AN: So here in this chapter we are introducing the villains of this arc. Big thanks to the usual suspects for reviewing the last chapter, NeoTyson, Highlander, Kobevilla, Celgress, and Jakeros.

Chapter 2

The Sun was setting in Manhattan. The glowing orange ball moving on to light the great cities in the west, and in Asia. The light from the city kept it visible for the people who lived there though.

On the eastern shore of the islands, a shipping port began its shift change from the daytime workers to the night time workers. On top of a nearby building outside of the fenced in port, three men stood in black outfits. Balaclavas hid their faces, and multi-spectrum goggles rested on their foreheads. They all had vests and backpacks with various pieces of equipment, and a few weapons. The only distinguishing feature on them was a green diamond on their shoulders.

"Is everyone in position?" Came the voice of Signal over the voice over Hangman's radio. A series of 'rogers' emanated across the net.

The Jade Syndicate was an international theft ring that targeted anything valuable that could be sold. The unique feature of the Jade Syndicate was it operated on a commission basis, and actually paid a very fair price. Specialists were pulled from various organizations into the Syndicate, and were sent where they needed for whatever job they were hired for. The common thread is that all of these people had is that they no longer believed in the cause that originally signed up for and now wanted to look out for themselves. No one knew each other's real names for security.

Hangman was a former Hydra Paramilitary Officer. His job was to lead the team and liquidate any witnesses that would be a problem. He knew that Signal was a hacker of some sort, offsite, and provided feedback on police and security response, as well as shut down electrical systems, and scramble any alarms that might go out. Dragon spoke with an Asian accent, and was a break in specialist, and could use anything from lock picks to breaching charges to open anything from a sliding door to a bank vault. Hefty was a massive 6'3 man who seemed like he was the strong-arm type, but was actually a mechanic and wheelman.

"Move out." Hangman ordered.

The three Syndicate thieves began to crawl down the emergency exit. Swiftly they moved in an organized fashion. When they hit the ground, they moved through the darkness provided by the shadow of the building to the fence line. The barb wire on top of the fence would keep the average person from getting over the top, but Dragon came prepared. From a pouch on his vest, he pulled out a small can of liquid nitrogen.

Dragon began to spray a line straight down the fence about three feet off the ground. The nitrogen settled on the chain link, and froze. Dragon put the canister away and pulled on one side of the fence. The fence pulled away an opening large enough for the team to slip though. When Dragon went through last, the fence slapped back into place, leaving little evidence of the intrusion that would only be spotted by an extremely observant individual.

Hangman, Hefty, and Dragon moved across the road they were in to a warehouse on the edge of the waterfront. The warehouse was similar to that of an aircraft hangar, with to large doors that open on the end, with a few side doors for personnel at various points on the side. Dragon made it to the door and pulled out a bump key and a tension wrench from a lock pick set. 15 seconds later there was a click in the door.

"We're in the warehouse." Hangman said into his mic.

"The internal camera's show two rent-a-cops." Signal stated.

Hangman pulled a FN Five-seveN Pistol from a thigh holster and went through the door. He cleared the way as the others followed behind him. The scaffolding made a series of aisles that stretched up 20 feet. Light strips hung on chains above even the tops of the scaffolds, illuminating the inside of the warehouse. The main aisles running down the center and side to side were wider than the rest, and were where the port authority police were, chatting about what they were going to do for diner.

The Syndicate operatives approached the sound of the voices. As they neared the end of the aisle, Hangman held up a fist to indicate to the rest of the team to stop. He crouched down and peaked around the corner of the corner of the aisle and located the two guards. He then pulled back, and pulled out a flash grenade from his pouch, similar to a flashbang, but without the noise. Hangman didn't want to have anyone running over to the warehouse.

"Kill the power to the building. Six seconds." Hangman ordered Signal.

Hangman tossed the flash grenade. Five seconds later the grenade went off. One second after that, the power went out. Hangman, Hefty, and Dragon pulled their goggles down and moved into the main aisle where their night vision allowed them to see the two security guards were flailing around, shouting. Dragon moved up behind one, grabbed his arm, twisted it, and tossed the guard over by tripping his leg. From that position he bent his arm behind the guard. Hefty just put the other guard in a bear hug with his arms behind his back.

"Power on." Hangman ordered.

Signal turned the light back on remotely. The two guards were unable to resist as Hangman pulled out flex cuffs, duct tape, and head bags. The guards were left immobile, blind, and gaged. Hangman may have been willing to use violence at any moment, but took precautions to prevent deaths and identification in his operations. Theft only earned a few detectives on a case. Murder attracted a lot more police resources. Masks were also a great way to keep their identity safe in the event that the guards did see them, though the flash grenade followed by immediate darkness probably made that impossible.

"Get the statues." Hangman ordered.

The three thieves pulled hard cases filled with foam from their backpacks. They each went their own way into the aisles to get various pieces of art from a shipment that arrived at the port this morning. Hangman arrived at his spot in front of a box about the size of n end table. He pulled out a knife out of his vest and pried off the front, revealing a small cat statue nestled in packing straw. The gilded statue had ruby eyes, and was valued at $12 Million. Hangman wasn't an art collector though, so he just put the cat in the bag.

The three men in black moved back to the center of the warehouse seconds later. "Good?" asked Hangman.

"Good." Said Dragon in his heavy Asian accent.

"Good." Hefty said.

The three went to the back of the warehouse. Dragon opened the door and Hefty went first. Hangman and Dragon followed him to a recreational submersible under a tarp on the waterfront that Hefty had staged prior to the theft. The three men pulled small oxygen bottles fitted with mouth pieces out of their vests.

"Where at the submersible." Hangman said into the radio before putting the canister in his mouth. This would be his last update before the three met up with Signal at the safehouse to turn over the statues to the Jade Syndicate broker.

They jumped into the water. Hefty got into the cockpit while Hangman and Dragon clipped carabiners to the side and grabbed onto handles. When they were situated, Hefty turned on the propellers, and dove beneath the surface. The theft took less than 4 minutes.

AN: So like in the last arc, I pulled the Jade Syndicate from an existing group of bad guys. The Jade Syndicate played a minor role in the Spider Man video game that was on the N64 and the PlayStation. I haven't seen hide nor hair of them since, which is a shame because they could be used in really cool ways. Either as a sophisticated heist crew, or as hires for corporate espionage, or even as an annoyance to other organizations such as HYDRA or ULTIMATUM. I don't know. But I'm using them here in the fashion where they were used in the games a very talented and capable thieves and robbers.