Meanwhile in Oriana, as the past six years passed, Oriana and Oreana continued to improve in technology as the morale of the citizens continue to dissipate as crime, oppression of the demi-humans, and wars between the police, gangs, and cartels rage rampant throughout the whole city. The royal family that rule over the city constantly lose favor with their citizens by every passing year as revolutionary groups started to form, all of them being armed, supplied, and influenced by Anarchy’s Blade.
On a peaceful and full-mooned night in a small convenience store, a few customers of the store browse the building’s merchandise, “Just a few minutes till we close.” said the cashier of the store with a tired sigh as he watched the last of the customers leave the store. Just as the last customer left the store, a man walked into the store, followed by four other men.
The man was a tall, well-built, had dark tan skin, and a bald head. He wore black pants and boots, and was shirtless, aside from a black and red, sleeveless, leather vest. The man also had a cybernetic right arm and wore red glowing goggles over his eyes. The men behind him were wearing the same goggles and outfit.
The lead man slammed a black duffle bag and then pulled a gun from the holster on his belt and pointed it at the cashier, “Put the money in the bag, now!” she said. The cashier then frantically opened the register and started to put the money in the bag. The other men scattered and started to take some of the merchandise on the shelves.
As the men robbed the store and the cashier finished emptying the register, the store’s door opened, ringing a door bell. The robbers turned around to see a young man with light brown hair and blue eyes that had a faded orange tint to them. The man was wearing a light orange leather jacket and a black shirt, he wore black baggy jeans and tan-colored boots. he was also wearing a necklace with a blue, oval-shaped diamond.
The robbers pointed their pistols at him, “Don’t move.” the leader of the group said. The young man chuckled and said, “Don’t worry about me, I’m just here for some things, and I’ll be gone.”
“You wanna die, I suggest you get out of here.” the leader said.
“Oh, where are my manners, I’m John, and you guys must be members of that Gillian’s Bridge gang.”
The leader then pulled the trigger to his gun. John quickly couched to the ground, avoiding the bullet. He jumped back up and shot a ball of fire (that was the same size as a baseball) at the leader. The fireball hit the leader in the chest, knocking him across the desk and onto the floor. The other men shot their guns at John, but he used a shield made of magic, and charged at one of the men, tackling him. John knocked the man out and quickly moved to the next man, kicking his gun from his hand and throwing quick, successive punches. As John was fighting one of the men, another then shot at John, but John grip locked the man he was fighting and used him as a shield to avoid being shot.
The two remaining men unleashed their rounds at John, who took cover behind shelves and used a magic shield (a small, round, transparent buckler that had a blue colored glow) to block the bullets. The men ran out of ammo and pulled out knives and charged John, John leaped from cover and fought the two. They swiped their knives and fists at John and he blocked each blow with his arms and shields. John successfully knocked one of them out, leaving one of them left; The last remaining guy then picked up the gun of one of his comrades and fired a shot at John. John ducked, and the bullet hit a tank that resembled that of a propane tank. It exploded, causing both of them to fly though a window and land on the ground outside of the store.
The two men slowly got up and the gang member took a fighting stance, “Come on! Let’s settle this the old fashioned way.” he yelled. John paused for a second before pulling a gun from his jacket and shooting the man. John sighed and walked back into the store, the cashier, who hid during the fight approached John and said, “Nice man, you got em, I mean, you kind of destroyed the store, but damn. Thanks?” John picked up the duffle bag and said, “Yeah, about that. These losers weren’t the only ones planning to rob this store.” He then tuned to run out the door, but before he could, the leader of the robbers came from behind and punched John in the back, sending him falling through the doorway.
The leader walked towards John as he tried to get back up, “You’re magic user, huh? Well, that won’t matter when I’m done with you.”, but before the leader could do anything more to John, police vehicles arrived at the scene. Police officers exited their vehicles with weapons in arm, “Hands behind your head!” shouted one of the officers. The leader put his hands behind his back and kneeled to the ground, surrendering.
The police surrounded the leader and handcuffed him. One officer helped John up, and when John got to his feet, he ran off to a nearby alleyway, pressing his right hand on his left wrist. “Hey, wait a minute!” yelled the officer that helped John. John kept running until he stopped at a remote back alley. He leaned against a wall and inspected his wrist, he saw that it was dislocated, so he bit down on the collar of his jacket and took a deep breath. He relocated his wrist and gave out a loud, muffled grunt; he then wrapped his wrist with a cloth to make a sort of makeshift cast, and continued to run.
As he ran, he came to a part of the lower city where he noticed a few masked demi-human men in black cloaks, handing out fliers to other demi-humans, “See you at the rally, brother. The Father welcomes you to The Brotherhood.” they said each time a flier was handed out. The ones in cloaks stood behind a large, dark blue banner with the face of a gray-colored cat behind a human hand. The cloaked demi-humans took sight of John and one of them said in a hissed manner, “Keep walking, this doesn't concern you ‘normal people’!” the last two words left the demi-human’s mouth in a mocking tone. John diffused the situation by saying, “I don’t want any trouble, I’m just passing through.” before quickly walking off.
He arrived at the body shop where be was taken in by Big G. He entered the shop, “Hey, Otto. Still working hard?” he said as he passed Otto as he was working on a vehicle. John ascended up the staircase and entered the middle room on the left side of the hall. The room he entered was a large, living room-like room with bookshelves on the walls and a large coffee table in the center surrounded by a couch and a few chairs.
“Ah John you’re back,” said Lelana, who was sitting on the couch. “Big G is not in a good mood right now, so I suggest you avoid him.”
“John, you’re back. What’s up, my man.” said a dark-skinned man in a green shirt as he walked up to John and shook his hand.
“I’m doing good, Jamal. How about you?”
“I’m doing good, homie.”
“Hey, Lelana, how’d you hear about that store incident?”
Lelana pointed to a nearby TV that was showing a news broadcast of the store on fire. John tilted his head, “Hmm, that’s not my fault.” he said, turning back to Lelana. The room door opened, revealing Big G, “John,” he said in an annoyed manner. “I told you to rob that store, not blow it up.”
“Sorry, G. The Gillian’s Bridge gang were there first, so I had to improvise.”
Big G got up close to John and looked him straight in the eyes, “Just don’t ‘improvise’ ever again, or else.”
John sighed and said, “Yes sir.”
Big G walked out of the room, Leaving John and Lelana alone in the room.
“You know he’s just looking out for you, right?” Lelana said.
“She’s right,” Jamal said,” You and Aoi are like a son and daughter to him.”
“Whatever, you seen Aoi anywhere by any chance?”
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“Yeah, just after you left to screw up that job, she left to find Dice in the entertainment district.”
“She left to find Dice? That psychopath, you know he’s just gonna get both of them in some kind of trouble.”
“Just calm down, idiot. You know Aoi, she’ll be just fine.”
In the entertainment district, A man walked down the sidewalk as he smoked a cigarette. The man was tall and slim, his skin was a pale white color, and his eyes were a light red color. His hair went down to his eyes and matched the color of his skin. He had a triangular face and sharp-looking teeth that were hidden under a sly grin. He wore a white suit with a red tie and black shirt that was worn under a white vest with gold colored buttons; his hands were covered by black gloves, and his feet were covered by black, leather dress shoes.
The man flicked his cigarette and entered a small drug store, humming to himself. He purchased a bottle of alcohol, he exited the store and continued to walk down the sidewalk. “Hey Dice, wait up.” a man from behind called out. The man caught up to Dice and put his arm around him.
“I’m sorry, who the hell are you?” Dice said.
“Oh come on, you know who I am, you little pole dancer. We shared some moments of passion together.”
Dice brushed the man’s arm off and kept walking, “Nope, don’t remember, sorry.” The man then ran in front of Dice and took the bottle of alcohol from Dice’s hands, “thanks for the drink.” he said. Dice cursed and said, shaking his fist, “Hey, that’s mine, you bastard!”.
The man got a little distance away from Dice before a fist came flying into the man’s face, knocking him to the ground. Dice ran up to the man and said with a gasp, “What have you done, and in front of all these people.” he then kneeled to the ground and picked up a piece of his now broken bottle, “You destroyed my fucking drink! Thanks a lot, Aoi.”
“Sorry, Dice. I was looking all over for you.”
“Shut up, what do you want?”
“Big G wants to see you, so he sent me to search for you.”
“Well, whatever it is it better be important, you have no idea how many clients I have to go through to afford such fine booze. And you owe me for that drink.”
“But, how did you afford that suit?” Aoi asked with a tilted head.
Dice stood up, “A friend gave it to me.” he said before walking with Aoi down the street, entering a neighborhood. As they walked, they were approached by three men in yellow jackets.
“Hey, you in white.” one of the men said.
“Yes?” Dice answered with a slyness to his voice.
“We told you never to come around here, and you come through our territory anyways.”
“don’t blame me, you dummies really need to protect your borders better, it’s a little crap.”
“You watch your tongue or we’ll take it.”
Dice hung his head and said with a sigh, “Yeah, this is getting boring.” as he pulled out a gold colored pistol from his suit and shot one of the gang members, causing the other two to retreat to cover. The two men pulled out their weapons and opened fire on dice and Aoi. The two took cover and traded shots with gang members, Aoi pulled a small pistol from the holster on he leg and joined Dice in the firefight.
“Seriously, Dice? We need to get back to the body shop.” Aoi said.
“We got plenty of time.” Dice said, shooting at the gang members.
As the pair traded shots, more gang member emerged from their homes and unloaded their rounds at Aoi and Dice. Aoi shot a propane tank that was near one of the houses, causing the explosion to set fire to the house, Dice ran forward and took cover behind a dumpster near a dirt road that split through the neighborhood. Aoi Joined Dice behind the dumpster and said, “This reminds me of that time when you caused a fight like this in that club and we barely escaped with our lives.”
“You and I remember that club very differently.” Dice remarked.
As the fight continued, police vehicles started to arrive, with heavily armored police vehicles parking and letting out SWAT teams to put down the firefight. “Uh oh, cops are here, let’s get out of here.” Dice said. The two waited for most of the gang members to turn their attention to the SWAT teams, and ran down the road to safety, successfully escaping the police.
At the body shop, John, Otto, Lelana, Big G, and Lamar were all sitting around the table in the living room. “We’re home!” Dice said as he barged in the room, Aoi following behind.
“Dice, where were you? I had to send Aoi to find you. You had better not caused any kind of war with another gang.” Big G said.
“Eh, chill, boss. I had to work tonight and I forgot to tell you. I was gonna come back anyway.” Dice replied, sitting next to John and putting his arm around him. “John, baby. How are you?”
“I’m fine,” John said, brushing Dice’s arm off of him.” Please don’t call me that again.”
“Suit yourself, So, what’s up, G?”
Big G set down blueprints of a large, three-story bank and said, “It’s time to hit bigger targets. We’re going to perform one of the biggest heist of the year like no other gang has ever done since the Rose Grove gang’s casino heist twenty years ago. The bank’s vault has an estimated 40,000,000 credits in contents.”
“It’s a pretty well-guarded building, boss. How we gonna get inside?” asked Jamal.
“Simple, there’s an old apartment building located behind the bank, the back of that building is attached to the bank where the vault is. All we need to do is disable the security systems and since the walls are made of old bricks and concrete, we drill a hole into the wall and the vault, then boom! We get a sixty second window to take all of the vault’s contents before anyone notices, which is why if we want a longer window, one of us is going to have to distract the guards somehow.”
“Dice then raised his hand, “Can I cause the distraction?”
“Hell no!” said Big G. “You’d just cause a firefight and get us and a bunch of innocent people killed, and the last thing we need is unnecessary casualties.”
“What about the ventilation system?” Lelana said. “If we leak a type of gaseous sedative through the air vents, there would be no one to set off an alarm.”
“That’s a good idea, Lelana. But we would also have to find a way to keep people from entering the place.”
“We could disguise ourselves as those guys that you call in the event of a gas leak.” John suggested.
“We’d also need a vehicle.” said Otto.
“It’s settled then. John, Aoi; you two steal a gas control vehicle, and find uniforms. Jamal, Otto; you two inspect the old building and the bank, find a perfect spot to use the drill, and also keep an eye for cameras and guards, keep track of the guard’s positions and where every camera is; Dice, You get the gas from one of our friends in the black market. Lelana, see if you can hack into the bank’s security mainframe and schedule a shutdown sequence on the cameras. I will see if we can get some extra hands to help us and acquire some good vehicles capable of getting us out quickly if something goes wrong.”
Big G looked at everyone in the room and said, “You all have your assignments for tomorrow morning. Ross Street Gang, you all get a good night’s sleep and the tomorrow after tomorrow, let’s make history.”
Everyone left the room except for Big G. As John and Aoi headed out the door, Aoi asked John how his job went.
“Oh, that… it went great.” he said.
“That’s good.” she replied. “So, any ideas on how we steal that van?”
“I got a few ideas, I’ll get some addresses before we leave tomorrow.”
“Sounds good.”
Just then, Jamal put his arm around John and said, “John, before we hit the hay for the night, why don’t the two of us grab some drinks.”
“No thanks, not tonight. How about tomorrow before we ‘make history’.”
“Sounds good, man. You have a good night.”
“You too.”
Aoi left to a nearby room while John exited the shop building from a backdoor. John entered a small empty yard with a tall wooden fence boxing the yard in. He then set up a table and put bottles and a piece of thin metal on it. John took a stance, stretching his right arm forward and his left arm slightly forward; he then closed his eyes and took a deep breath, picturing fire in his mind. A ball of fire the size of a basket ball shot from the palm of his right hand and another ball the size of a baseball shot from his left. The smaller ball hit one of the bottles while the larger one hit the piece of metal. Just as the targets were hit, John pulled out his pistol and shot the remaining bottles.
“Wow, good shot.” said Aoi, who was sitting on a lower part of the roof of the shop, running her fingers through her hair. She then jumped down next to him.
“I was just practicing for the heist.”
“Your aim is a little off.” Aoi said with a smirk.
“How would you know that, what are you even doing here anyway?”
“I just wanted to know what’s been on your mind.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“You’ve been acting distant lately. Is something bothering you?”
“No, I’m fine.”
Aoi smirked and gave him a light smack on the shoulder, “I know when you’re lying, come on, you can tell me.”
John sighed and said, “Today is the day that my brother and mother died.”
“Oh… I’m sorry, I almost forgot about that. You want to talk about it?”
“No, it’s fine though.” John said, walking back into the shop.
“John, wait,” Aoi said, grabbing John by the shoulder. “Are you gonna be able to steal that van tomorrow? I don’t wanna see you get hurt.”
John gave Aoi a reassuring smile, “Don’t worry, I’ll be just fine. I should be worried about you and your terrible aim with a gun.”
“What? Guns are just different from magic, that’s all.”
“How about I teach you how to use a gun, and maybe some more advanced air magic.”
“Now that sounds like a plan.”
The two headed back outside and John taught Aoi all he knew about using a handgun and a little bit of magic until eventually going back to their rooms and getting some rest.