“Glad to see you up and moving again Phase,” Darren said as Phase lay on the couch. Roxie had climbed onto his lap and was laying against his chest. Phase waved at them and then continued to focus on the dog who was just happy. Everyone else was gathered around except Shade and Yumi who Echo recommend they let them be.
“Yeah slept good. Thank God for Shade’s cooking always warming up well,” he groaned and pushed himself up to his back and shooing Roxie away. “So, I heard you’re getting us into a swanky party. What’s going on with it?”
“Glad you asked,” they tossed an invite his way and he caught it going over it slowly. “I hope you got a decent suit to wear.”
“I’m sure we can find one again.” He skimmed over the invite and blinked quickly. “This thing’s in a couple of days.”
“That’s what happens when you nap like that.”
Rogue sipped his ice water from the kitchen and pointed at Phase, “Now that you’re awake though let’s talk about something that we should have addressed. The guy who attacked you. Who was he?”
“No idea. He was there already and I get the feeling he was stealing something else before I got there,” Phase folded his arms. “It was like I caught him red handed.”
“What was he stealing?” Feint asked.
“No idea. I got there before he could pick something up.”
“So who threw the first punch? Did he attack you or you attack him,” Darren asked.
“He attacked me. And he called me 52. Not only that he called Yumi 365.”
Echo shivered, “So it can be safe to guess that he might be the same person I met in the park?”
“If he’s not the same person he’s similar to him,” Phase grimaced. “But also he was wearing a mask.”
Rogue frowned. “Sounds like he’s with that woman who attacked me and Shade.”
“It’s a safe guess,” Darren rubbed their jaw slowly. “There’s the woman and this guy. The guy showed that he knows that you all were experiments down to your numbers. So, they’re attached to the Royals in some way. Or an unlikely idea, they’re rogue experiments like you guys and just hate everyone.”
“Should they be someone we’re worried about?” Echo asked.
Feint nodded, “Two out of the three times we’ve met them they’ve sought us out and hurt us. Whatever they want they at least know how to find us.”
“How’s that affect the fundraiser?” Rogue asked glancing at Darren and Phase. “I can’t imagine that the Royals aren’t going to be there in some way.”
“Neither Nigel or Nathan has made any public appearances in the last six months. If this is the first time then it’ll be big.”
“That reminds me, what about the queen? Eve? Where’s she been?”
“Also been laying low. They’re covering their bases,” Darren went to pick up their tablet. “Yeah I haven’t seen anything about them in the news in months.”
“Let’s keep it in the back of our heads that they might be there but for the most part we stick to the plan,” Phase said.
“Speaking of what is the plan?” Yumi asked finally coming back from the hallway. She was wearing one of Shade’s shirts and her underwear. Her hair was a mess and she suppressed a yawn but looked very content. She glanced at Phase and smiled, one he returned.
“Don’t you just look like the cat that ate the canary,” Echo said teasingly.
“DJ did the eating. I just enjoyed,” she said offhandedly and got her own plate.
“Moving right along,” Rogue replied as Yumi broke into a fit of laughter. “We don’t have an established plan. But now that leader is awake we can finally settle that.”
Phase put both his hands up, “Before I even go down that path who’re the other three people that you invited to this party?”
Before they could answer their phone started going off. They checked the screen and then laughed, “Perfect timing.” They answered holding it against their ear and held a hand out to the team. “Have you all made it to the city yet? Tonight? You’re actually coming early. Don’t worry about getting paid. You know I’m good for it. Yes I went out of my way to hire you. You’re really a pain in the ass you know that right? Yeah yeah. Just be on time tonight for dress rehearsal.”
They hung up and slid their phone back into their pocket. “Well that takes care of them. He’s really a pain.”
“Who is he Wiz Kid?” Yumi said almost impatiently now that she’d had food in her hands.
“I didn’t get a natural invite to this thing. I don’t exactly have that kind of raw clout. But Ace does.”
“Ace?” Feint repeated.
Yumi snorted into her food and laughed, “Holy shit. Almost forgot about him. What’s he been doing?”
“Random jobs like you all except on a wider scale. Think the whole country,” Darren said spread their hands. “I’ve kept tabs on him but he falls off the radar occasionally.”
“Haven’t heard from him in almost a year,” Phase mused. “Is Luce still with him?”
Darren nodded, “One of the three people coming along. Though I believe he’s going by Noel now.”
“Noel. I like that,” Phase nodded slowly and smiled. “I’m happy for him. But who’s the third person?”
“That I don’t know. But I trust Ace to bring someone capable,” Darren said.
“Same here,” Phase folded his arms. “Knowing Ace is there actually makes things different. A little better but a little worse. You said Ace and Noel are going to be getting here tonight?”
“That’s what they said. Take Ace with a grain of salt though.”
“Noted. I’ll think on the plan and have something ready tonight.”
“What should we to do in the mean time?” Yumi asked raising her eyebrow.
Phase shrugged, “Shop. Get what we need for the party. Like the last time we have to crash a big event in style.”
Echo clapped her hands together, “I remember the last time. It was wonderful. I am excited to do it again. I think I have all of your measurements somewhere around here. Darren you’ll have to tell me what the dress code is going to be. I want to prepare.”
“Welp I guess we’re going to be busy today,” Phase said and glanced at Yumi. “Where’s Shade?”
“I wore him out,” she finished her food. “He’ll be up in time for Echo to dress him up later.”
“That’s fine. I can focus on you all for now,” Echo said and was already moving toward her room. “Don’t go anywhere. I’ll be right back.”
Phase got off the couch and stumbled forward slightly. Feint and Yumi both looked at him sharply but he held up his hand. “I’m good. Promise.”
“You know the white looks good on you,” Rogue told him. “Makes you look what? Distinct? I think that’s the word for it.”
“That’s what I said,” Yumi said almost proudly and winked at him. Phase rolled his eyes as Echo came back. She had a folders worth of papers in her hand and measuring tape in the other.
“Alright line up. All of you. Including you Darren!” she shouted toward the tinker room. She made a face and after a few minutes Darren came out grumbling something under their breath. “I heard that.” She said and moved to make sure that they all stood together in front of the table and between the TV.
That became their day. Echo taking complete control and remeasuring everyone and checking to her notes. Thankfully no one had changed drastically so she was up to date. From there she asked if anyone had some request on a new outfit to wear though after a few minutes of talking she had already developed something in mind for them all. She sent Yumi, Phase and Rogue out to get what she needed while Darren, Feint and eventually Shade were helping her at home.
What Echo described as a simple few errands had taken them the entire day. By the time they came back the sun had gone down entirely and it was the dead of night. Everyone but Echo and Feint were in the living room. Shade and Darren sat together scrolling through the TV channels not settling on anything.
Yumi was in a huff carrying more than a few bags across her shoulder while Rogue and Phase had long coats and clothes in long cases. “Echo!” she shouted. “Where am I throwing this stuff? And tell me soon before I. What? Seriously? Fine. Echo’s taken over the tinker room and she wants us to throw the stuff over there.”
“We heard Firebug,” he said and tapped his forehead.
“Yeah yeah,” she rolled her eyes trudging over with the three of them. The room was dark except for a light over the desk. Echo turned her eyes to the three of them and motioned with her hands toward the wall which had been commandeered and altered to support multiple hangers. She was at work at one of the tables with a sewing machine and an intense looking Feint working with her and serving as her eyes.
They hung up the dresses and suits in the spots marked as such and then let Echo shoo them away. Phase sat down on the couch filling in with Darren and Rogue while Shade and Yumi shared the loveseat. Roxie was presently occupying the chair curled up but looking at them. They sat for only a few minutes when the doorbell buzzed.
“What the hell?” Yumi mumbled laying her head in the crook of Shade’s neck. “Who’s buzzing for us?”
“It’s our guest,” Darren said grabbing his phone and hitting the screen a few times. “They’re coming up now.”
“Did you just answer the door from your phone?” Shade asked.
“Yeah. Surprised?”
“Somehow no. Just a reminder of the world I’m living in now,” Shade shook his head. “Life’s weird but I like it.”
“Phase go greet everyone,” Darren said. “You’re the head of the house.”
“Since when?” Phase asked looking over at them.
“Since you’ve been leader. Now get to it,” Darren shooed at him and Phase made a face, resisting the urge to flip them off. Rolling backwards he phased through the couch and popped back to his feet. Turning on his heal he opened the door and immediately he was shoved aside by a woman smaller than him. “Move.”
He stumbled back turning to watch her but Ace walked past him hitting his shoulder as he walked inside, “Long time no see Phase!” His hair had grown longer and his face was a bit rougher but he still had his bronze skin and easy grin. He was wearing a long duster of a coat and was already taking it off. “Forgot how nice this place was.”
“Hey. Wow. Yeah come in,” he said and paused as another man chuckled.
Phase was ready to scowl but paused at the man. His skin was a healthy pale, soft eyes and nose but a hard-angular jaw. Phase stared at him narrowing his eyes, focused on the burn along his cheek that had faded with time. He was wearing a button up shirt and jeans, the sleeves slightly rolled up. He removed the top hat from his head revealing curly shoulder length black hair streaked with white. Unlike his own which was a solid chunk this one was woven together like patterns.
“Sorry about them Phase. They are a handful.”
“Lu-? No Noel.”
He blinked surprised then smiled, “Yes, it’s good to see you.”
“Wow. I almost didn’t recognize you being honest,” Phase took a step back as he walked inside. “Well you always dress like you’re going to work. Even your casual is more formal than my formal.”
They both laughed and Noel smiled. “I have gone through some changes this past year. I can see you have as well,” he said noting Phase’s hair.
Phase touched his hair and closed the door behind them. “Yeah. This is a bit more recent than I’d like.”
Noel frowned, “Are you alright?”
“Yeah. Healed up just fine.”
“A parting curse,” he said. “The last thing that the Royals gave us.”
“More like a gift,” Phase said and turned toward the living room already hearing an argument brewing but not between who he thought, Ace and Yumi. Instead it was Darren and the woman who zoomed past.
She had brown skin, a small nose, large eyes and a small blonde afro on her head. She was wearing overalls and a short sleeve shirt underneath, a phone in her hands that seemed way too big. She had thick blocky glasses on her face but her eyes were focused on the screen. Darren themselves wasn’t that tall but somehow this girl was even shorter but from how she spoke and the way she acted she looked young. No older than the twins.
“Get the fuck off the wifi and out of my server,” Darren was saying immediately holding their tablet.
“Make a better password. And a better set of firewalls.”
“My firewalls are fine. You plugged directly into the system,” Of which Darren walked toward the TV and yanked out the blinking USB drive and tossed it. The girl tried to catch it but Ace, who was taller, caught it first.
“I’ve been in your server since before I jacked in.”
“Bull. I’ve known where you were since you got here and my systems have been clean of you.”
“It wasn’t hard to even find you guys.”
“Again bull. Your probes were way off.”
“Those were decoys. You guys are like. A beacon saying ‘Please don’t look over here’”
“Was that before or after you falsely pinged two other locations and almost got yourself found out?”
“First of all, almost. And second of all I was covering my bases. Not my city.”
“Yeah sure. By the way,” they raised their tablet and tapped the screen a few times. A red light flashed on the back of the tablet. “Stop trying to test the fire walls in here.”
The girl began to say something and then looked at her phone quickly and her eyes went wide, “What the hell. Hey! Did you fucking crash my phone!”
“Stay out of my system.”
The girl was ready to say something when Ace barked, “Joker! Behave.”
“What? Me? This know it all control freak started this!”
“No Joker,” Noel said walking over to her and putting a hand on her head. “You were the provoker this time.”
“You mean like always?” Darren muttered.
“What was that control freak?”
“I said that you’re always butting your head in where it doesn’t belong midget.”
“What is happening?” Shade mumbled to Yumi.
She shook her head, “I don’t know but I really like it.”
The door creaked and Feint and Echo joined the group of them in the living room, “Darren please take a breather. You’re better than this.” She said and they looked at her ready to say something back but they let out a breath and nodded. “Thank you.”
Roxie barked, seeing all the new faces and noise and getting excited. Echo went to her side and brushed her fur slowly in her attempts to calm her down. Feint looked over the three of them nodding toward Ace, “Long time no see.”
“Sure has. Glad that you all are still around and kicking. Heard about you dropping a building on Harris the other day.”
“It wasn’t us,” Echo said. “And we’re working on fixing that.”
Ace raised his eyebrow folding his arms, “Color me interested.”
“I’ll explain it a bit more once we go over the plan,” Phase said going toward the kitchen for some water.
Feint smiled at Noel next, “Hey. You look good.”
“I feel good,” he replied. “Thanks to you all.”
“You were just as much a victim of the Royals as we were,” Echo said walking over and hugging him. He was surprised by this but closed his eyes and hugged her back.
Joker walked toward Feint slowly and stood up straight and held her hand out rigidly. “H-Hi. I’m Joker. You’re really pretty.”
Feint blinked slowly looking at her and slowly shook her hand, “Hi Joker. My name’s Feint. And thanks. I think.”
Ace and Noel exchanged glances surprised but Joker was just staring at Feint intently. Feint made a face to herself mostly and motioned toward Phase. “Alright, we’re all here. Phase what’s the plan. For real this time.”
Phase hopped to his feet and looked at everyone. He motioned toward the TV and held his hands out. Darren tossed him a remote and Phase pressed the center button. The image of it shifted from the menu to a picture of the casino proper. “Alright team, let’s all pay close attention. This is going to be a bit of a doozy. The One Flip is a big ole place. Two floors tall but easily three stories up. Can contain about four thousand people.
“The main floor looks like this. Gambling tables, slots, a buffet and even a theatre for some of those high class shows. But there’s dozens of private rooms scattered around, specifically this one.” He pressed the button again and it flipped to a large event room with several round tables for three. White table clothes, dark blue chair, all looking toward a stage and podium against the far wall. The picture showed the room lit by a neon blue light from the ground. “This is where the fund raiser is mostly going to be taking place and where we’re going to be spending the majority of our time.”
“What? Boring,” Yumi rolled her eyes.
“What were you expecting?” Feint asked looking at her.
Yumi opened her mouth but shook her head, “Honestly I wanted to gamble.”
“You suck at that,” Shade said and she swatted his head lightly. “It’s true.”
“I’ve been practicing,” she mumbled.
“Good,” Phase pointed at her. “Because that’s our other plan.”
“What?” Yumi blinked sitting up slightly. “Say more right now.”
“We don’t need everyone in that event room waiting to spring on the royals. It’d never work out. Instead we’re going to have people scattered around the casino itself. Paying attention, make sure we don’t get caught out and make sure we have a way out.”
“And to make sure we don’t look suspicious, I’m allowed to gamble to blend in,” Yumi finished excitedly and Phase nodded making her smile even wider. “You beautiful man you.”
Ace snorted through a laugh, “So we’re just stealing money from these guys? Pretty sure you could handle that without us.”
“That’s only part one to the plan,” Phase pointed at him and held up two fingers. “We’ve got two jobs while we’re here. Well technically three. The primary job here is going to be to get that money. Partially for ourselves, partially to pay you three, but mostly because the shelter that Yumi works at needs help staying afloat.”
“Speaking of that,” Darren said. “I’ve been doing some digging and the people that own that shelter are Louis & Gate Bank. Louis & Gate Bank were a group under the umbrella of the Royals. Now though they’ve sided with G.”
“Well I’ll be damned. Throwing us a bone,” Rogue tapped his finger against his arm.
Phase nodded, “Exactly.”
“What do you mean by that?” Noel asked.
“Like you guys know we’ve been pegged for the destruction of Harris. And it’s made it a shit ton harder to do anything without using our masks,” Yumi grimaced as he talked and Phase nodded her way. “But while we’re there, because we know G’s going to be there, we’re going to get him to exonerate us.”
Ace scoffed, “How the hell are you going to get him to do that? Looked him up. Dude looks like a prick.”
“He is a prick,” Darren nodded their agreement. “But he’s also a coward. Were you able to decode the file I sent you?”
Joker looked up from her phone and glanced at them, “Oh what was that? You needed my help after being so rude to me?”
“Joker,” Noel said, his tone warning.
“Yeah I did,” she mumbled and Darren’s tablet dinged. “This shit is really fucked up by the way.”
“What kind of dirt do you have on this guy?” Shade asked.
Darren looked at him and the way they looked at him made him shiver. “Trust me when I say this. You don’t want to know. Just know that getting you all exonerated is the least of what he’s going to be doing.”
That cryptic message ground the talks down to a halt. But Rogue picked the ball up and asked, “Alright how are we going to do that? Doubt you want to expose him in front of everyone.”
Phase shook his head, “No. We’re going to need to get him alone during the event itself. That’s why we have three teams working during the event. One to steal from the fundraiser and another to isolate G. I’m going to head that team personally. Plus, the third team to be on lookout.”
“There’s also the other people who may show up,” Feint said meeting his eyes and Phase frowned hard. He motioned toward her to keep going. Feint nodded, “We’ve been attacked by two black masked individuals. We don’t know who they are or their goals but one of them has called us out by our numbers, not our names. We think that they’re working with the royals and there’s a chance they may show up at the fundraiser.”
“So Pierce is still making experiments,” Ace folded his arms and clucked his tongue. “Alright whatever. We’ll keep an eye out for them too. So Phase what are the team breakdowns?”
“That’s what we’re figuring out now. In the spirit of not wanting to get blown out by something bad happening I want Joker, Feint, and Darren on different teams. That way everyone can have eyes in the sky and our communication can stay consistent. Darren’s going to be on the G team, so then Feint be on the fundraiser team and Joker on the lookout team.”
“Works for me,” Feint replied.
“I guess,” Joker seemed to be pouting, her arms folded.
“Yumi’s already volunteered for the lookout team and honestly I’d prefer Shade being on that team too. Having someone who actually knows how to gamble and knows places like this. Which I assume you do right?”
“May not have been as fancy as the One Flip but yeah I’ve got some experience,” Shade nodded. “I’ve got you leader.”
“Nice. Ace, I want you in the event with me. Your face is probably still recognizable and that’ll buy us some clout from any high-class people that could cause trouble.”
Ace snorted, “You know I’m not exactly liked by any of them, right?”
“Counting on it. They should leave us alone and let us get to work.” He shrugged and nodded. “Noal you’re with the fundraiser team. Gonna need that team to be quick and quiet and you’re one of the best for that.”
He bowed his head, “I’ll do my best.”
“Echo I want you to be with the fundraiser team. Be an extra pair of eyes and ears to keep them out of trouble. Getting that money is the priority.”
She saluted at him, “Understood leader.”
“Rogue you’re with the lookout crew. Primarily I want you to secure us an escape route should it come to that.” Rogue nodded his head solemnly. “That’s all of us. This is going to be a big and weird mission team. But I know that we can handle it. We just have to stay in communication and make it happen. Once we do this, not only will the shelter be okay but we’ll be back in business. Any questions or concerns?”
“Before I forget take these,” Darren went to find the envelope with the invitations and handed them out to the trio. “Don’t lose them.”
No one spoke up and they all looked confident if not anxious and ready to move. He clapped his hands together lightly. Echo raised her hand patiently. “Alright everyone. I know Echo is dying to get back to work but let’s hit it one more time. Me, Darren and Ace are on the G team. Luce, Feint, and Echo are on the money team. Yumi, Rogue, Shade and Joker are on the look out team. See you in a couple days for the real thing.”
The Harlequin Library 