Hard as Fort Knox, more like Piece of Cake

It was the Crime Syndicate’s first heist of the summer, and it was going to be a good one. A client had recently contacted them and wanted to see if the rumored strength of the group was true. To do this the man figured that it had to be something big, something no one would ever see coming, a feat many had tried but none had succeed in doing. This feat was to break into Fort Knox, which was considerably hard enough as it is, and escape with a text book from the Fort Knox High School and General Paxton’s coat from the museum that resided inside of it. This job was not given out to any of the other members of the Crime Syndicate as their ‘mythological’ leader The Phantom had decided to take this job up himself.

Lucifer Hermes Mercury stood on the street opposite of the legendary Fort Knox, just twenty miles south of Louisville, Kentucky with his top hat on, and cane in hand. The traffic light for the cars in the street took off, without missing a beat he turned intangible and invisible then stepped into the street to cross the road. Before long he had reached the other side where he smiled to himself and stepped through the walls of America’s most secure military facility besides that of perhaps the Pentagon and Area 51, if it even existed at all. He was the world’s greatest thief and nothing was going to keep him away from a challenge, especially some military base. Reaching into his coat pocket he opened a vial containing what looked like normal flies, but they were in fact not normal bugs. No they were robotic bugs that were basically security cameras. He opened the cap, turning them on remotely, and released them into the fort. They would be his extra set of eyes while he took on the true heist.

It wasn’t long before he was sneaking through the fort, easily moving past the guards and military personal. It was easy to do so when if they caught even the closest glimpse of you, you simply had to turn invisible or walk through the nearest wall. Crouched down in a corner he activated his holographic laptop on his wrist and checked the camera feed from the security flies, one of them was in the Fort Knox High School, eyes on an unguarded class room where a textbook resided, another in the room that contained the jacket. The room with the jacket was heavily guarded, as it obviously contained some important museum pieces, so the book would have to come first.

Rolling his neck he phased through the wall that was behind him and silently snuck over to the high school. After a short walk there he phased inside the wall only to come face to back with one of the guards in the school. Holding in his breath he unscrewed the top of the cane and slowly stood up, opening up the vial inside of it he grabbed the man’s mouth silencing any screams for help and forced the guard to swallow the sleeping poison. Down went the big military man went, down faster than one could say crumpet with tea; it proved just how human the man truly was. Replacing the vial with a filled one, the empty one going back in his jacket he continued on his way. Not bothering to hide the man’s body for none would remember this day any time soon.

A couple minutes later and he arrived at his destination, slowly opening the door with his gloved fingers he stepped inside snatching up the book and exiting once more, giving the command for the security fly to move on to the next post. This was all too easy, it would go along without a hitch, at least that is what he hoped. Within the next half an hour he made his way from the high school to the Paxton Museum and was walking down a hallway, cameras deactivated, and up to the entrance of the room he needed. Without missing a step he walked in and up to the guard putting his hand over the man’s mouth and noise making it so he couldn’t breathe. The man struggled to break free but it wasn’t long before he too went down. Walking up the case which held the jacket, legs phased out so as not to effect the lasers he phased his hand into the case, grabbed the jacket, then phased it out; simple right? Of course not, when he phased his hand his legs of course had to un-phase and set off the alarm.

The day before…..
The lock clicked open and the door swung open silently as Aristocrat stepped through the threshold into the basement of the Indianapolis Records Office. The only door of the entire building that hadn’t been wired to that God awful security system. The basement was dusty and filled with cobwebs. Most of the employees had probably forgotten this entrance even existed. But why should they? Who would really want to break into a Records Office anyway?
Aristocrat stepped through the musty halls of the basement until he found exactly what he wanted-the Storage Room for the hardcopy blueprints room. He had come in earlier that same day, asking to see a copy of the Donovan Estate blueprints. Of course not on hardcopy here, they managed to access a digital copy, so Arthur had to grudgingly stare at a blasted computer screen for 15 minutes to view the digital schematics. A necessary sacrifice to learn the location of the hard-copy schematics storage room. He opened the door of the Storage Room and sifted through the blueprints until he found them. A copy of the Fort Knox blueprints. He pushed them open and quickly scanned them, looking for a way into the main building.
The blueprints didn’t lie about the place. Unless you could walk through walls, it was a fortress. However, the older blueprints revealed a service tunnel that ran from the High School on the grounds to the Main Building. Just where he wanted to go…….

Tonight
Aristocrat slid along the wall of the school building, crouching low with his cane in his hand and a satchel bag on his shoulder. He saw no visible guards or sentries. ‘Strange’ he thought to himself, a little disappointed that he didn’t get to slice open a throat or 2 but for a measly bar of gold, he didn’t need it escalated.
Now why would someone as rich as Arthur need to steal gold? Surely he could purchase some. Well, he needed the gold to practice his alchemy transmutation experiments and he’d be damned if he’d waste good gold he bought himself. Besides, this was more fun. He slipped into an open door on the side of the building and froze as a noise came through the darkness. It sounded like a snore. “Naughty, naughty, sleeping on the job.”
Aristocrat found the sleeping gentlemen but this wasn’t a lazy nightshift nap. Oh no, this was something different. Aristocrat figured the only uninvited guest in Fort Knox. He left the sleeping guardsman and proceeded to the maintenance tunnel. He emerged in the main building a few minutes later, still no guards in sight. Maybe his competition had done him a favour. He slipped down towards the safe room where the gold was stored. He reached the large wooden door and pulled it open, revealing the mother of all sights.
Inside, behind a secondary steel door, was a mountain of gold, stored all along the walls and piled in the rooms centre. Even Aristocrat’s eyes glistened in greed. “Maybe a second bar wouldn’t hurt.” He mumbled to himself. He pulled a tiny vial from his inside pocket and poured it over the steel doors lock, watching it fizzle and burn through it like a hot knife through butter. An alchemic potion, completely harmless to organic material, not so much from metals and artificial substances. Aristocrat pushed the smouldering door open and set to work, grabbing the 2 nearest bars and heading out. He was jogging down the corridor when 2 guards rounded the corner. He had barely enough time to duck into the door next to him. He breathed heavily as he looked around. He was in the Fort Knox Museum. And he wasn’t alone. Near the rooms other door, was a man, older than Aristocrat, with his hand reaching inside the glass case in front of him. He barely had enough time to register this before the alarms were set off and the once silent fort erupted in a blaze of noise. Aristocrat groaned.

“Fucking amateurs."

‘Fucking amateurs.’ The words rolled off the tongue of the man whom Phantom couldn’t quite see with an obvious disdain and for good reasons as he did just set off the alarm which was a rookie mistake. He chuckled and tipped his hat to the man grabbing the jacket and wrapping it around the book before putting both of them in a pocket in his jacket. “Oh trust me I am no amateur that was simply to spice it up a bit; for it was getting to boring for my tastes.” He spoke back to wherever the person was and then disappeared. Yes disappeared, the man in the top hat turned invisible and turning on his heels walking out of the museum door that wasn’t too far away but of course as he was about to walk out the guards came rushing in through the three entrances to the room.

Stepping to the side and up against the wall he rolled his eyes and phased out through the other side and out onto the grass. Once there he chuckled and turned himself visible wondering how the other man on the inside was fairing. Back on the inside of course the man would slowly be starting to forget things about the man he saw, for now it was simply minor things like color of cloths or attire that he was wearing. The guards had rushed into the room, two of them from each side and all holding not pistols as normal security guards would be but machine guns, it was called Fort Knox for a reason. It didn’t take long for the guards to notice Aristocrat and immediately they turned to face him. “Hold it! You’re under arrest for breaking and entering, as well as theft!” They called one adding theft when he noticed Paxton’s jacket was missing.

Phantom of course was walking through the grass as freely as one could in America when he looked down and of course happened to walk up to a guard that was passing by and bumped into him. The bulk of the man toppled over Lucifer and he fell down upon his rump the invisibility going away in a flash, not literary though mind you, and leaving Lucifer down upon the ground. ”Well this certainly is not going exactly as planned, would you believe me if I said I was an innocent bystander? No? Ahh well… then I hope you do not mind helping me up?” He said with a smile on his face and as the man reached down to grab his hand he felt a shock run through his body instantly knocking him unconscious. ”It is too bad you seemed like a nice young man...” Turning around he groaned seeing himself surrounded by a group of guards.
((so you can take control of the guards around Phantom if you want and we can have the two meet up once they’ve both made it outside the Fort?))

Aristocrat shook his head as he watched the man disappear. Not metaphorically. Literally, disappear into thin air. The last words he spoke echoed through the hall. “Oh trust me, I am no amateur. That was simply to spice it up a bit; for it was getting too boring for my tastes.” The door where the mystery ‘ghost’ had been walking towards burst open with 2 guards rushing in. 4 more joined them. Aristocrat smirked maliciously “Well then you’re going to miss all the fun.” He looked to the left and right of the door behind him. Two iron black suits of armor stood either side, weapons in hand. He took the short sword from one and slid it through the handles of the door; ensure there were no surprises from behind.
He reached inside his jacket with his left hand, pulling out another small vial. In his right, his cane gripped tightly. The men rushed forward, their guns raised, screaming for Aristocrat to raise his hands. He obeyed. “Excuse me gentlemen, I appear to have lost the tour group.” He giggled. He cocked their guns and approached him, 4 within striking distance, the other two in medium range. “Close enough.”
Aristocrat lightly tossed the vial between all the guards. The glass cracked and a large volume of violet gas filled the area. The men were instantly blinded and panicked. They stumbled, couldn't see and were afraid to fire for fear of hitting their own, even the men outside the gases range. The guard nearest Aristocrat coughed then felt a dull sensation in his back. Then, nothingness. Aristocrat quickly pulled the sword from the man’s back and sliced at the next one, who he sensed was about to attack him. The screams filled the room as his gun crashed to the ground along with both his hands. Aristocrat pulled a new, tiny blade from his belt and pulled the one that went to his friend’s aid in as a shield. He then pulled the sidearm from his human shield’s holster and fired upon the last one in the gas cloud. He simply slit the whimpering bag of meat’s neck, before pulling out another knife out and flinging them at the final two outside the cloud, hoping they had stood their ground. One of the flying blades found its mark and buried itself in the head of the target. The other found itself in the chest of the last guard, who valiantly popped off two shots before going down.
This attack had been outside Aristocrat’s Intuition Range and he was too late to dodge anywhere. One deeply grazed his left side, the other burst through his left arm, tearing at the meat. He cried out, pain searing, seeing red. He bit on his lip and fought through, stumbling forward. He retrieved the knife from the dead man’s forehead and pulled the other from the chest of the dying man. Aristocrat observed the damage done to him. Blood pored the wounds in his forearm and side, mixing with the fabric of his torn suit. He leaned down, and growled the final words the night-watchman would ever hear; “This was $2000 tailor-made.”
Aristocrat plunged the knife in his eye and twisted before extracting it and making his way to the lowest window, crashing through it onto the lawn. He looked up to see a strange man fighting with some guards as well. Who was he, and why did he look familiar?

Outside, 5 minutes earlier
“Too bad, you seemed like a nice young man…” The 4 guards raised their weapons and pointed them right at the Phantom. “Now then, put the items down, and we’ll go easy with you, old timer, otherwise, you may incur an ‘accident’.” The largest one stepped forward, cracking his knuckles and pulled out a plastic tie to bind up the intruder. The other 3 kept him covered in a sector formation, covering all lines of sight. There was nowhere to run.

”An accident you say? Lad, I assure you I have been through much trickier situations long before you were even conceived.” Phantom spoke allowed to the naive young man standing in front of him who spoke out that terrible sentence. A smile upon his face he lifted his cane into the air and slammed it down upon the ground. Now this was no ordinary cane, no this was a cane of his own invention. When the bottom of the cane touched the ground everything around it shook and cracked, the ground beneath the four men gave way and down they fell. The quake spread out from where Lucifer stood to their bodies about five feet away and all he had to do was simply walk over and punch each of them once with the Taser Ring and out they went.

“Poor boys, thought they could deal with me… it seemed Fort Knox just hasn’t lived up to its name as the most heavily fortified location on the planet. Maybe my next heist will be better.” He laughed to himself wondering if anything at all could excite him anymore; it seemed no matter what kind of heist he took there were no more challenges. Nothing left to prove, he had already acquired the largest fortune ever, robbed countless banks and even stolen from the national mint once or twice. The Crown Jewels were no match for him, The Mona Lisa that resided in the Musée du Louvre was a fake because he owned the real one. A shake of his head and a tip of his hat he was off once again walking along the grass and onto the side walk inside the fort.

But of course as he just stepped onto the concrete more guards rushed upon him guns pointed and dogs barking. Yes, it seemed they had finally gotten smart and decided to bring guard dogs into the equation. Lucifer loved dogs and would never harm one himself so of course this would be a bit trickier but he was sure he could weave his way out of any situation he got into. There was a reason why people called him the Phantom and the World’s Greatest Thief you know. Back with our dear friend Aristocrat he too would notice the same situation revolving around him except not only did the dogs show up but two other armed men. This time it wasn’t an ask questions shoot later thing, no they shot and released the dogs.

Aristocrat slunk up from his knees, the wound in his arm sending fire up along his arm, blood running down the sleeve and onto the dewed grass beneath him. He reached inside his suit jacket and pulled out a small glass flask containing a lime green liquid. He popped the cork top and slung the liquid into his mouth. It was cold and tasted of metal but he instantly felt the effects begin to work. The blood flow from the wound ceased and the pain numbed. It would be another few minutes before the potion took full effect and closed the wound totally however.

Aristocrat heard the dogs before he saw them. 2 guards plus a very large Rottweiler rounded the corner, guns raised and teeth bared. “Here we go again.” He mumbled to himself. He pulled another 2 knives from his jacket and hurled them at the guards before breaking into a full sprint towards them. One buried itself into the neck of one of the guards, incapacitating him instantly. The other clashed against the handgun of the other, cutting into one of his fingers. The Rott was in full bound towards Aristocrat. Finally, when it was within striking distance, it leaped at him.

He had anticipated this, of course. It was hard not to with his Danger Intuition. He sensed the dos attack before it had even started. He began a slide along the soft grass just as the dog leapt at him, the 100lb beast flying over its target. He continued the slide, reaching the guard clutching his hand. Aristocrat grabbed the handle of his cane and swiped in an overreaching arc. The poor lad never stood a chance, as he crumpled instantly, his head almost severed from his body. Aristocrat rolled to a crouch and reached for the fallen handgun. It was a Glock 17, basic model, 17 9mm round mag. He ejected the bag, saw 13 rounds left in it, slapped it back in and chambered a new round. Anyone who had been looking might have thought that Aristocrat had handled a gun before. Truth was he had never held one of these ever. It was this new Weapon Proficiency spell he’d cast on himself. He’d been able to handle weapons he’d no previous experience with like he was a master. Though he despised the use of modern firearms (he would have preferred a musket, Derringer or ever a classic 6-shooter) the situation called for a necessary tactical shift. He felt a familiar feeling spike through his brain as he turned and aimed behind him and pulled the trigger on the Glock. The Rott had begun to make a return assault and was rewarded with a quick death. It crashed mid-leap at Aristocrats feet. “Down boy.” He muttered as he began walking away

He made his way across the lawn to the mysterious gentleman who was causing quite a commotion. He had seemingly torn the ground asunder and was currently engaging some new guards and their puppies. He smirked. “To help or not to help?” Helping him would involving killing innocent dogs and slaughtering men who were merely doing their jobs, all over what appeared to be a jacket and 2 bars of gold. Blood for nothing. He raised the pistol and fired at the guards, picking them off. How could The Aristocrat resist?

Before the Phantom even had a chance to dismember the guards and put the dogs to sleep shots were fired into each and every one of them knocking them down flat onto the ground dead. The guards he was okay with randomly dying from the other man’s shots but the dogs, the dogs got to him a little. Sighing he walked over, knelt down and closed their eyes. Standing up he turned around and nodded to the other man. “It seems we both had the idea to rob Fort Knox tonight, and I thank you for saving my life, but I do believe we need to get out of here now. Do you not agree? I would like to talk business with you though, so meet me on top of the building opposite here.” Lucifer said tipping his hat to the man before taking out his umbrella helicopter and flying up into the sky, then out and over the walls of Fort Knox.

Landing on the building opposite of Fort Knox he pulled in his umbrella and placed it down upon the ground. Smoothing out his suit and pants he waited for the man to come, if he did not arrive in promptly ten minutes Lucifer would take it as a disregard to the invitation and would himself leave back to Chicago where he would continue working out his plans for eventually controlling all of the world’s criminal organizations. Chicago and London were already underneath his thumb and although his ‘empire’ of sorts spread across the entire world he did not necessarily own everything quite yet. That would of course take time and money, both of which he still had. They would also take resources he himself did not have and this of course where business partners came in. Business partners like the man he was hoping to talk with.

Aristocrat dropped the gun like it was burning in his hand. He’d have to throw the gloves away now, stained with the filth of 21st century. He approached the strange gentleman, who was leaning to close the eyes of the dogs. A sentimentalist, oh joy! The bag of gold clinked at his side as he re-sheathed his cane and leant upon it as the stranger spoke to him. “It seems we both had the idea to rob Fort Knox tonight, and I thank you for saving my life, but I do believe we need to get out of here now. Do you not agree? I would like to talk business with you though , so meet me on top of the building opposite here.” He tipped his hat and ascended into the sky using a strange contraption disguised as an umbrella. Aristocrat though he was class, he’d grant him that, if not a bit over the top. An umbrella flying machine? If he started squawking, Aristocrat was walking away. He was psychotic, not a weirdo.

Aristocrat did agree it was time to go. However, he didn’t have a novelty flying contraption like the one his new mysterious friend had. He’d have to do it the old fashioned way. He broke into a sprint towards the wall, running at an angle to it. Aristocrat was making for a breaker box, located along the wall for the flood lights facing the lawn. The wail of the alarms hadn’t ceased and he figured more cannon fodder was on the way, and while Aristocrat revelled in the idea of more bloodshed, Arthur was curious about the stranger’s proposition. He was closing in on the box and he could see it was just the right size to give him some leverage.

Aristocrat sprang up, his custom shoes catching the metallic box as he vaulted himself over the wall. He barely made it over the razor wire and heard an audible rip as his suit caught on a bard. The fabric tore away from his body and fluttered all around him. Arthur fumed. “That was a brand new Gilberto original!” At least he’d been smart and taken a second bar with him that might cover the cost of all his expenses so far. He dashed across the lot towards the building the man had indicated. It was odd, but Aristocrat had forgotten exactly what he looked like. He remembered some silly contraption but everything was……..fuzzy. What was going on? He reached the building and made his way to the roof, where he found his associate pacing patiently.

“Now then, what exactly would you like to discuss, Mr……..?”

Upon the arrival of the other man who robbed Fort Knox that night a smile spread across the face of Lucifer Hermes Mercury. The man would certainly be a good addition to the Crime Syndicate’s forces and could even pose as a higher ranking member, like Pitch O’Dell is. The man would certainly fit in with them all very well; he was a natural thief in his own right and just had that air of authority about him. Not to mention he knew how to dress, that was a definite must for anyone who worked for The Phantom, even if he was the world’s greatest thief he was still a gentleman thief at heart. Class and Intelligence before strength and brutality he always said. It got him this far in life and he was damn sure it would get him even further in life as well.

“Call me Lucifer or Mr. Mercury, whichever you prefer, and what may I call you? I do so wish to know the name of one of my future ‘business’ partners.” He said with a smile upon his face, cane out in front of him as he sort of ‘leaned’ on it for support to stand up. Even if he truly did not need the cane it was for good showmanship, as it presented a sort of aura of class that Phantom oh so loved. “Now, as to what sort of business I wish to discuss it is quite a simple one really.” He said as the man’s memory of him slowly came flowing back, everything the man had ever seen, heard or watched about Lucifer came rushing back into his mind. Not just the events that transpired tonight, but everything before, anything the man knew about the Crime Syndicate also came rushing into his head with the realization about who was standing before him.

“I have a feeling you have heard of the Crime Syndicate, yes? Good, well I am the leader of the Crime Syndicate, and no not the figure head leader Number One, the actual leader. As this is so, I do believe you would make quite an excellent addition to the ranks of the Crime Syndicate and maybe even as one of the higher ranking members, right under myself that is. Although to every other member it will look as if you are answering to Number One because as mentioned beforehand he is the figure head leader of my ‘little’ organization.” He said saying little with a sort of drag on it, as the Crime Syndicate was no little organization at all, quite the opposite really as they were the largest underground criminal organization in the world. “So, what do you say?”

It was like waking from a dream. As soon as the stranger mentioned the “Crime Syndicate”, it all came flooding back. Not just the events of tonight, but reports on their exploits, rumours from contacts, hell, he remembered meeting this ‘Number 1’ at a planned heist meeting which Aristocrat bowed out of! How could he forget all this? Unless….

“That’s a very neat parlour trick you have there, Lucy, my boy. I sense no magical capabilities from you so you must be a meta. As for who I am? I’m the Aristocrat.” Arthur mockingly bowed, before rising and squaring up to Mercury, looking him dead in the eyes “I remember your exploits now. A lot of forgotten loot. I must say I’m tempted at your invitation. The idea of being able to steal anything I desire and have people simply forget? Very tempted. But the thing is, I don’t really play well with others, so I don’t know how that will affect our business relationship.” Aristocrat spun his own cane around candidly as Lucifer rested upon his one. He admired the look of it but again, sensed no magical aura from it, which meant 1 thing: it was tech. Aristocrat hated tech. “But I’m never one to turn away a profit or an opportunity when it arises.”

“So here’s my counter-offer. I join your “little social” club and give you 10% of my earnings in exchange for your amnesia ability, access to any and all information you may have on magical artefacts in the world or in your possesion and your word that I don’t work with anyone unless I agree.” Aristocrat extended his blood-stained gloved hand.

“Do we have a deal?”

Lucifer smiled a dastardly, daring, and breathtaking smile as the man introduced himself as the Aristocrat and mentioned that Lucifer was a meta-human, to which he of course nodded to. He was a meta-human and he was proud of it, there was nothing wrong with being one in his mind, and it of course gave him the abilities which allowed him to commit most if not all of the crimes he had committed in his lifetime, so he of course owed his life to the three powers he had manifested, four if you counted his superhuman intelligence, but it was a power most seemed to skip over sadly. So, for simplicity’s sake Lucifer did not count it at that time and moment.

The terms of course came next and they were terms that Lucifer could certainly agree to, he wouldn’t have approached the man himself if he didn’t expect terms, or ideas of one’s own .All thieves in the end were the same, and all came running at the chance to make the deals of a lifetimes but all deals came with a catch or came with a counter offer and this counter offer supplied by Aristocrat to Lucifer was certainly an understandable and acceptable one. One he would be more than happy to accept if it of course meant having a man with the talents Aristocrat had on his own side. “Your offers are certainly more than fair for ten percent of your ‘earnings’ as well as your assistance on heists that need a certain magical touch that you seem to have. I do usually have my men work in teams of two but at times one person is enough for a job; it all depends on where I am sending them and for what reason. If I team you up with someone I will certainly be sure to run it by you first.” He said letting Aristocrat mull over everything that Phantom had said that night.

Then he continued to speak, “But yes, we do indeed have a deal,” he spoke pulling out a card and handing it to the man. “Upon this card holds the address and location of The Crime Syndicate’s mansion and main base if you will. It is not the only one in the world but is the one most commonly used and was the original strong hold when we were just starting up. If you ever give away its location to anyone not approved by me you will forget everything you have seen, heard, or done tonight Mr. Aristocrat. I am not a person you wish to double cross, remember that, because if you do I will simply become a Phantom in your imagination, and a myth parents tell their children at night to you once again.”

Shaking the man’s hand and then tipping his hat in good bye Lucifer Hermes Mercury raised his umbrella into the air and was lifted into the air. Turning invisible he disappeared from sight and was gone before any normal human could react, For Knox and anyone else in Kentucky would never remember he was even there. They’d believe it was some common everyday thief that broke into Fort Knox and simply got lucky, but there would never be any evidence or proof as to who it was that committed the acts. Only one witness of the scene would remember what happened, and that witness now worked for Lucifer, and so he knew he had nothing to worry about. It was all perfectly wrapped up like a present or piece of cake.