First Heist (Prologue)

--- Joshua ---

Having pushed his deadline as far as he could, he found himself unable to waste any time making his way to the gang house he’d marked as his target. Especially after getting an ominous text saying, ‘Watching the house and you.’ Which he figured meant that the Doctor and his people -or at least whoever they had working as his safety net- were getting impatient.

All of this compounded with a bad case of nerves from his first real Mask outing found him pacing back and forth on a rooftop capable of spying on the gang house a few blocks away.

“Okay, I can do this. I can totally handle one little gang house.” He told himself.

(You absolutely can, which is why there’s no need to panic.) Himself told him back.

“What? No!” He chuckled nervously. “I’m not panicking. I’m just… I’m just suffering from a bad case of first show jitters.”

(Right… Does lying to yourself help with that?)

“A little bit.”

(Then continue.)

Inhaling and then letting out a deep breath he shook out his hands and feet. “Okay, I’ve got this. This is no different than what Chris used to do when he was a Mask.”

(If for less altruistic reasons.)

“Shut it you.” He glared at the space around him.

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(...)

He gave himself a nod of satisfaction before… deciding to stall just a moment longer by pulling out his phone and using his scoping app to give the house another once over. “What? A little bit of extra recon never hurts.”

(...)

“I can feel you judging me!”

(You mean you can feel you judging yourself?)

“I told you to shut up!” He snapped at himself, before frowning as he messed with his phone. “Huh, what are they doing?”

From what he could see, the various gang members seemed to be coming and going from the house and to the cars they were leaving open, almost as if they were, “Ah, shit, they’re packing up to move safehouses.”

Meaning that a number of the goods that had been stashed at the safe house had likely already been transported to a second unknown location, where there was no telling what kind of defenses he’d be up against. “Fu-u-uck, this is bad.”

(Maybe not entirely.)

He blinked, before considering it. “If they’re moving their goods to another location, odds are they’re also leaving some of their guys there to watch the stuff. And that’s not including whichever guys they have transporting the stuff in the first place. Meaning if I’m lucky, the more trips they make the fewer of them I’ll have to fight my way through should things go sideways.”

(But…) Some part of him prodded him to continue.

“But if I wait too long, then there won’t be any goods worth stealing, which could turn this entire night into a bust.” He realized with a grimace. “Which the Doctor probably isn’t going to appreciate.”

Running a hand down his face, he shook his head before giving the house another once over on his phone. “Okay, in that case, I’m just going to have to figure out how I’m going to do this quick. Shouldn’t be too hard, I mean I was mostly going to make this up as I go anyway.”

(Heh, plan can’t go wrong if there’s no plan in the first place.) He couldn’t help but laugh at that terrible bit of advice. (Then again, it’s not necessarily wrong as long as I know what I want to get done.)

“Either way though,” He spun in place, turning into a whirl of black ink, before reappearing dressed in his cabaret best. “It’s showtime.”