Tally Ho, chums! (Gentleman and the crime syndicate)

New York, New York, its one heck of a town. . .

Gentleman could not help but to think of the old and rather corny movie as he flew over the traffic that roared along the street this late night. Although, flew may be a bit strong a word. Whilst he was hovering above ground at relatively high speeds, he did not flap his arm, nor look like the traditional "flying hero". He looked more akin to a man standing on an an invisible floor, wich made his method of traveling even more peculiar. He adjusted his monocle and purveyed the people below him with a smug smirk plastered on his face. Most of them quickly darted away, pressing themselves against walls as he flew past, but this did not worry him. Instead it actually made him quite happy. Despite his absence from his old stomping-grounds it seemed that New York had not yet forgotten the Blueblooded Gentleman Thief and his antics.

He was not going to commit any crimes tonight, no. This tiime he was only out and about to "test the waters" so to speak. To see what his relationship with the public was at the moment. But as I mentioned earlier he had been rather pleased with the reception he had been treated too. A particurlarly quick-thinking youth even produced a cellphone and started to film him. Gentleman smiled politely and tipped his hat at the man. Such initiatives aught to be encouraged for the sake of public relations. Hopefully it would end up on the news tonight, but he knew that it was probably a little too much to hope for. After all, he had not really done anything worthwhile tonight, but tomorrow he would definately cut the slack in that department. He would rob a bank and then. . . No! A jewellers! Any two-bit villain could rob a bank, but it took a true connoiseur to  properly rob a jeweler. Knowing the good stones from the bad was the mark of a truly sophisticated villain, and he had no intention of letting the public forget that he was sophisticated above anything else.

He knew that many other villains called him a fop, but it did not bother him much. The plebeians would always try to put down those who were born better out of jealousy. Besides, there was a big difference between him and most villains active in this region. Most of the other heroes or villains had civilian identities, but it was fairly obvious that the villany/heroism was their primary motivation in life. He had seen many of them pour their heart and souls to thwart his crimes, wich were not commited for all that good reasons. Most of them where for the thrill of it all. He was Manfred Gentle first and Gentleman second. It was a hobby more than anything.
These thoughts made him even happier. It meant that whilst other put their souls into their "villany" he had basically the same power-level and successrate by simply engaging in a hobby.

New York, New York, the city that fell. Whenever someone entered the dastardly place it seemed as if they were entering a completely new world, and yet Phantom found himself in the city anyway. He was there strictly on business from the Syndicate, another recruitment it seemed and hopefully this one would turn out a lot better than the last one. The ‘target’ or simply person of interest was a Manfred Gentle who went by the alias ‘The Blue Blooded Gentleman Thief’. It was all quite a mouthful and honestly Lucifer saw no reason to call the man thus and so was simply going to call him by his name instead of the villainous one he gave to himself. Of course, Lucifer had to find the man first. This as it just so happened did not seem as if it would be that hard as the man liked having a public appearance more than The Phantom liked to keep his secret.

Stepping up to the edge of the rooftop he now stood upon Lucifer watched in amusement as Mr. Gentle ‘flew’ threw the air and even stopped to bow his hat at a man recording him. It had that terrible upper class snob act that Lucifer’s father liked to play off that it nearly sickened the man. It would have too if not for the simple fact that Lucifer knew he himself could be placed in the same category as this man whom he was about to encounter face to face for the first time. Raising his umbrella into the air it ‘roared’ to life and Lucifer took to the air slowly descending down to the level that Manfred himself was at, coming in from behind him.

“Manfred Gentle I assume?” The Phantom asked flying in next to the man, his helicopter umbrella allowing him to simply glide next to the man. “I am Lucifer Hermes Mercury, better known as The Phantom. I am with the Crime Syndicate and I would like to make you an offer; gentleman thief to gentleman thief.” Upon revealing who he was to the man Phantom’s primary power, Forget Me as he called it, would slowly start to fade away and any recognition the man’s brain might have residing deep inside of it would slowly start to come back. Any and all heists that Phantom had committed that Manfred had heard of, seen, or thought to do himself would ever so slowly start ringing about in the gentleman’s brain. It was quite a useful ability as it not only allowed Phantom to keep himself in the shadows and work behind the scenes, or even let him get away from any crime without a hitch, but it also added an air of mystery.

An air of mystery he quite enjoyed. The look upon the faces of all those who had heard of him or met him before coming back full force into their minds was a wondrous sight to behold. With each and every person, even the same person at times, was never quite the same and the time it took for them to remember was never the same either. “I do hope you do not mind me intruding upon your territory, usually I would of course have no problem as most criminal territory does belong to the Syndicate, but I myself cannot stand the filth that New York City has degraded to.”

Manfred was rather shocked to hear someone call him by his birth-name rather than the moniker he had chosen for himself when he entered this line of work. Of course, it was not as if he had thought that nobody would know whom he actually was, only that he did not expect the person to know to be. . . An ascended fanboy? How quaint. He even had the same "top-hat slash umbrella" Apparantly this one compensated for his lack of natural flight with a rather peculiar flying unbrella.

"Yes, yes. Well done figuring it out, my boy. Very spiffy. However, since I am 'in uniform' so to speak, I would much preffer it if you used the correct name for this persona I have created and painstakingly cultivated throughout the years. If you are unable to do this, you may refer to me as 'Sir' for a less. . . Syllable-intensive workout" The gentleman said in a dismissively smug tone as he adjusted his monocle in a rather snobbish way as he sneered at the newcommer

He was just about to kindly but firmly tell the wannabe off further, when he realized that he knew who he was. How could he forget the phantom? He had been something of a major figure before the fall of New York. It was strange how he could have forgotten, but it was a late night and anything could have happened. Besides, he had been neglecting his alternate identity somewhat lately. Perhaps he was losing his edge along with his knowledge. Upon this realization his snobbish sneer quickly changed into a very amiable and toothy smile.

"My, I must apologize for my rudeness back there, ol' chap. Didn't recognize you, you see. Thought you were one of those pesky admirers that pop up every now and then. I must say it is quite the pleasure to finally meet you in person my good man. I say! That umbrella is quite the eye-catcher, eh what, ol' bean?" The Gentleman said in a way that managed to be smug, chummy and theatrical at the same time. The sneer on his face had

Gentleman agreed wholeheartedly about new york having degenerated since the city had been destroyed last time. He didn't like what had become of the city afterwards, it was practically a no-mans-land or a warzone. Definately not the sort of place suitable for his brand of villainy.

"Indeed. Personally I finde the post-war decor so lacking there are no words for my disgust. But, as they say, home is home." He said with theatricaly a disgusted sneer on his lip,

"But I find that the worst part of the Catastrophy that befell our once-fair city is that it completely wiped out my networks and known fences. Quite hard to peddle stolen stones in this get up, I'll have you know. Oh well, I doubt you came here to listen to me complain, ol' boy." He blathered on, still in the same theatrical manner and still with the somewhat snobbish tone to his voice

"I would like to inquire about this offer you had for me" he said half-disinterestingly. Of course, it was a sham. He had heard about the crime-syndicate. With their help finding fences and the like would be no problem. Not to mention the potential for joint efforts against targets far bigger than anything he had dared to tackle before.