((Main room of the guild.))

Thieves Inc.

Act 1: 52 Card Pickup

Booker looked around the new room of the New York City base.Subway cars could be heard above them giving away the location. After what had happened before he was not in the mood to have to redo everything. After his last attempt at this he thought it a miracle he could get this going. He was not going to flee and or burn down this guild. Nope not again and he would die before losing everything. Course he did not like thinking about that. Not after all he had lost.

He had just come out of the gym. A ragged and tired looking thing that most would not consider a gym. Booker thought it had style and class. The boxing ring in the center had a bit of emotional significance but that was a story for a later day. His new recruits were coming in today. A strange bunch they were. There was a sort of even number of both genders and none of them were slouches in their fields. A few otf the guys Booker was sort of excited to challenge to a fight. You leanred a lot about a person by fighting them. Though most had the same story or so he thought. Some sort of thing led them to a life of robbery and thus to him. He had personally recruited them himself. In person since he thought that it had been a good touch. None of them had seen his face since he had placed the plague doctor mask over his face. Again he was a bit dramatic but again class and all that.

He sat down behind the bar and started to pour himself a drink. Whiskey on the rocks since it was his favorite. He grabbed a seat by the projector and awaited his new recruits. None of them would know who he was. His mask covered his voice and face rather well. He had told them how to get here. It was simple just follow the red line till they found the location. A non descript door. He would know who they were instantly.

Jacquelyn replayed the visit from the strange masked man in her head. It was an offer for some kind of thief club, she had accepted the offer of course, it was an opportunity she couldn't afford to pass up. Since he had worn a mask she had gotten her own she eyed it with a weary look, she hadn't chosen it to be particularly concealing but now she was having second thoughts. Jacquelyn put the mask in her bag and followed the red line. Eventually she reached a normal-looking door, she approached it cautiously and entered to find a tastefully decorated room. In front of what appeared to be a projector screen sat the same man who had recruited her. Jacquelyn sat in the chair next to him, "I brought a mask but I don't find it necessary to wear it at the moment, though I would like to know if is it required? I didn't wear it because I figured if I can't trust this team with at least my face then I don't think I should be working with them." Jacquelyn wasn't trying to sound harsh but she would not be able to work with people she could not trust, she wasn't going to go around telling them her life story and expect theirs in return but she needed to be some trust between her and the others.

Stiles adjusted his coat so that it covered everything but his chest. His footsteps lowered to a near inaudible tap. A door stood before him, where the red line he had been following for sometime ended. 'Not the most discreet places for a hideout entrance.' Stiles thought to himself. "This guy had better not be a cop." He muttered. Stiles reached for the doorknob surprised that it was unlocked. He walked in seeing two others one sitting, the other with a drink. Stiles approached heavily on guard. The place wasn't half bad, everything looked like it had been carefully picked out. Stiles assumed none of the room's contents had been obtained legally."Afternoon. You know this place isn't very well hidden." He spoke softly. The girl had some sort of mask with her.

Alexis like the others before her was travelling through the sewers following the red line the showed her the way, behind her dragged a cart filled with her personal luggage, though it was a special kind of luggage that she figured the man who asked her to this place would appreciate she brought.
Even while hauling a heavy a cart it didn't take Alexis long to find where she needed to go from the time when she entered the sewers, noticing a man enter through a door in front of her first, she wondered if she was not the only one asked to join this guild of thieves or if people were already working here. "Right, time to go and introduce myself" She smiled to herself as she spoke quietly under her breath, waiting a few moments after the man entered before she decided to go and push the door open and enter herself. Upon entering Alexis noticed that aside from the man she followed, there was a second man and a woman with a mask who appeared to be waiting in the seats. As quietly as she could so not to disturb the silence Alexis pushed the door open more, carefully hauling in her large load behind her and moving off to find a place to store it all. She wanted to make sure it stayed safe and that no one touched it, she hated it when people touched her stuff without asking first since she had worked so hard to putting it all together.

Jason walked the path that had been laid out for him towards the meeting point. 0, 01, 10, 11, 100, 101, 110, 111, 1000. Counting from zero up in binary was just a way he calmed his nerves. Thinking through the masked man's visit he was intrigued by this idea. It was his understanding that he would be working with a team.... that was actually a new concept to him. Frightened by the idea of having his identity open, when he got close to the non descript door, he pulled a mask out of his pocket. He'd gotten it free with the PC version of Call of Duty Ghosts he'd 'bought' and quite loved it. It would be his face for now. Sliding it the rest of the way over his face, he twisted the door knob and walked inside.

So this was the group? A rag tag bunch to say the least. Well when were thieves ever a normal group. If he had done it correctly then there would be a rather good assortment of people. He had hand picked each one for their skills as thieves or in some cases for other reasons. He knew that there was two tech experts, Jason and Alexis. Well according to what he had found that's what he thought. Of course they could be something else but he did not know technology. The rest were each experts as well.Booker had flown around the world to get them here and it showed. A diverse group was what he needed. No one remembered the groups if they were random. A group of sketchy white dudes? Yah people remembered them.

"Of course you do not need the mask right now, Jacquelyn. But is is needed later. I mean mine was custom made." he said taking his plague mask out of a box by his feet. He figured they all would recognize it. He had tracked down those deemed impossible to find. Most had warrents out for their arrests. If Interpol or the CIA could not find you then you were doing something right.

"How do you know this is not secret? That the door you came through is not wired? If I could hunt you all down I am willing to bet I can keep a place hidden. Trust me, Stiles we are safe here." He said using the man's name. Why not he knew them all. He noticed Alexis standing quietly to the side. "Come on over and sit down, Alexis. Oh where are my manners? Any of you want a drink? I am willing to bet the bar has your brand." He offered to them taking a drink as another guy came in. The hacker Jason. He smiled at the guy. "Sit make yourselves at home, Jason" He stood up.

"Alright here is the deal. You all are the best of the best. I need the best. Why? Because I plan on being a rich man and I want to make you all rich too. We steal from the rich and powerful and give to ourselves. Simple really." He motioned to the area around him. "Everything here is state of the art. From the rooms to the gym, everything is the best. Any questions?" He asked looking around.

Jacquelyn hid smile, she began to pick up on their leader's showy attitude. Every thing he said agreed with her, nothing seemed to throw any red flags besides perhaps that he knew their names but that was expected, he had found them so it could only be assumed that he knew more than their names. She decided to test his knowledge, he might have Alexis's favorite drink but she highly doubted he had hers. "I don't have any questions but I could use a drink." She excused her self and after a bit of searching the bar what she found astonished her; a bottle of red wine from the local vineyard she lived by when she was younger. Jacquelyn couldn't help the wide grin that spread across her face, after her move she hadn't been able to secure a single glass. She wasted no time pouring herself some, this man had just earned a good deal of respect from her. Returning to her seat she nodded her approval to the guy. "Great! We all know each others names, except for yours." She glanced up at him hoping to get some information about him.

Stiles cleared his throat. "Alcohol kills." He stated, with honesty. As far as he knew alcoholism ran in his family so he does his best to avoid drinking though he has been tempted to give in to the lust. Stiles ran a hand through his hair, the bar had an extensive variety of drinks but one bottle of vodka caught Stiles' gaze. It was the special brand that his sister used to drink heavily. It was a reserve so the particular brand was difficult to obtain. Stiles waved it off as a random coincidence. "Anyways, how do you plan on operating this little group of ours? Who will be our targets ?" Stiles asked curiously.

TruelyAwakened said
Stiles cleared his throat. "Alcohol kills." He stated, with honesty. As far as he knew alcoholism ran in his family so he does his best to avoid drinking though he has been tempted to give in to the lust. Stiles ran a hand through his hair, the bar had an extensive variety of drinks but one bottle of vodka caught Stiles' gaze. It was the special brand that his sister used to drink heavily. It was a reserve so the particular brand was difficult to obtain. Stiles waved it off as a random coincidence. "Anyways, how do you plan on operating this little group of ours? Who will be our targets ?" Stiles asked curiously.

Sapphire said
Jacquelyn hid smile, she began to pick up on their leader's showy attitude. Every thing he said agreed with her, nothing seemed to throw any red flags besides perhaps that he knew their names but that was expected, he had found them so it could only be assumed that he knew more than their names. She decided to test his knowledge, he might have Alexis's favorite drink but she highly doubted he had hers. "I don't have any questions but I could use a drink." She excused her self and after a bit of searching the bar what she found astonished her; a bottle of red wine from the local vineyard she lived by when she was younger. Jacquelyn couldn't help the wide grin that spread across her face, after her move she hadn't been able to secure a single glass. She wasted no time pouring herself some, this man had just earned a good deal of respect from her. Returning to her seat she nodded her approval to the guy. "Great! We all know each others names, except for yours." She glanced up at him hoping to get some information about him.

He had always been taught that first impressions were everything. What better way than with booze? He had researched each of their favorite drinks and why. However he did not think it his place to say why. For example he had done a bit of research into Stiles' sister but not too much. The guy had earned some privacy when it came to his personal life. Jacquelyn's drink had been a red wine from a vineyard from when she was a child. He had no dug too deep into why and red wines were not his thing. He being uncouth that way. They both had valid questions and required answers. " Who am I you ask? Booker Conway is how you can call me. Mind you that is not my real name but you will have to earn my trust to get my real namer." He said flashing her a winning smile. He thought that the smile was his best trait. He used iut when he was trying to be charming.

He looked at Stiles. "I agree that it kills. However some of us have things we need to forget and it helps. " He said noticing Stiles seeing the vodka he had left out for him. He had not expected him to drink it "There is no honor in robbing the innocent. I plan on taking out the scum of this earth. Taking from the rich taht which they took. Perhaps giving a bit back to the victims. Though the main goal is stealing from the wealthy to teach them a lesson. I operate it as me in charge. I have a plan and we go from there." He said still smiling as he took a drink. "Isn't that what you all stand for? Robbing the rich and powerful?" He asked the group.

Jacquelyn refrained from making a caustic remark about the danger of alcohol, she decided it would be best to avoid the resulting debate altogether. "Well I'd go more with taking what I need and usually way more, but stealing from those who deserve it is fun too." Jacquelyn returned his smile with one of her own, Booker was showy indeed but it was endearing in a funny sort of way, she wasn't about to let his charm get to her head though. "I do love a high and mighty target, you have to shoot higher and harder and when they fall, well it doesn't get much better than that. Any one in particular or are we saving that for later?" Jacquelyn's curiosity was eating away at her.

He had been smart in recruiting Jacquelyn. She had wit to her. That and nt terrible on the eyes.. Not again. His mind yelled at him to stop. he had to keep the Booker persona going. Booker was a show off. A ham sandwich. He was not very good at anything else. if he was discovered then. Well that woud have to wait. He smiled and motioned to the projector. "All in good time. All will be revealed." He looked around at the group. Well they were all here might as well start the preformance. he was waiting on a few.others but he could start. "Well we do have one. Let me introduce you lot to Global Dynamics. A mega corp that trades in what else but black market tech. Weapon shipments, drugs, you name it these lot sell it. GD is a civer story. Problem is that they have massive secrurity. There is only one way in. The front door." He added then turned on the projector. "We have all been invited to a party there. Well our fake names have. We are going to rob them blind during the party." He said smiling. "Course I am just the planner. You guys are going to need to fill in the blanks."

A boy with a mess of hair that hung in front of his face, paced along the red line. He walked with a shy gaunt, looking like he pulled into himself unconsciously. Making himself smaller to be less noticeable. His eyes often darted from place to place, making it obvious he was not at ease and was ready to bolt if he felt threatened. Ashton pulled the mask over his face, leaving only narrowed eyes uncovered. Approaching the end of the line, he saw another man who was just entering. Looking around the man's shoulders he saw more people inside. Ashton patted down his hair, suddenly becoming self-conscious as he grew more nervous. When Jason had went inside, Ashton quickly followed suit. It seemed the man in charge of this had already started talking, Ashton wasn't sure what to do with himself and decided to just stand and listen. He took note of everyone in the huge room.

Just follow the red line... Simple enough. The sound of Eric's thoughts boomed over the passing of the subway cars overhead, mentally repeating the instructions he had been a short time ago. The memory had struck out sporadically and vividly in his mind since, the veiled face of "Booker Conway" imprinted against the backdrop of a burning police cruiser etched into his eyelids and the sound of the distorted voice of the masked man echoing through his ears even when other noise should have drowned it out. Since that days, the words, half instructions to a better way of serving the people and half directions to this new, subterranean abode, were all that Eric could grasp within his thoughts.

"If you want to help the real people and serve true justice, then you'll follow the red line...

There had been further instructions; a penned point-list and map of where to go and how to get there. Eric had set that into the first firing barrel he could find in the slums and let it burn; he had memorized the information quite quickly, through some mental rehearsal and visualizations. To no surprise of his, it had worked. He had found the red line that Conway told him about, and at that very minute was following it on the home stretch, carrying a suitcase and an expensive looking tack box overflowing with his tools-of-trade.

With a shrug of his arm, he checked his wristwatch, accelerating without skipping a beat; he was running late, courtesy of the lovely people at the stage company who insisted on explaining everything he already knew about every product he had purchased. Soon thereafter, he caught a glimpse of another young fellow, entering a door that matched Booker's specifications. Sprinting silently to cover the distance, he slipped just before the door closed, and just in time to get the brief scoop on his new team's first assignment. "So it'll be a good old cast party to kick off our opening act eh? I like it."

Alexis glanced up from tending her gear when she head someone address her by her name, seeing that it was the guilds leader who this time wasn't wearing his mask to hide, offering her a drink and thinking about it she was feeling like one.
"Um, just give me.....I dunno the best beer you have?" She asked uncertain as she tilted her head to try and think, Alexis did like to drink but she never bothered to remember the names of her favourite drinks. Shrugging the hacker then turned to here the others were sitting in the sitting area of the large room, her eyes moving over them all before she found place to sit and went down to sit there, though she kept a close eye on her luggage and was sitting closer to it to so that she could make sure the no one would touch her baby.
Alexis was very protective of her stuff when it came to computers and other tech, often referring to them as her baby or babies and takes good care of them, she will snap at anyone who even goes near her life's work that stayed hidden within those boxes and bags.
As she was thinking this she noticed that the leader guy was introducing himself and giving an assignment to them, she found that rather odd as everyone just got here and needed to settle in, leaving her computers stuck boxes and bags until further notice was going to have her worried for the whole thing. Hearing the part about security Alexis raised her hand to try and get the man's attention "Um...sir? I just want to ask, do you know what kind of security they have?" She asked him so she could get the right mini hacking computer for the job.

"And schematics would be fantastic. No way am I doing a sweep without getting a layout of the playing field." Stiles added noting the new voice in the room. He needed to knit pick everything about the building; measurements, rooms, heights,lengths. Everything needs to be over-analysed. Stiles wouldn't loose anyone to stupid mistakes, not again. He looked up again to the vodka perched on the bar. Getting up from his seat he approached the bottle. Stiles held the bottle curiously, looking at the brand name, the coarse texture, the ovular shape, everything is exactly the same as he remembers. He could always remember the hint of cherry and ethanol in Delilah's breath. Stiles shook is head trying to push his sister's image away for a later time.

Noah stood on the street near the entrance to the base. He wanted to wait a bit before he went in so he could check for anyone following him. Once he thought it was clear he went in he walked around a bit as an added precaution then headed back to the red line and started to follow it. If anyone was following him that he missed then they were lost for sure after his walk in the sewers. He arrived at the base then walked in. He looked at what was projected for a bit then found a chair to sit in.

Booker smiled. He was already liking this group a lot. They meshed rather well and he needed that badly. They all were perfect.

"Of course I have the specs. Mind you I have no idea what half of them mean. Mostly the tech stuff. I mean I was just the hired muscle before this..." He joked clicking the projector again. It showed the building in detail. "Alright since we are all new I'll leave it up to you. We need one team to canvass the party area making sure everything goes according to plan. I think I'll be in that one. Second team does the breaking in. Well we need to get our resident hackers to the server room. Once there we download the passwords or whatever and take the money. So any takers?" He asked finishing his drink.

Hassan followed the red line, it wasn’t exactly inconspicuous but no one came this far down the sewers and tunnels anyway. Not even him usually thought will he walked he took notices of the other passages. When he reached the hideout he entered silently looking over the screen. He missed the main plan but he say GD and had no qualms. He knew what they were about and that included a market that he could potentially take over. Black market was always marketable.

"Oh, oh me! I can hack into servers and computers and anything you want me to hack into!" Alexis exclaimed rather loudly as her hand shot up like a student asking a question so that she could be heard over the others, while bouncing in her seat to try and get even more attention "I even have my own mini portable computer that I can use and everything" She added hoping that he heard her, anything to do with Hacking and computers was her speciality, she would be pretty useless in any other area especially socializing at a party. Alexis wasn't the best in large groups like that and wasn't the best with talking to people either, spending more time playing her portal game device than paying attention to the party.

[indent]As Booker continued the briefing, Eric's attention split between him and the continuing influx of new faces to the room. Three people entered, one after another. Though they were discrete enough not to disrupt the meeting their arrival was still enough to pull Eric's attention for just a few seconds; he wanted to know the faces he was working with, and wanted to know them well. Even so early on, it was looking like a colorfully diverse gathering, both culturally and professionally.

When all had been said with regard to the assignment, Eric waited, and took his turn to speak in the wake of a jittery young woman sitting down in front of him. He raised his hand and gave his piece: "If you need someone with you on the inside, I'm your man. What would you need? A partner to act as another guest? If you want you can slip me in as a caterer or something; I can get the lay of where the party is pretty easy."