So this my first shot at writing Fanfic period, it'll be rough, messy and mainly stream of consciousness.

That's why I've decided to go for this fandom first it seems easy enough to dip my toes into to measure myself as a writer (and hopefully have something to look back and at how bad I was)

Reflections_

Henry Stickmin was a thief, in fact some might say he was a Pure-Blooded thief, and he knew that more than anyone. He's looked out for himself for so long that he doesn't look back when he betrayed Ellie at the Wall, nor did he blink when stealing the Romanian Ruby.

But sometimes he cares, like when he listened to that awkward Government pilot who helped him Infiltrate the Toppats Airship, or assists that red-headed stranger in fleeing from the Complex.

As he sits in his office aboard the Stickmin Space Resort, he wonders how he ended up here, not in the literal sense he knows that story all to well, but how he ended up staring into space reflecting about how his life had gone so far.

When he broke into that bank he had been strapped for cash, barely making ends meet with a terrible job with colleagues he barely tolerated so on a whim, with what little money and favours he had available to him, he hatched a plan but then the world went weird on him.

It started six years into his prison sentence at West Mesa Penitentiary with the delivery of a package, it was innocent at first but that had been Henry's first clue that something was off, he didn't have that many friends that would have sent him something nor did he have any family to care about him. His Second and most damning clue was just how easy it was to escape, no way was nobody notified of his escape and even if they weren't surely someone found his empty cell.

After confirming his theory by watching BCC news for the rest of the week and not spotting any sign of a public manhunt or just a Police helpline for concerned citizens to call should they spot him, he tried to go back to a normal life but without a job he was stuck, again but even worse this time. Interview after Interview failed, eventually he'd need some money so he started robbing small time shops

"This is temporary" he told himself, "just until I find a job." He knew now that he was just trying to justify his actions and it became a moot point after he spotted the opening of Tunisian Archeology exhibit while Channel surfing.

After blasting through the museum on his trusty scooter, grabbing the diamond and, unfortunately taking his first life (no wonder Major Panzer always hated his guts whenever he went this way) he made his way to the old freeway just outside of town where he faked his death for the first time by falling into the river below.

Not long after that, though thankfully long enough he was able to sell the damn rock, he was Kidnapped and forced to work with millitary to find some evidence to put away the 'Notorious' Toppat clan ("please those arseholes are not Notorious in the slightest, just a bunch of theives putting on airs") but they'd offered him a pardon if he helped them out so he'd at least listened to the speech the Captain gave and tried to block out the annoying gguard.

After asking 'Charlie' to hand him the Grappel gun and putting on his earpiece he found himself on the Airship.

Finding the evidence hadn't been hard at all, they'd kept details of pretty much everything they did, but the voice in the back of his head kept warning that this was too easy; there were no alarms, no near misses and any Toppat patrol was easily out manoeuvred or taken care of, but he paid it little mind: he had a job, Charles was pretty cute behind all that stuttering and rambling and most importantly he had no crimes to his name.

He should have known it wouldn't have lasted because somehow while he was on mission in Canada he'd found himself knocked out and when he'd woken up it was to bound hands and a face full of Russian.

He'd listened to his gut this time and looked out for himself, somehow he knew playing dead wouldn't work and without any access to a phone he couldn't call for help so that left trusting the red-headed stranger to his right or running and possibly getting shot, his mind then had conjured an image of getting gunned down not to far down the hall. So that left the stranger, after getting her to help him up into the ducts he'd made the choice to look after himself, he didn't know how handy and how easy it would be with Ellie by his side at the time, after that is was a hop, skip and a jump to freedom.

Fully weirded out by how easy it was to escape such a place, he managed to sneak back home to some normalness but after a couple of months of playing video games and otherwise having fun by himself, he'd noticed a call on his comms device from Captain Canterbury regarding the Toppats at their (very comfortable and spacious) rocket base they planning on setting up.

Getting to the Dogobogo Jungle had been the hardest part of the experience, though thankfully it had only cost him calling in a favour from Charles, though not the weirdest that, was when he was about to crash into the mountain side leading to the launch site when he suddenly felt himself shrink down one side and grow back to normal size on the other. After fitting himself into a cooler and, thankfully, being placed on board he got out the SuccPack he brought along in order to steal, or as the General later claimed 'reapproiprate', every last thing not nailed down. Calling Charles and telling informing him that he'd "cleaned 'em out", Charles them passed Henry's message along and the Toppats were squarely rounded up in a matter of hours.

After falling asleep on the cot that had been provided for him when needed on standby for a job, he noticed a scorching heat that could only come from the desert. He had shouted and screamed till his lungs burnt themselves out with excessive use when he realised he found his way back in to that prison and what was worse was that Rupert hadn't recognised him, hadn't called him such horrible names that became so much Background noise when he hung out with Charles 'round the base.

After he realised that he'd time traveled he had tried to explore what that meant for him, he found different things in that cake with each item either helping him escape or somehow getting him killed (he shuddered as he remembered the first time he used that damn teleporter).

After that life became much simpler, now he knew why he'd passed every obstacle with relative ease, so when he found staring at the Airship again he decided to care about himself some more and steal that Ruby, when he found himself back at the Wall instead of being selfish he helped Ellie up, by the time they'd gotten to the rocket he and Ellie had discovered that the Military had conducted some sort of raid, which while they weren't part of any faction they had gone there to join with the Toppats only he'd heard Charles call out to him at the very end, he still got his pardon out of it.

But once again he found himself in West Mesa so he managed to conclude that his path in changes depending how he acts at the Airship and in the Wall.

So over and over he went, sometimes he joined the Toppats others he took out their second in command and escaped with their leader in tow, once he managed to steal a solid gold safe with nothing but a Teddy bear inside (Price hadn't been to happy with that one)

And when he got to the wall he was not that comfortable around Ellie to help her escape again so he managed ,after several tries, he finally managed to escape the Wall by faking his death once again.

Last time... last time he'd managed to sneak a laser grid into the wall and stole the phone from a guard standing directly underneath him (who had been flattened by stone slab that had been cut out) and Reginald for some assistance breaking out but when he'd managed to get to the Airship, Reginald had decided to betray him letting him fall into the icy water below, he had gotten his Revenge thanks to Dr.Vinschpinsilstein and her Cybernetic replacments/Enhancements but not before Reg had put a bullet through his enhanced spine causing it to wreck his life support systems and causing them to fail leaving him dead on a no name hill in the middle of the Jungle

After he came to in his cell at West Mesa he made the decision to have a break, so he came up with his greatest plan to date: The Stickmin Space Resort.

The plan had been simple steal the Ruby from the Toppats and go through the excruciating pain of trying to dodge bullets he couldn't even see, then after couple of weeks after news of his death died down he'd assault the rocket and launch it, his first hurdle in the plan had been employment but thankfully some Toppat members who were lazing around the place or had otherwise seeing to engineering tasks had been on board.

His second hurdle surprised him when he managed to get the station up and running : Advertising

Some of the guests that came up to him thought that reforming the Toppats had been his toughest task, that was simple: Work for me or I will beam you directly down into the middle of the Wall

Advertising had been his hardest struggle by far, how did he let the people on Earth know that the Resort was there? Simple in hindsight, do what other Resort locations do, pay for TV spots, take out Ads in newspapers and on websites he had plenty of Revenue to spend on these things after all.

He noticed he'd come full circle wondering why he was staring out into space alone. Wouldn't it be more fun with someone he could trust to take over for a bit if he needed to relax, that was the whole point in this place after all.

Maybe he should help Charles again or find a way to steal all the Toppats gold with Ellie, maybe join the Toppats as he had planned to all those years ago

"Huh didn't notice how tired I was, I'll think better when I've had some sleep" He yawned, mouth stretched open as he clumsily made his way to the Bed that was stretched out along side the wall opposite the window he had just been staring out of "Next time I wake up at West Mesa, I think I'll help out Charles again" yeah that sounded fun, " I wonder if I can convince him let me wear those headphones of his" *snort* "I'd have more luck introducing him to Burt than touching those things"

The first thing he felt as he woke was the harsh rays of the sun and the heat of the desert...