Thank you turquoisesunset, TheRealDreadPirateRoberts and Casual Nerd for reviewing! To answer your question Casual Nerd and TheRealDreadPirateRoberts… he'll be here. And there's a reason he hasn't really been mentioned yet, and that's like the only thing I know about this story's plot. Alright! Well, I own nothing except a dysfunctional computer.
Race crept up the stairs, making sure that he couldn't be seen by anyone. It was really easy, with his mutation. It made doing stuff Jack wouldn't necessarily want him to do much easier. And this was probably something Jack didn't want him to do. Race quietly climbed out of the window and sprinted down the street.
The invisible boy ended up in a neighborhood right outside the factory zone. It wasn't any nicer though. Most of the houses were older and had broken windows and a few broken walls. If people saw Race, they probably wouldn't be happy with him, a stranger, being there. He made sure his invisibility was still fully on before proceeding further into the area towards another small house.
If you looked at the house briefly, it would look no different than any of the other houses- run down, broken and dirty, with a gaping hole instead of a door. But if you looked slightly closer, you'd see how the holes looked more strategically placed than anything else, and how closely a group sitting in lawn chairs across the street were watching it. One of them, a tall woman with a black coat, stood up and walked over to Race as he got closer. "Who are you?" she hissed, and flicked her tongue, which looked almost forked. Cobra was one of the only people invisibility didn't work on, as she could "taste" people using her snake mutation.
"Race," Race said, flickering into sight. "The King wants to see me." Cobra looked at one of her partners, a lovely man called Brainwave, who gestured uncaringly. Cobra smiled.
"Alright then, Race." She waved him towards the building. Race saluted her before taking a deep breath and walking through the-place-where-a-door-should-be and into the Castle.
The only thing directly inside was another door, tucked into a far wall in the one room shack. The door opened into a dark, wooden staircase that led into a bright room filled with mutants. All of them were sitting on couches or chatting next to the walls. Some of them had visible mutations, like the man with three extra eyes or the woman with two arms that shouldn't be there. The rest of them had power mutations which could, for the most part, be concealed, and those were the ones Race watched most warily as he walked through the room. No one took any notice of the small blond boy who flickered in and out of sight as he moved. He walked silently through another door guarded by two masked figures, this one leading into a much darker, quieter space. The only person in there was a young man, sitting on a low couch. He sighed loudly as Race flickered back into sight. "Honestly, what am I paying my guards for if a runt can just walk in?"
"You know I'm good at sneaking," Race retorted. "That's why I'm here, ain't it?" While maybe it would be smart to pay a little respect to the King, who controlled the most dangerous mutant gang in the city, Race and this guy had history. He felt completely- or almost completely- comfortable around him. But only an idiot would feel completely comfortable around the man who could, with a thought, drop you into the center of the Earth.
The King stood up. "Well, how'd you know? I got a job for you tonight, Racer. There's this lady, and she ain't paid me in almost a week, even though she owes me $200!"
"Imagine that." Race muttered. He didn't like where this was going. Stuff like this usually came close to breaking his 'I don't hurt anyone' rule. That was one of the only conditions to this deal he'd made when he joined.
"I know! After all I did for her, not taking her daughter when she developed her gift… well, I need that money! So I had Brainwave send a message to my favorite little thief, and now he's going to take what's mine."
"Sure. No one gets hurt?"
The King grinned. "If it's avoidable. Go outside. You'll be going with Cobra so she can keep watch. She'll give you other details when you get to the place."
Race groaned inwardly. He hated Cobra. He'd done stuff with her before, and she was creepy and uncooperative. "Whatever, Spotty," he called over his shoulder as he turned to leave.
The room suddenly shook violently, and Race was knocked to the ground. It felt like the walls were collapsing, but he forced himself not to show fear. He knew all about what Spot could do. When the shaking stopped, Race opened his eyes to see the King glaring at him. "Don't call me that," he growled. "Ever. Do you understand?" Race nodded, pushing himself off the floor and making sure he got to the bright room before his mouth could get him into any more trouble.
In the first room, the mutants were still chatting casually, very much used to the earthquakes by now. "What'd you do this time, Racer?" someone asked from beside him. A teenage girl was standing there, giving him her infamous 'If you get me killed, I'll be irritated' look.
"Same old, same old Dollhouse." Race tiredly said. Dollhouse had one of the creepiest mutations of anyone here- the power to bring dolls to life briefly. Possibly because of that, she was the youngest person here except Race, and was mostly here for the money. For all of their faults, this gang did do one thing right- they took in mutant kids with no homes and raised them. Raised them to fight other gangs and to break laws, but they were still raised. Since most kids didn't have a factory to hide in, they needed that. Dollhouse was one of these "recruits", even though she never said why she didn't have parents.
"Good luck tonight," Dollhouse told Race as he headed for the exit. Cobra was standing outside of the house, looking bored. "Let'ssss get this over with," she hissed, the very definition of a creepy snake villain. The snake woman and the invisible boy ran through the shadows until they had left the broken-down area and entered an area for the more middle-class people.
"Go up to that window," Cobra quietly ordered, pointing up to a second floor window on a white house with a flower garden in front. "That'll lead you to a sssspare bedroom for the kid they're expecting. No one'ssss in there now." Oh great. Race thought about adding a new rule to his list: No robbing pregnant woman. He silently climbed up the windowsill, until he reached the window. Honestly though, who promises a dangerous man money, doesn't pay it, and sleeps with the windows unlocked and with no alarm system? He climbed into the room, which was painted green and had a half-constructed crib in one corner. A few moments later, Cobra tumbled in through the window. She gestured towards the door leading into a wide hall, lined with doors.
The two thieves crept down the stairs and into the kitchen, where Cobra stood in the doorway and gestured towards a cabinet. Race crept towards it invisibly, trying to stay out of view of the only security camera in the house built above it out of habit. He silently opened the door, making sure he stayed in the blind spot, and saw a stack of ten dollar bills, about $190 in total. He was about to close the door and make his exit when a little girl, maybe five or six, walked into the kitchen. Race froze when he saw her, and the cabinet door slammed shut. The girl stared at it for a few seconds, before screaming. A burst of light struck right next to Race's head.
Race ducked instinctively, letting his invisibility drop for one second. The girl screamed even louder at the sight of a stranger in her kitchen at night, and more beams of light, shaped like daggers, hurled out of empty space at Race's head. Silently Cobra stepped out of the shadows, her dark eyes glinting. She grabbed the girl and opened her mouth. Fangs appeared, prompting further screaming from the girl. "No!" Race yelled, right before two women ran in, one of them heavily pregnant and the other holding a gun. This was going really well.
The pregnant woman started screaming when she saw the woman with fangs holding her daughter, but the other quickly pointed the gun at Cobra's head. "I told you, I'll get you the money!" she screamed. "Let Evan go!" The little girl had stopped crying, her eyes wide with fear. Race hurriedly started quietly opening drawers, looking for something to use to escape… he found a knife. Hating himself, Race flickered into view, holding a knife to the pregnant woman's throat. Everyone in the room froze, but Cobra nodded at Race approvingly.
"Please!" Race begged. "Just… let us leave. No one has to get hurt. Just tell your daughter to let us leave!" The woman with the gun stared at him for a second. Race could see how tired she was and how she just wanted to keep her family safe. Race could understand that. Slowly the woman lowered the gun.
"It's alright, Evan," she called to the trembling little girl. "Let them leave." Slowly, Race and Cobra let go of their hostages and backed out towards the window. Race heard someone sob as he ran up the stairs and climbed out of the same window he came in.
The walk back to the Castle was silent. When they arrived outside the shack, Cobra briefly actually smiled at Race. "You did good, kid," she hissed before taking her place back with the guards across the street. Race huffed, walking inside and down to Spot's room.
"Why didn't you tell me the girl was a Knifelight?"
Spot blinked at him from his couch-throne. "You didn't ask. Did you get the money?"
"Why is that important? We could've died!"
"Did. You. Get. My. Money?"
Race laughed, throwing the money at Spot. "Next time, give me a bit more information, Ok?" Spot shrugged, flipping through the bills. A few seconds later he looked up, eyes flashing.
"The lady owes me 200 dollars, and this is only 190."
Race suddenly realized how the room was shaking- not enough to be dangerous but certainly getting there. "That was all that was there. There was no other cash in the house." Well, he hadn't looked the most thoroughly but Spot didn't have to know that.
"Well, I guess you gotta go back and make them give you that ten dollars."
Race sighed angrily. He hated having to do this. "I can just get you the money tomorrow after work. I'm tired and I want to go home."
Spot shook his head. "Ah, Racer, it's not just about the money! These people and I made a deal, and they need to learn to uphold it."
"I'm the one who screwed up, and I'll get you the money!" Spot looked at the teen for another minute before nodding. The room's slow shaking stopped.
"Sure. Get me that money by five p.m. tomorrow, and I'll let it slide for the women. This time." Race nodded, eager to get home before a long day tomorrow. Spot gestured for him to leave, which Race did, avoiding everyone in the main room and turning on his invisibility after he left the house.
Race hated having to work for Spot, but the gang leader knew about all of it- the factory, the kids, all of their mutations- and he'd taken an interest in the possibility in all of their powers, but especially Romeo. The little boy could make anyone give him everything, a useful addition to a gang's weapons. So Race had agreed to join the gang and steal stuff for them for free, on one condition- none of the kids in the factory ever know or get recruited. He'd been doing this for almost seven months, and while it made him really tired on the days after he met with Spot, Jack and the others still hadn't caught him yet. Race would prefer to keep it that way.
Race climbed in through the factory window and crept to his sleeping bag on the first floor. As he fell asleep, he wondered briefly if the loss of ten dollars would hurt the kids too much. Probably not, but he'd work harder for the next few days to make up for it.
That was… a thing. That was mostly just filler, but it may be important later? Maybe? I love constructive criticism, questions and plot suggestions because this story is super odd! Later potaters!