject, "How's the wound?"
Leila shrugged, "Fine. It doesn't hurt anymore."
Matthew looked like he wanted to say something, but he was interrupted by the opening of the door.
A woman walked in with poise. She stood up straight and looked as if she demanded their attention. She was much unlike her two companions, who both didn't seem to care much about appearances. Both looked very lax and bored.
Legault snapped to attention and saluted, "Ma'am!"
The woman nodded to him and said, "At ease." She then looked around at the team and introduced herself, "My name is Maribelle Adalric, Director of the HBI. This is Donnel Winchester and Volug Collins. The former is one of my agents, and the latter is from YIA."
Stahl pointed to the nearest person to him, "That's Mia, the woman next to her is-"
"I know who you all are," Maribelle waved a hand dismissively. "Enough chit chat, we have important business to discuss, don't we?"
Stahl nodded, "What are we to do about Kellam Anderson?"
Volug began to laugh slightly behind Maribelle. The Director shot him a look and turned back to Stahl with a tired look on her face, "There's nothing we can do. People like Kellam Anderson, they put our best agents to shame with their skill. Bringing him down is the YIA and the WIA's business."
"There's nothing you can do?" Leila found herself saying. HBI had to be able to do something.
The woman glanced at her and nodded, "I will have these two," she pointed at the two agents, "tail him for the YIA. They both never seem to die, and should be able to escape."
"Now, ma'am, are ya sure we should be doin' that? 'Cause I'm not so sure me 'n Volug can handle that there guy," Donnel said. "We're not as good as ya say, ma'am."
Volug chuckled and spoke with a strange accent that made him hard to understand, "We'll be fine Donny. Let's get to work."
The two men left and Maribelle sighed, dropping her composure somewhat, "I sincerely apologize Stahl. Your team was supposed to be useful. And there hasn't even been the right case for you to handle. How about you and your team go back to your home soil and handle something local next?"
Stahl nodded after some hesitation, "Sounds like a plan…ma'am."
The two exchanged an extended look that Leila couldn't define, but then broke the connection.
What was that about?
?
Donnel Winchester
"Whelp! This here seems like th' place!" Donny said with confidence.
The two agents stood directly in front of a piece of shit apartment. The kind not even in debt college students wanted to live in.
"Donnel my friend, just because it is a shady place does not mean that it is the right place," Volug said quickly through his thick accent.
"Say, where'd ya grow up? I can't say I'm familiar with that there accent," Donny said, walking up to the abandoned apartment building and ignoring Volug's comment.
"Rural Ferox. My village spoke the old tongue there. This new language…is confusing at times," Volug said.
"Hah!" Donny shouted with a smile. The door was open! "This here's a friendly place!"
Donny adjusted the baseball cap on his head so it was on backwards and walked inside.
The two carefully made their way upstairs to the third floor as according to what their asset said. Third floor, and since it was one apartment per floor, third apartment. Kellam had been seen going into it.
To a normal agent, that would have been a dead giveaway. No one sees Kellam Anderson.
Volug kicked the door down when they got to it with lots of noise. Neither of them really were what you'd call 'Top Agents.'
The two pulled out their handguns and walked slowly into the silent apartment. And…
There was no one there.
Donny sighed, "Dang nabit! I thought this'd be my time t' shine!"
Volug walked over to one of the tables and picked up a piece of paper. It wasn't dusty, like the rest of the apartment.
"What in tarnation is that?" Donny said as he walked over to look at it. He and Volug read it at the same time.
Love and Kisses.
-Anderson
Donny was in the middle of puzzling it out when Volug tackled him to the floor. Half a second later the window shattered by a bullet.
What had the Director said? They never seemed to die. They were too lucky.
"Scatter Donnel! Make haste!" Volug shouted. And they ran for the door.
Plegia City: Rooftops
Kellam Anderson
"Did I…miss?!" Kellam exclaimed angrily. Had he been holding something breakable, it would have been thrown off the roof.
Sure enough, the two bumbling idiots had escaped.
"Gotta be fucking kidding me. I kill the best that exist and two failure excuses of agents get away?" Kellam angrily took apart his rifle to put in his carrying case.
"At least no one will believe they got away from me. No one would trust the boast of crappy agents like that," he grumbled. "Now I'll have to take a detour sometime and shut them up."
Plegia City: Cross Casino
Morgan Cassidy
Apparently, Mr. Cross was quite the gambler. Anyone had to be to own such a big and…flashy casino.
It was the typical casino, neon lights, bright flashy signs, tons of cars in the parking lot, etc.
"Everyone know where to be?" Gaius said, popping in a piece of candy.
Everyone nodded, and they began to scatter to where the plan dictated they be. Gaius pulled Morgan aside.
"Morgan, how good are you at being scary?" he said with a slight smile.
Morgan grinned wolfishly.
Cross Casino: Basement
Virion Chandler
Virion and Lissa sat in the basement of the casino, several computer screens in front of them. Lissa typed away while Virion issued orders over the com link.
Thankfully Virion hadn't needed to kill anyone, as since the basement was deserted. Just Lissa's computer screens lit up the room.
"Virion? What was Lucia talking about earlier? Neuro Linguistics Reprogramming was it?" Lissa asked amidst the typing. That girl was good at multi-tasking.
Virion nodded, "It's something Grifters use all the time. Our friend Lucia is very good at it though. And so is Anna. To be frank, every Grifter is."
Lissa nodded, "But what exactly is it?"
Virion paused for a moment, thinking. Then he said, "It's all about anchoring an emotion to an action or process. You know how when you do something, like brush your teeth, you might think the pain when you got a cavity filled, yes?"
At Lissa's nod, Virion continued, "And that makes you brush your teeth even harder because you can remember the pain. Now what Anna is going to do is anchor the feeling of happiness to Cross drinking his wine. Watch, she's about to do it."
Cross Casino: Main Floor
Anna Cassidy
Anna walked behind Lucia Devereau a few steps. For the con to work, they couldn't know each other.
The main floor of the casino was very richly decorated. Of course, Cross was a very wealthy crimelord. And he valued gambling, so it made sense.
Lucia led Anna to the table in the middle of the room. But more precisely, she led Anna to Joshua Cross.
"Mr. Cross, Ms. Cassidy asked to see you," Lucia said with a formal tone. Cross regarded her with a sidelong gaze for a moment, then turned his attention to Anna with a smile.
"Ms. Cassidy, it is a pleasure to meet you," Cross said with a warm smile.
"Mr. Cross, I must insist you call me Anna. Formality isn't something I'm fond of. It may be good in my business, but not on the side," Anna giggled.
Cross chuckled, "Then you must likewise call me Joshua. I must say I'm not a fan of formality either."
Joshua glanced at his guards and then waved them away. He did the same with Lucia after giving her a brief glance. "Now what brings you here Anna? A business proposition?"
Anna shook her head, "I made a killing today. I'm here to relax, have some fun. Been a while since I had some," She suggestively winked with the latter statement.
Joshua smiled and gestured for one of the waiters to bring them some wine. "Well, I would be a horrible host if I turned down a beautiful woman such as yourself."
"I am glad that you don't seem like a horrible host," Anna grinned. The waiter brought them their wine. Joshua took a glass and sipped it.
Show time.
As he drank, Anna smiled a fuller smile, the kind that made people smile themselves. The kind that made anyone happy. She also crossed her legs.
"So what does owning a casino all entail? Is it very profitable?" Anna said as she sipped her own wine.
For the next hour, Anna and Joshua chatted at the table on the main floor. All the while, Anna made sure to smile her signature smile when ever Joshua took a drink and at the same time she would always uncross, and recross her legs.
Whenever Joshua's wine glass ran empty, Anna was always ready to order him another. The way he took it without complaint told her she was doing a good job.
Now for the next phase.
Anna's cellphone began to ring. As planned, Gaius was calling her. Anna picked it up, with an apologetic look towards Joshua, and Gaius said, "Begin phase two. Reel in the fish."
Anna held her hand up to the speaker of the phone and leaned forward to Joshua, "It's my ex-boyfriend. I'm going to have to deal with this. He's such an asshole, always calling me. Tell you what, I'm in room three-two-seven, drop if you're bored." Anna winked and like a cat slinked away.
"So I'm an asshole, huh?" Gaius chuckled.
"Maybe. Though we haven't dated, so you can't be my ex-boyfriend," Anna chuckled, maintaining an unhappy face despite her amusement.
"Alright. Head to your room, Red. You know what to do," Gaius hung up.
Anna continued on, still holding the phone up to her ear.
Cross Casino: Main Floor
Frederick Quinn
Frederick straightened his white bowtie as he walked toward the mark. Joshua Cross was just finishing off his glass of wine. It was good that Cross was such a heavy drinker. And that he could hold his liquor.
And Frederick put a bit of powder in each glass that made it addictive. So that could be why he kept drinking the glasses as they came.
Details.
"More wine, sir?" Frederick said with a butler's posture.
Cross nodded and reached for the glass on the serving tray. As he did that, Frederick reached his hand over to Cross' waist and lifted his smartphone off of him.
Frederick walked away, phone in hand. Cross wouldn't notice it missing for at least a few minutes. Hopefully.
As Lissa had told him, he plugged in a small device to its charging outlet. "Lissa, do your thing," he said calmly into the com link.
"Aye-aye, cap'n!"
What Lissa was doing, was disabling the security measures on the phone. Then she was going to clone it to a phone on her end, and reinstall the security to make it look as though it hadn't been tampered with.
"You have maybe two minutes. Three if we're lucky. Alcohol will only do so much, after all, we didn't want him utterly drunk," Frederick warned. "He's paranoid about that phone."
Lissa didn't respond, she was probably too distracted by her hacking.
One minute passed…
Then two…
Three…
"Lissa, finish it!" Frederick whispered urgently.
"Done! Go!"
Frederick pulled the device out of the charging port and walked very quickly back toward the mark, weaving in and out of the many people.. As he approached Cross, he saw the man move a hand subconsciously to his back pocket of his suit pants. When he didn't feel his phone, he immediately perked up.
"Frederick, fumble!" Gaius said urgently through the com link.
A fumble. Would it work?
Cross began looking around his chair for his phone. Frederick finally arrived at his destination and bent down by the chair, "Sir, did you drop this?" Out of Joshua's vision, he set the phone on the ground and after a quick moment picked it up and held it out to his 'boss.'
Frederick was no Grifter, his acting skills were severely lacking. There was a reason he always played the butler. Would Cross buy it? Would he catch on? Would he-
"Thank you. What is your name?" Cross said, pocketing the phone. He kept his hand near it though.
"Quinn, sir."
Frederick mentally slapped himself. Why didn't he think of a fake name!?
"Thank you Quinn. Now go fetch me another glass of wine," Cross grinned.
"Of course sir."
Crisis averted.
Cross Casino: Main Floor
Virion Chandler
Virion straightened his cravat. "My move," he whispered with a slight smile.
Virion approached Joshua Cross and sat down where Anna had sat an hour or two ago. He gave Cross a smile.
Cross eyed him warily. The alcohol hadn't destroyed his senses yet, "Can I help you?"
Virion smiled, "Why yes, my good man. I'm looking for my significant other, Anna Cassidy. And since it's your job to know everything that goes on here, I was hoping you could tell me where she was."
Cross leaned forward, alert, "Significant other? You mean girlfriend?"
"If that's how you want to put it, yes," Virion shrugged.
"You're her ex-boyfriend?" Cross said, slightly angry.
Virion threw on a puzzled look, "If you want to be technical, I suppose, but she's just going through a phase. It'll work out."
Cross shook his head. He motioned to the nearest butler, "Quinn! Please take this guy somewhere out of sight. He's going to cause a disturbance, and you know we don't tolerate that, right?"
Quinn, or rather Frederick, nodded and smirked, "Come on you, let's get you somewhere…more comfortable." Frederick cracked his knuckles and grabbed Virion by the arm.
Out of his peripheral vision, Virion saw Cross get up and head to the hotel part of the casino.
Perfect.
Cross Casino: Hotel Section
Anna Cassidy
"Status update?" Anna said into the com link.
"Everyone is in position. Freddy Bear is carrying Ruffles out. Freddy Bear'll double back. Distract Cross for only a short time. I'm almost ready to throw the manual switch. Buy me a minute or two if you can."
"Got it," Anna said and went back to applying the finishing touches to her make up.
There was a knock on the door. Anna sighed, then threw on her flirtatious look and opened the door.
Joshua Cross stood there with a smirk on his face.
And a gun in his hand.
"May I come in?" Joshua said with a grin and walked in.
"What the hell are you pointing a gun at me for!?" Anna screamed.
Joshua laughed, "You thought I was so stupid, didn't you? You thought you could fool me, didn't you?"
Cross pushed Anna further into the room. Three men came in, one held Lucia in a choke hold. Another held Virion in a similar manner while the last had an unconscious Frederick.
"I've known Ms. Devereau was a traitor for a long time now. And the signs were there for me to pick up that the rest of you were working with her. I am quite observant," Joshua said confidently.
The fire alarm went off. The crimelord's body guards jumped a bit, but Joshua waved them down and spoke into a handheld radio, "They're trying to distract us. Grab the one who set it off, let the civilians get out though." Joshua motioned to the bed, "Sit down, Anna dear."
Anna sat down. Frederick was set down on the bed alongside her and his captor held a gun to his head.
"So, every HBI team is made up of six people. I have four here, one upstairs at the fire alarm and your Hacker is probably off site. I suppose I can settle for five out of six," Joshua chuckled. "That's eighty-three percent."
Another one of Cross' goons came through the door holding a beat up Gaius. He was out cold.
"Who's the Mastermind?" Joshua asked, waving his gun back a forth past the conscious people.
Knowing there'd be consequences if none of them answered, Anna raised a hand, "Me."
Cross laughed, "You should be a Grifter my dear, you're very adept at it. Now why are you gunning for me?"
Anna took a deep breath, "We're here to find out who you've told your blackmail material on Gangrel to." There was no point in lying. Not at this point.
Joshua laughed, "Wouldn't you like to know."
"Mr. Cross," came a new voice.
Joshua jerked his head back and forth, and his eyes finally settled on the TV. A redheaded woman was on the TV screen wearing sunglasses.
"Who the hell are you?" Joshua asked. He pointed the gun at the TV, but then realized it wouldn't do anything so he let it drop.
"Wouldn't you like to know," she said with a cold impersonation of Cross. "It doesn't matter Cross, I'd answer the lady's question."
Joshua laughed, "Why should I? I'd bet my favorite hat you have nothing up your sleeve."
The woman on the TV screen chuckled, "In precisely twenty seconds, you will hear an explosion. It's what I like to call a warning shot. Ten seconds."
"What are you talking about-" Cross was cut off.
BOOM!
An extremely loud explosion sounded not too far away. Anna felt the room shake a bit.
"Did you hear that Mr. Cross? That was the sound of your main floor exploding. Don't worry, it was very flashy. Good thing the fire alarm is going off," the woman grinned.
"You have my attention," Joshua snarled.
"I have two more bombs. One is inside your personal office. The other is inside you casino and personal vault. By the way, you should have upgraded the security, it was easy to break into. Sorry, off track. With one click of a button, I will blow all your computer data and money to bits," the woman smirked.
Joshua shook his head, "That's my physical money. I have plenty of bank accounts."
The woman, who seemed to be sitting in a chair, leaned back and chuckled, "Well, you would if I hadn't hacked and cloned your phone. Stealing your passwords and data was easy, and robbing you took one click of a button."
Joshua's eyes flared as he quickly took out his phone and began tapping the touch screen furiously. He gave a roar of outrage and shot several bullets out of his gun into the floor. "When did you…dammit, the waiter right? I should have seen that."
The woman laughed, "You crimelords are so easy to con. Everything is about the money. And you think no one will ever steal from you because 'they wouldn't dare, or else.'"
"What do you want," Cross said slowly.
"I want you to answer Anna's question. And I will warn you, I know if you're lying," she said seriously.
Joshua opened his mouth, then closed it. He turned back to the TV with a smirk, "You've forgotten something. I have powerful friends. They can restore my accounts to what they were for this information. You have no hold over me."
The redhead on the TV burst out laughing, "That implies Robin Sterling gives a shit about you. Yes, I know who he is. You think the Traitor of the YIA can be trusted? He once was the most adept agent in SHEPHERD, and look at him now. Most dangerous man in the world. Shepherd's most wanted."
"Our types stick together," Joshua said through gritted teeth.
"Since your pathetic brain can't handle it, let me put it in an analogy. You are a caterpillar, Sterling is a Hawk. He doesn't even waste time with you, he eats the people who eat you. You're nothing."
"S-shut up!" Joshua shouted.
Anna hid a smile. She always knew Morgan could be an excellent Grifter. This was her first life or death test after all.
"And one more thing," Morgan chuckled.
"What?" Cross snarled angrily.
"You should have just answered Anna's question," Morgan just shook her head. "In our business, one learns to watch their back very quickly. And you wouldn't last very long," Morgan said smugly.
Joshua Cross swore and turned around to find several men in suits pointing guns at him and his men.
"You done goofed," chuckled Mark Strife. And he fired.
?
Robin Sterling
"Is it done?" Robin said.
Brady Jensen, more commonly known as Pandemonium, nodded, "You bet your boots it is. Plegia City is mine t' control. Not even Erk coulda stopped me."
Sterling smirked, "Excellent. Now tell me, what do you know of the SHEPHERD List?"
The Big Bang Job
Mission: Accomplished
Author Notes: This chapter started off so-so, but I like how it turned out. And we have the introduction of the Anti-Kellam squad! Two of four bumbling idiots that'll be reoccurring and might actually accomplish something, I don't know. I put those two in here on impulse, we'll see how it goes.
Now, Neuro Linguistics Reprogramming. Anyone who watched Leverage knows this, and I don't remember how or when it is explained so I believe I got it right. But this legitimately works, anchoring an emotion to an action. For example, I might be reading a book. Now I read this book late at night when I'm very tired. I go back to reread it, and I feel tired! The feeling of tiredness is anchored to reading the book. If any of this interests you, go look up more about it! Or if you're an expert, please correct me!
On July 31st, Sanity is not what it's meant to be had its birthday. It has gotten 24k views in a year. I never expected it to be so popular. So if you haven't ever read it, go check out the first chapter. And if you have read it, go back and read it for old time's sake. You are excellent readers, and I am so glad to have you all reading my fics.
If you like The Last Story, I posted a oneshot for a friend! Go check it out! Also, in the coming days I'm going to post a tLS story that is a collection of oneshots that I'll write when I'm bored. Impossible Emblem and every FE story I write are my priorities. I am not abandoning them.
Aslo! I have a new poll on my profile! I got bored of the old one, and if you want to know the results of the last one, PM me.
"We live to make the impossible possible! That is our focus!"
-Lightning
WAIT! THERE'S MORE!
Sneak Peek: Job #3
The Outside Man Job
"Stef, I've been sitting in the shadows too long. It was kindness, but now I'm bored of these games," Robin Sterling said, leaning back in his chair on the computer screen.
"What are you saying?" Stefan said angrily.
"I'm going to bomb a fully loaded Ylissean passenger jet in seventeen hours unless you give me the SHEPHERD List," Robin said, looking more interested in his nails he was examining than the conversation. "And don't think of calling in tons of Agents. I'll be at the Central Ylissian Airport, Terminal One. But if I see any of your agents besides the ones in this room, I'll blow up the entire airport. So only Faraday's team, those two agents over there and yourself."
Stefan glanced between Henry and Cordelia and said sarcastically, "Is that all?"
Sterling laughed, "No. This time you won't be going up against any of my lackeys Stef. This time, it's me and you. Face to face. Toe to toe. I'll be out in the open. So try and stop me."
