This chapter is for Mistrel Fox and her request for a Dylan centered chapter. It's a bit different, but I hope you all enjoy it. :)
Category: Gen
Setting: Pre-NYSM
Characters/Pairings: Dylan Shrike
Rating/Warnings: K+
Summary: No one in the Eye was chosen at random and Dylan Shrike had been on their radar for quite some time.
Disclaimer: Neither Now You See Me or its characters belong to me.
Justice
No one in the Eye was chosen at random. Each and every one where carefully selected after months of careful study, both through the records and on the street. Many who studied the Eye without knowing of its continued existence believed the requirements to be considered as a future member where many and that only the select few were permitted to join. They were half right. Only a select few were permitted to join, but there weren't many requirements. There were only two: first, they had to be the best of the best of the best in their style of magic; and second, they had to believe in justice.
The second requirement was what brought a young Dylan Shrike to their attention. The boy was young, by far one of the youngest they had ever looked at. He wasn't even nineteen yet, but was already a man in his own right. They had watched the son of the great Lionel Shrike be tossed about from foster home to foster home until he ran away at the age of fifteen to become a street magician.
They watched as the young man grew in his skill. He was a jack of all trades, it seemed, and smart. They had seen him painstakingly consider his performance before he ever attempted the first trick. He covered all the loose end without ever seeing the crowd. It was not a step many people, even magicians, thought to take. But what really caught their attention was his sense of right and wrong.
Living on the street is a difficult life for anyone, but especially for one so young. It was no surprise to the Eye when he turned to pickpocketing and the occasional theft of food from smaller convenient stores. What did come as a surprise, however, was when he never kept any of the food completely for himself. Whatever the young Shrike had taken that day was passed around at night to all the others in his position. It wasn't much, but it was more than the wealthy ever did.
And that was why they hadn't even had to think twice about what card Dylan Shrike would find in his jacket pocket that day. He was and always would be Justice.