GFD: High Jinx - 1. Chapter 1 - The Job

All three members of the expert raider squad rapidly approached the edge of the rooftop at once.

Looking down on the brewery warehouse below, they prepared to gear up for any deadly obstacles that might get in their way once they entered the building. They've been pulling jobs that were much more difficult than this one was for years now, and they've learned to become a well oiled machine when it came to getting what they wanted and getting back out again before the situation got too messy for them to handle. Skilled raiders. This was a score that most vampires would be too intimidated to take a part of...but for the 'Falcon 3'? It was simply another midnight challenge. Hardly anything to sweat at all.

Joey took a point position on the roof and used a pair of binoculars to scan the surrounding area from a safe distance while his partners, Nathan and Caleb, rolled up the sunproofed bodybags beside them. Stuffed into a small backpack that would be easily retrievable once the raid was done and they needed a swift exit from the scene.

"What are you seeing, Joey?" Caleb asked.

Joey was deaf, but could easily read minds. Even those of other vampires. A rare talent, and one that kept him aware of everything that was going on around him at all times. He handed Caleb the binoculars for a peek, and signed, "We have four guards. Two at each entrance. Possibly two more on the other side of the building that we don't have a visual on. At least not from here."

Nathan asked him, "Do you think we need to do some extra surveillance?"

Joey weighed his options for a moment. He wanted to make sure that he knew all the specific details of the place ahead of time, but he also wanted to keep the element of surprise by running through the brewery during the 'twilight hour'. Human security wouldn't be much of a problem for the three member team, but if any vampire threats were involved, they could be both unpredictable and potentially dangerous if the team didn't get the jump on them first. At least during this early twilight hour, the waking vampires would still be recovering from their daily hibernation and would be a bit clumsy when activating their extras to defend the stronghold below with any real potency. Not by much, but it would provide them a slight advantage, regardless.

Caleb gave his shiny braces a quick lick, measuring the distance between entrances and plotting out the next course of action. "They're not just going to let us waltz in and take the briefcase, you guys. They're definitely going to put up a fight."

Nathan said, "I can try to sidestep their security, but...it won't be easy. A prize this valuable is going to have a heavy lid on it. I'm thinking that we'll only be wasting our time by playing it safe.”

Caleb asked, "What do you say, Joey? How do we handle this?"

With a silent signal, Joey told them to go for a simple 'smash and grab'. Being sneaky was only going to draw things out, get them noticed, and then lose the element of surprise while trying to improvise. Best to have a swift entry and an even swifter exit than leave the raid up to fate. Joey outlined the positions of the warehouse in the dusty surface of the rooftop, instructing Nathan to camouflage himself and take the South entrance of the building. They had automatic weapons, but there wasn't as much light there for them to work with. So Nathan might be able to maneuver his way in and shut down the alarm system without causing too much commotion. The other entrance, however, was well lit indeed. The North entrance was up by the delivery docks, with trucks, boxes, and barrels. The guards didn't have many firearms on them, but going in wasn't going to be a walk in the park. Caleb's fighting and acrobatic skills would definitely be put to good use in that situation. Things could get violent in a hurry, but that's what Caleb was best at. Those guards would be halfway to 'dreamland' before they even knew he was there.

Joey would follow up behind them, using the potential chaos to move in to the center of the warehouse itself and grab what they were looking for. Weaving his way right into the very heart of the facility while all of their attention was focused on spreading out to protect the outer perimeter...guaranteeing an easy steal. It's all about the timing. Timing and coordination.

The decision had been made, all three boys agreed to take their positions. Keep it quick. Keep it simple. No need to draw this raid out any longer than necessary. Nathan, Joey, and Caleb, were all extremely well practiced in dealing with defenses like this...but if they had a single Hunter working for them...they'd be toast. Best to use stealth over brute strength in a situation like this. It's the only way to go when you have too many variables to keep your team safe from harm.

They lost sight of each other as they entered the shadows and moved to different sides of the building. Nathan was the first one to reach his checkpoint. He could see both of the armed guards watching their posts, but it shouldn't be too difficult to slip under their radar. Nathan looked at the area closest to him and activated his extra. With a single 'blink', he was able to take a mental picture of the entire wall beside him. Then, without much effort, his body became an exact replica of that picture. Every color, every texture, every shadow. His body, clothes, hair...became completely camouflaged to the human eye. As long as Nathan remained still, remained silent...they'd be completely clueless about his presence. Perhaps they were lucky to not notice him. He was certainly ready for them if they had.

The four men had been standing outside for a few hours at least, and boredom was starting to set in, their minds beginning to wander to random distractions and lackluster conversation. Nathan took another step forward...then another. Each time, making sure that he was totally invisible to the potential threats in the area. As one of the guards turned towards him, he froze. The man reached into his pocket to fish out a pack of cigarettes, placing one between his lips and patting himself down for his lighter.

Nathan remained motionless. Even though the guard was standing a mere five feet away, he had no idea what was standing right in front of him. Nathan was hoping to get by without a confrontation...but he had his expandable staff charged and ready to go, just in case.

On the other side of the warehouse, Caleb moved through whatever shadows he could find in order to get closer to the loading dock. Many of the men there were massive in size, loading up giant boxes from the trucks in front, some of them carrying brewery kegs over their shoulders as they moved in and out of the building. Caleb put his hand down on a nearby ledge and slowly swiveled himself over the side to hang there for a moment. With his extra, the ability to shift part or all of his weight to any part of his body at will, he was able to hold on to the ledge quite easily...while the rest of his body remained virtually weightless. Then...when the coast was clear, he let go and fell silently to the concrete below. He waited until everyone was too preoccupied to look in his direction, and shifted his weight back and forth to perform a series of seriously inhuman flips, cartwheels, and combat rolls, to get behind one of the delivery trucks undetected. It was there that he patiently waited for the fireworks to begin.

Giving his teammates time to get into position, Joey then dashed forward to the East side of the building. He attempted to peer through the tinted windows of the brewery, but it was much too dark to see inside. He scanned around to see if he could catch any 'brain chatter' from anyone who might be walking around the building...and once he was certain that it was safe...he grabbed one of his twin steel batons, and swung it forcefully to break the glass. For other vampires, this would have given them away immediately, but Joey's extra allowed him to mentally ‘surround’ the noise of the shattering window with his hands, and bend the sound waves so the shards would fall silently to the ground. Not a single one of the guards were able to hear a thing.

Back at the South entrance, Nathan was able to close his eyes, calm his breathing, and even slow his own heartbeat down, in order to maintain his cover. But once the guard found his lighter...he realized that there might be a problem brewing. And there was nothing that he could do about it.

The man lit up, satisfied to be having a smoke after such a long wait, and he blew the smoke up in the air. An unfortunate wind blew the smoke right into Nathan's face as he struggled to hold his breath and not inhale it. He wasn't sure that he could maintain his position through an entire cigarette though, and as the man continued to take drag after drag off of his personal vice, Nathan took a hold of the staff at his side. Readying himself for battle.

Joey worked his way inside, hiding behind some of the warehouse shelves and mentally following the movements of the men inside. There wasn't enough ′order′ to determine a pattern that he could exploit and sneak through. Finding a weakness in their formation wasn't possible yet. He might just have to wait until the inevitable crash outside before he could get any closer. He masked the sound of his own footsteps, sticking close to the shelves and ducking down out of their eyesight as he mapped the layout from the inside.

Closer. He still needs to get closer.

Outside, Caleb was counting the number of guards he may have to go to blows with. Five, six, eight...ten...? More than he counted on. But, if done right, he might be able to do some damage to half of them before the others manage to catch on. That should even up the score pretty quickly. But he was going to have to make the first move.

Caleb heard footsteps coming from behind, and back flipped away from them just seconds before being seen. Shifting all of his body weight to his left foot alone, he charged forward and got low to the ground,his legs doing the splits...allowing his heavier limb to effectively 'drag' him underneath a truck to hide him view. That was close. Too close. The clock is ticking, you guys. What's happening here?

He did his best, but Nathan couldn't take the stench of the smoke anymore. It was all around him, and the second he stopped to take a breath, the toxic cloud crept into his lungs, and his eyes watered as he was forced to cough out loud.

The man immediately gasped as he saw a bit of movement in the background in front of him. "What the...?"

"Filthy habit, you know?" Nathan said. And before the guard had a chance to react, his five foot long staff expanded on both sides, the tips glowing blue with an electrified radiance. The crackle of the shocking electrodes filled the air as Nathan spun them around at an almost invisible speed, delivering three harsh blows to the guard before he could draw his weapon!

The other three guards jumped to attention as they saw Nathan drop his camouflage for a full fledged attack, quickly sweeping their legs from beneath them and taking them down with every electrified strike. They had never seen anyone move so fast, spinning in circles until he became a blur, his extra allowing him to blend into the background to disappear and reappear faster than their eyes could follow. They couldn't tell what was real and what wasn't. But...in a panic, one of the men fell backwards and began firing his machine gun in all directions.

On the South end, Caleb heard the sounds of gunfire and knew that it had to be now or never. The team wouldn't have long before the situation got too far out of hand to make a clean getaway. As the men on the docks began to realize that something was going down on the other side of the building, they put their boxes and barrels down and started to get a bit anxious.

That's your cue, Caleb. Make it count.

Pressured into a quick attack, Caleb slipped from beneath the truck, exposing him to the light as he charged forward! The first three men in front of him turned to see this random teenager approaching them at top speed, and couldn't even process what was happening before he was already airborne! All of his body weight went into his first two kicks, giving them a powerful impact that knocked these grown men right off of their feet, landing on their backs and shoulders. But Caleb's feet hadn't even hit the ground before his weight shifted again and wrapped his legs around the neck of the third, twisting his body and sending him spinning to the ground. With lightning speed, he moved forward, a frenzy of action, delivering punches and kicks that nobody could see coming until they had already landed. A few of them attempted to fight back, but the youngster was much too fast, too nimble, for them to track with the human eye. He was running up the sides of walls, spinning around their backs, sliding between their legs...as big as they were...they didn't stand a chance against his insane maneuvers.

Inside, Joey noticed a 'change' in the atmosphere of what was going on. People were starting to tense up, commands were being given. And as the lights of the warehouse alarm began to spin all around him, he knew that things were going to shit much faster than he had anticipated.nathan hadn’t reached the alarm in time. They’d have to improvise from that moment on.

Reading the minds of the guards around him, he could tell that both the North and South entrances had been compromised. The guards were rushing out in both directions to handle the situation, but Joey wasn't sure how long both of his young teammates would be able to hold them off without getting hurt!

He waited for the first available break in the chaos...and then leapt forward to take on two men who were gearing up for the war outside. The first guard went down the moment Joey's fist dented his bulletproof vest! He fell to the floor, gasping in agony as Joey used the sound of the sirens above to create a concussive shield around his fists and give them an added strength that they had never felt before. The other guard screamed, "HEY!!! Over here!!!" But Joey was able to literally snatch the sound of his voice right out of his throat with a simple wave of his hand, silencing it before any of his colleagues were able to hear it! With a brutal spin kick, the man was sent spiraling into a nearby shelf, the heavy contents falling down on him as Joey rolled to safety.

He has to get to the center of the building. Now!

Nathan had already moved inside, constantly changing his camouflage until the guards were beginning to shoot at each other, not knowing who was who! They were baffled by how fast he could switch from one mask to another, and still fight with such precision and accuracy. Fading in, fading out, fading in again! Much too fast! Four more men went down. Then another two. Then another three! And by the time reinforcements arrived, Nathan had already blended back in with the wall again...moving right past them so casually that they didn't even notice him walking past them...barely breaking a sweat.

"In position, Joey. What's your status?" Nathan thought to himself, knowing that Joey could read it.

"Getting there." Joey answered telepathically. "And Caleb?"

With the sounds of screaming and bones cracking coming from outside, Nathan responded, "Sounds to me like he's on his way."

Caleb had dropped so many guards to the floor at this point that he found it hard to keep his footing without stepping all over them. But even though some of his attackers had drawn guns to protect themselves, they couldn't track his chaotic movements long enough to get a lock on him. Spins and double and triple flips, sommersaults, and cartwheels...his acrobatics seemed to defy all laws of physics as he took them on, two or three at a time. Caleb kicked backwards into a guard's stomach, and then rolled over his back to kick two more behind him. His feet left the ground to land behind another and grabbed him by the neck to flip him to the ground. He was truly keeping them disoriented to the point of not being able to defend themselves at all, and by the time he had gotten into the warehouse, some of them had given up completely. One of the guards saying, "There's no WAY he’s paying me enough for this shit!"

Both Nathan and Caleb fought their way into the main section of the brewery, and upon meeting up, the looked down to notice a few unconscious bodies laying on the floor...all the way down the hall and turning the corner. Nathan looked at Caleb with a smile. "Looks like the boss left us a trail."

Caleb's braces glistened in the dark as he smiled back. "After you."

The boys hurried further into the heart of the building, just in time to see joey taking on three armed men by himself. The first was lucky enough to simply have his arm and jaw broken. The second? Joey bent his knee backwards until he was too hurt to even scream out in pain. And the third had his ribs cracked as Joey's sound vibrations turned his fists into a pair of vibrating jackhammers...powering away at him until his body collapsed to the ground in surrender! Maybe this job wasn't as difficult as they thought it was going to be. Four hundred thousand dollars worth of diamonds, stolen from the vault of a vampire that had recently gone on a Sun Quest and foolishly left it behind? One would think that a fortune like that would be a lot harder to get your hands on. And yet, right there in the back of the room...there it was. A briefcase under a bright spotlight, locked in a glass container.

Easy.

Perhaps…too easy.

Joey gave hand signs to his team to watch the doors and windows as he approached with caution. They all stood ready for anything. But...as he got within reaching distance of the briefcase itself...all of the lights suddenly flared up in the room. They were bright enough to almost make a vampire's sensitive eyes go blind after peering through the cloak of darkness for so long.

All three of them immediately took a defensive stance in the middle of the room, back to back to back...waiting for any threat that would dare jump out at them.

Then...a slow clap from the back of the room.

"Bravo! Bravo! I am seriously impressed." Said a voice from the shadows. A lone vampire walked out into the light to greet them. Appearing to be in his late teens, early twenties...but his demeanor suggested a vampire that was far along into his crossover. One who has been around for quite a number of years, and comfortable with his life in darkness. As the boys kept their defenses up, he smiled, "I have heard many crazy stories about you boys. The infamous 'Falcon 3'. The beak and two talons. Capable of stealing anything, any time, from anywhere and anyone. Some of the rumors were so over the top that I was forced to doubt their validity. But...this little demonstration that you put on here tonight proves that I might have been a bit too hasty in my judgement of your expertise. Perhaps you three can be a valuable asset to me after all." The vampire stepped closer, a mischievous grin crossing his lips. "Let me guess...you’re Joey, right? Team leader. Also known as 'Soundclip' in the raider world. You were able to sneak in on the East side of the warehouse, while getting your team to divide my soldiers on the north and south sides. Very clever. I can't say that any of the other potential raider teams I've sought out were bold enough to try such a thing." He stepped over to one side. "You must be Nathan. Also known as 'Blindspot'. The vampire chameleon that can effectively blend into any background at will. And even when exposed, you were able to take down some of my best men in the blink of an eye. That's a very special talent indeed." Now walking around to Joey's left side, "And the elusive raider, Caleb. Also known as 'Haywire'. You're a hard one to keep track of once you get moving. I'm going to have to pay a lot of my human subjects some serious money in medical attention after the damages you caused them tonight. You've got the moves, kid. I like that."

Joey signed something, and Nathan spoke for him. "Who are you?"

"My name...is Soren. And I brought the three of you here because I wanted to make sure that the mysterious 'Falcon 3' team would be worthy enough to get involved in a real heist. For something more valuable than just a briefcase full of diamonds and the prestige of knowing that you completed another job without being caught."

"A heist like what?" Caleb asked, suspicious of his intentions.

"A heist...that can change more than just your financial situation. This is the kind of job that could, quite possibly, change the worlds of darkness and daylight as we know it. Forever." He said with a sinister grin. "You three could very well be instrumental in the reshaping and ultimate reboot of vampire-kind. And in order to do that...we're going to have to come to an agreement, you and I."

The three boys looked at one another, and then back at this ‘Soren’ character as he prepared himself to make us an offer.

Nothing about this seemed right. But what kind of raiders would they be...if they didn't at least hear him out first?