Realistic or Modern Masks: Thieves of LA

[kaito9049]

Gang of Thieves Caught in Robbery Attempt


After a three-month long investigation, the ring of thieves responsibly for a string of robberies of high-profile targets has finally been broken. "It was a lucky break," says Lieutenant Phillip Warren, who leads the task force assigned to the apprehending of the so-called "Masque" gang. "We got an anonymous tip that clued us in to the robbery in progress."


The Masque gang has garnered somewhat of a reputation among members of the Los Angeles underworld for its efficiency and code of honor. According to several eyewitnesses, the gang never targets civilians or well-respected individuals, leading some to call them the "Robin Hoods of LA". This changed, however, two weeks ago, when a bystander was severely injured during the gang's infiltration of Mayor Filk's fundraiser. "We knew we had to double our efforts after that," Warren says. "These guys crossed a line. For us, it wasn't just about money; it was about saving lives."

A mask worn by one of the suspects.


When the Masque gang was caught last night, they had broken into the main offices of Anderson Tech, a new corporation whose rapid rise has awarded it a contract with the U.S. military. "We are deeply grateful to the LAPD for their quick response to the situation," comments Michael Anderson, the CEO of the company.

One of the members of the Masque gang being led away by authorities.


The gang members are expected to serve several years in prison. If they cooperate with police, they may have their sentences reduced. According to Dr. James Minn, one of the foremost experts in criminal justice in California, there is still work to be done. "A gang - a team - of this caliber won't be shut down in one go. I suspect there's still a mastermind behind the scenes. The Masque gang will be back. I can only hope that the police will be ready."

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New Email Received

Unknown

ATTN: Business Opportunity

Hello,


You don't know me, but I've been watching you. You show great promise, but without a suitable purpose, your talent will go to waste.


I will give you that purpose. You won't just be a common thief any more. You'll be a legend. Maybe even a hero to some.


Tryouts are already over. I'll be in touch.


Regards,


A-MM

 

[kaito9049]

The Safehouse


Queen St., Los Angeles. 15:42



​

Alexander M. was not a drinker. Alcohol dulled the senses and exaggerated the emotions. Besides, he was still several months away from being able to take a sip of wine legally. Somewhat contradictory, to be sure, to be such a stickler for legality. But his criminal record had to be spotless, or at least nonexistent.


Alexander M. was not an anxious person. A few years ago, he and his friends were involved in a car accident. While his peers had panicked over the damage to the vehicle, he remained calm. Some witnesses had claimed that he had "nerves of steel". He himself simply saw no reason to stress over the loss of a material object, as long as the passengers were safe.


And yet, despite both of these traits, Alexander M. could not stop pacing the floor of the lounge. He stopped, checked his watch, sighed, and began walking again. Nearly fifteen minutes, and his guests were to arrive. That is, if they were on time. And had decided to come. And didn't try to blow up the bowling alley that was on the floor directly below. Alex cursed under his breath. There were too many variables out of his control. But he wasn't about to screw this up, not after so many resources and so much time had been dedicated to reconstructing the Masque gang from the ground up. Alex took a breath, wondering if it would be wise to take a drink from the row of glasses on the counter. But no. These were talented, skilled people, and he needed all of his wits about him.


Wilson, who operated the alley/bar downstairs, had been instructed to direct certain individuals to the room on the second floor. The man was rather simple, but he was honest, and even a thief knew the value of a trustworthy soul.


Finally deciding to stop pacing and sit down, Alexander stared at the closed door in front of him, hands clenched against the armrests. A breath. It was time to work.

 

[Mirai]

A black Ducati Monster 821 parked on the side of Wilson's B&B, its owner — a woman dressed in full black with a large leather jacket — paced back and forth, as if she unsure whether to go in or not. Diana received a text message from an anonymous person a week ago, details weren't exactly clear, to meet him/her here at 4pm today, but Diana is a simple person, if it involves money, she is in.


"This'd better be worth it." Diana muttered, then stepped into the bowling alley. The place was rather empty, withonly a small group of 5 or 6 teenagers in the back and a man standing in the shoe booth. "Hello there, I was wondering if you could help me find a man... Or a woman?" The man — 'Wilson' according to his name tag, nodded. "Of course, you must be Mr M's guest. Please, follow me." He led her to underground passage behind a bookshelf in the staff room. "Please look into the camera right over there." Wilson pointed to the top left corner, Diana did as he asked. "You may go in now, the door should be unlocked." She thanked him and he headed back to the bowling alley. "I guess since they saw my face and everything, there's not turning back now." Diana's hand wrapped around the door handle, she gave it a twist and with a gentle push, the door opened ever so slowly.


(That was sort of a mess.... Well, here's a free facial recognition camera, you're welcome)

 

[kaito9049]

Though Wilson had done as requested and sent Alex a notice when one of his esteemed visitors arrived, there was always the off-chance that whoever walked through that door was a threat. But he was confident; he had covered his tracks, done extensive research on his recruits, and there was little chance that someone would risk attacking him when they knew that their faces were on record. So when a woman in black stepped into the room, he didn't show the slightest sign of fear. Perhaps some months ago he would have felt the slightest bit awkward recruiting someone who was older than he, but he had gained experience since then.


"Hello there," he said, quickly going through his mental files. "Miss...O'Hara, was it? Would you kindly close the door behind you?" The young man gestured to the lounge chairs that surrounded him. "Please, have a seat," he said, amicable but not overly friendly. He knew that he had to be careful with this one. Diana was probably one of the more potentially dangerous recruits, if the connection between her and Mayhem was true. Besides that, if she was half as a competent con as he suspected her to be, she could try to pull some tricks. "I'm glad that I was able to talk to you alone, but we should speak quickly," Alex said.


"Oh, how rude of me. My name is Alex. Alex M."


@Identical

 

[Mirai]

Diana closed the door behind her, she took a seat on one of the lounge chairs and made herself seem harmless. She noticed how cautious the man was being, he knows something about her that he shouldn't know, that's for sure. "Ah, so you're the mysterious Mr M." Diana examined him quickly without being too obvious. "Well, it's nice to meet you Alex. And please, call me Diana." She smiled, then leaned forward. "So, what is it that you want to talk to me about? And might I add, why have you called me here?"

 

[kaito9049]

Oh, she was good. Shrinking down to seem unassuming, being as friendly as possible without seeming overbearing. Alex had picked some good talent here. Now he just needed to get her on board.


"Well, I was hoping to have everyone else here before I explained the deal," Alex admitted. "Oh, I'm sorry if I offended you; you're not the only one I invited to this little gathering." He gestured towards a tray of glasses. "Water? Wine? Tea?" he offered, paying close attention to her response.


"To give you a vague idea of what I'm looking for," he said, getting back to the business at hand, "ah, have you ever heard of the Masque gang? I wouldn't be surprised if you haven't - it's only well-known in certain circles. Anyway, it didn't have any rackets or anything of that sort. No, it was a gang of thieves. Robin hoods, according to some folks. You see, they only stole from people who deserved it. Terry Johnson, for example. He owned a bank down on Westwood street, and he had some deal with counterfeiters and a whole bunch of bad business. The Masque gang infiltrated the bank, found evidence of Johnson's wrongdoings, and stole a big chunk of cash while they were at it. That's the kind of gang it was.


"Of course, that doesn't matter anymore. The gang's gone, pinched while trying to sneak into a tech company. But there's still corrupt people in this city. And I want to bring them down."


Alex paused to take a swig of water, trying to gauge Diana's reaction.

 

[Mirai]

Diana grabbed herself a glass of water while she listened Alex, her smile faded slightly when she heard the name Masque Gang. A couple months back, while she was clearing Mayhem's research files, she stumbled upon the Masque folder, there were some interesting stories she read that evening. They were good at what they do, so good they got Old Pete back on Melbourne and a few more strands of white hair. Too bad one silly mistake brought the whole team down.


"Hmm, so Batman needs a Justice League, huh? Well, since I got nothing else better to do, count me in." Diana raised her glasses, then brought it down before her lips, she smelt the liquid, just making sure there was nothing else in there besides H2O.

 

[SimpleReading]

Jeanne looked at her lonely bicycle, wondering yet again if she should go through with this. It had been exactly one week since she had received the mysterious note that had told her to that if she "wanted a challenge" she should be going to a place she had never heard of, in about twenty minutes. Don't get me wrong, she really wanted to go see what it was about. But, logic told her that most people who got strange notes from strange people asking them to meet in a strange place, usually ended up getting chopped into tiny pieces.


But, alas, her logic was far from what she trusted in this world. But she figured that she should take something to help if they did try to chop her into tiny pieces. So, armed with pepper spray, and the wind at her back, she peddled to the meeting place, trying not to think about the less than pleasant outcomes this could have.


As she arrived at Wilsons bowling ally, Jeanne looked down at the note, confirming that she had the right place. She shrugged, locked her bike, and walked inside. She looked around at the other people in the bowling alley, realizing that none of them looked like the kind of person she would be meeting. That is, unless she was meeting a greasy teenage boy. She went up to the man at the booth, and explained her situation. He smiled kindly and lead her down the same passage, going behind a bookcase. When asked to look into the camera, Jeanne was feeling very uneasy, the reality of the situation finally coming into full view. But she quickly pushed those thought aside, she was too far now, she'd have to continue. She walked towards the door and opened it, peeking her head around the corner, before coming fully into view and closing the door behind her. "Oh, um... Hi?"

 

[Ishtarran]

Lucius had walked a mile and a half from his apartment to Wilson's. It had been weeks since he had been there, and well past ten months since he last heard anything about the Masque group. The A-MM sign, talk of a mask, the reference to some of his... antics; it was unmistakable. Alex finally decided that the heat had died down enough and started reassembling the gang... and this time with Lucifer himself on the roster. His memory was foggy at first, but the last line kickstarted quite the jog. That was an amazing streak, though... even had some ladies cheering me on. Why so uptight?


Upon entry to the building, Luc immediately walked up to Wilson's counter and asked for Alex by name. He knew there would be some sort of procedure before going in; that's just how the group worked. A lot more formal than I had kicked with back in the old days... not that the old days were all that fun. Back then there was no reason to the madness he pursued, but with Masque there would be plenty to sup around from the cup of vigilante justice. As these thoughts whirled through his mind, he was brought to a back room with a high definition webcam and told to wait in front of it for a moment. Facial confirmation... probably a record too. I see what you're going for here. After the longest 15 seconds of his life, Wilson finally let him know he was free to pass behind the old bookshelf. And so he walked in, denim jean and jacket clad with the most ridiculously gaudy leather boots he could find, mask in hand as his eyes sought and finally rested on Alex. "Long time no see, eh?"

 

[jiminie]

Out of breath, Leah stopped at a deserted bus stop, pulled out a piece of paper with the address "357 Queen St, Los Angeles" written messily. She'd found the address hidden in lines of code. A hacking competition she was involved in, and won, with a group of people she had met over time, had an address and time disguised with in the database she'd been challenged to hack. "Don't tell your grandmother," rang in her ears like a record stuck on repeat. It was part of the message she'd discovered and the thought of someone knowing her grandmother in any way other than friendly, scared her to death. She'd barely ever lied to her grandmother, but this time, she was 'out at the local computer lab'. Leah checked the address with the bus stops, leant against the pole and shoved her hands in her pockets.


20 minutes later, the bus stopped in downtown Los Angeles, outside a building sign-posted, "Wilson's B&B". Leah cautiously entered, pushing her bag back up onto her shoulder and holding the strap tight.


"I was told to be here?" Nervousness echoed in Leah's tone of voice. Regardless, she wanted to find out who summoned her. She looked at the man stood in front of her, his name-tag claimed his name to be 'Wilson', but Leah didn't trust him.


"Follow me." Wilson lead Leah through to what she presumed to be the staff-room. It was untidy and Leah hated untidy. "Look to the camera."


Leah did as she was told, and looked blankly towards the camera on the wall. Wilson gestured towards the bookcase.


"You're free to go through." Wilson stepped back and gave Leah enough room to enter behind the bookcase and into a room. She heard voices through the doorway.


Upon entering the room, she saw four other people and immediately regretted everything. One man seemed to be in charge with another man stood near him and two other ladies along with them. What the hell am I doing? She continued in, rolled her eyes at the materialistic appearance the room had and slinked her way into the back of the group. Leah stood next to a table with glasses of water, wine and other condiments, wondering what to do now. She placed a hand on the corner of the table and the glasses wobbled, clinking next to each other as they regained their balance. Great, there goes not causing a scene.

 

[Ishtarran]

Having greeted the boss, Luc immediately began to observe the other two, eyeing another making entry as he did so. "Lessee... boss, plus two and me, people still coming... yep. Figured it was time for the sequel, Alex? Heh... I'm probably happier about that than I should be," he noted, adding "but say, the lady over there looks calm and confident. Figure you've briefed her already. I have a fair idea what this is about myself, but the other two look scared shitless." Speaking a tad gruffly, he thought for a moment about lifting up his mask for all in the room to see, but instead simply smirked. "You'll see soon enough. It'll be fun, trust me."

 

[kaito9049]

Alex nodded, pleased at Diana's readiness. Things were looking up; she was skilled and cautious. A good start. "Excellent!" he said, smiling thinly. "Now we just need to wait for--" Before he could finish his sentence, his phone buzzed, informing him of the arrival of one of his visitors. "Speak of the devil." Not completely a figure of speech, as one of the three people who next walked through that door was Lucius Sprague, Lucifer himself.


The young man closely observed each person as they came into the room. Jeanne Short, the young woman whom he had contacted about the burglar job, seemed a little more timid that her profile had suggested. Though to be fair, few could show the signs of confidence that Diana had upon taking the request of a mysterious letter. Besides, her level of nervousness was nowhere close to that of Leah Stone, who very nearly knocked over the tray of beverages, causing Alex to wince slightly. He supposed that this was excusable; he had, if memory served, made a mention of the woman's grandmother. He still felt a tad guilty about that, but he hoped that he could make it up to her.


Standing up and leaning in close to Lucius, Alex spoke in a low whisper. "I'm glad you could come," he murmured. "We'll talk in private later. Watch them closely." He still couldn't trust any of his guests completely, but out of all of them, he expected Lucius to be the most loyal to the gang. They had history, after all. Hopefully, Lucius would be able to pick up on some things about some of the other visitors.


Sitting down again, Alex spoke to the group as a whole. "We're still waiting for a few other people, but I will explain what I can to those you who just entered." Gesturing to each person as he said their names, he continued. "Diana O'Hara, con. Jeanne Short. Lucius Sprague. Leah Stone." The young man decided it best not to give too much information about any of them, apart from Diana, who had already accepted his offer. He wasn't even sure of Lucius would bite. "This is a recruitment for the Masque gang. You are all here because you have talents that I wish to use to better this city. Whether that means anything to you is irrelevant. You will be well-compensated for your time and work, of course. Just as long as you follow a few simple rules, which I will get to later. Even thieves have a code, after all."


Alex waved offhandedly to the chairs around him. "Please, sit, sit! Or stand, if it makes you more comfortable. We still have some time before we officially begin. I will attempt to answer some of the more...individual questions that you have, if you so wish to ask them."

 

[Ishtarran]

Lucius simply nodded, seating himself near the head of the table and keeping an eye out for any more visitors. Alex said there were some yet to come, so he kept up his guard...


While the meeting arranged had already begun, the time being 4:07 now, Joshua nonetheless got off of his moped and walked into the bowling alley. With the distinct lack of food at home, he couldn't afford to turn down a job. He still had the note clenched in his right hand... clever little trick the organizer had pulled, but you could find better ones on Wikipedia, for chrissake. He walked up to the main desk to meet Wilson, and unfolded the note, lighting a cheapie butane lighter behind it, revealing the otherwise invisible lettering. "I'm here to meet whoever sent this note, sir. Could you help me get wherever I'm supposed to be?"


"Sure! Follow me, just one thing we've gotta do before I let you in there. Lotta people here to see Mr. M today."


Wilson led Josh to a disheveled room with an HD camera and had him sit in front of it for a moment. Apparently he was clear, because he was quickly brought back out and pointed to a bookshelf. "Meeting room is back behind there. Knock yourself out, I've got a couple more to wait on." Thankfully, the shelf had wheels attached to railing, so he slid it to the side with relative ease, traversing the door behind and closing both in his wake, taking a flight of stairs until he found himself at an open door leading into a conference room, already containing a multitude of individuals likely invited in a similar manner. Three of them seemed dead calm, but the others were jittery. Josh had no clue what to think... but nonetheless stepped over the threshold.

 

[SimpleReading]

As Jeanne entered the room, she first noticed how surprised she was to see how young the man who seemed to be running the show was. She supposed he would be older. Perhaps she had just watched the godfather to many times, and decided to give him the benefit of the doubt, and see what he had to say. The more people who entered the room, the more safe she felt, and relaxed exponentially as she waited for him to begin whatever he was going to say. While she waited, she silently stood next to the person who arrived shortly after she did, the girl she would learn later's name was Leah Stone, she related to her nervousness, and hoped that by standing next to her it may ease her tension.


Jeanne learned that she was being recruited for the Masque Gang, and felt her stomach curl in excitement. She had watched their arrest on television, but hadn't thought much of it, on the news report they mentioned that they were a no violence gang, which made her even happier. While all of this seemed incredibly absurd, she couldn't think of any questions that would be immediately labeled as stupid. So, she left her post beside the girl and sat down at one of the chairs.

 

[Tenebrous]

4:10PM. 10 minutes late. Well, that was rather expected since Magnus chose to walk to his destination rather than drive. He figured he needed the extra minutes to rethink about his decision. Receiving a message about a job with an additional sentence of 'No Killing.' was, to say the least, sketchy. He never did mention about his little 'incident' to anyone, so how did this mysterious person get their hands on the information? Magnus shook his head, he shouldn't be overreacting over this matter. With a final turn, Magnus reached his destination. Wilson's B&B? He mused to himself, this was an interesting place to meet. He sucked in a breath, this was his final chance to turn back and pretend that nothing ever happened. A hesitant hand rested on the door handle. Should he leave now? Surely this wasn't the only job opportunity that he could find in LA, and he wasn't that pressed for money. As if his arm grew a mind of its own, it pushed the door open.


Magnus let out a sigh, seeing that his fate had already been sealed. Onyx eyes scanned the room, taking in every detail. He noticed that there were a few teenagers hanging out at the back, but he paid no attention to them. He walked over to the booth where a man with a nametag that read 'Wilson' stood. "Hello," Magnus greeted, "I was told to meet someone here." It seemed that something clicked in Wilson's mind. The man sent Magnus a small smile as he led the young adult to an underground passage behind a bookshelf in the staff room. "Door is unlocked, have fun," Wilson said before returning to his booth. Magnus nodded at Wilson before pushing the door handle down, swinging the door open.


He noted that there were, in fact, others that were summoned to the place. "Hi.. I guess?" Magnus mumbled out the last bit. He still needed to work on his socializing skills after all these years.

 

[LumaThePhoenix]

A black, 2015 Dodge Charger Hellcat pulls up to the bowling alley parking lot. The driver door opens and out steps Tyson in a black suit. "She better not be in here." he mumbles to himself as he walks to the front door and opens it. From first glance, it appeared to be just an average alley with some teens. However, Tyson noticed a guy with the nametag "Wilson" and walked to him. "Can I help you, sir?" asked "Wilson". "I got a message from a guy that claims to have been watching me." Wilson smiles a little and leads Tyson to the outside of a room where he instructs him to go look at the camera. Resisting the urge to raise his middle finger up, Tyson showed his face to the camera long enough for the door to be unlocked. Tyson opened the door and saw multiple people. With arms folded, he walked towards them, looking at the guy who appeared to be the mastermind in the room. "I'm guessing you're the guy that sent me that message?"

 

[Mirai]

Diana watched as more and more people came in. "Now, this is more like it, well done Batman." She muttered, observing each person carefully. To her surprise, she was able to recognize some of them from their criminal records(there are only so many things you can do while waiting a police officer's office. Reading criminal records is the more amusing option) : the first brunette, Jeanna Short as Alex has introduced, fined for petty theft. Lucius Sprague, haha, the nudist, not much to say about him. Leah Stone, computer whizz. Diana could see roles for the two girls, but Lucius, what's he going to do? Strip in front of the crowd while others do their thing? She wasn't sure.


Much later, three more joined the party. She couldn't recognize the first guy, the second was fined for speeding, Maggie or something. Third guy looked familiar, but she couldn't quite put her finger on it. So she waited for Alex to introduced the rest.

 

[jiminie]

Leah listened to Alex and sheepishly, edged herself away from the somewhat dangerous table of glasses. She found a chair off to the side of the group and watched everyone carefully. After her, three other people entered. Leah began adding them up in her head, one.. two.. three.. four.. Leah counted seven people in total. She wondered if anymore were to come or if she could finally relax and find out what she was doing here. One of the ladies seemed quite laid back and calm, everyone else, except the man Leah had seen standing fairly close to Alex, appeared curious just as she did.


Regardless of her feelings, Leah sat and waited to be told why she had been called down into an odd and suspicious looking room along with a group of people.

 

[kaito9049]

Alex was surprised. He had sent out more invitations than he had required, as it was very likely that at least some of them would decline, or even ignore the message. Well, there was still the possibility of the former, but if things continued as they were, the seemingly obliterated Masque gang could prove to be quite large. Perhaps they could even take on more than one job at once, or tackle larger targets than were thought possible.


The increased number of members had its own set of problems, however. The original gang had only six members, which allowed the team to remain tightly-nit and efficient. With a total of seven potential members, not including himself, plus two more who had yet to arrive, Alex would have his hands full to make sure that every member of the crew was loyal. Of course, the idea was that all of them would be loyal from the beginning, but unfortunately, trust could fade, being replaced with rivalries and feuds. Alex couldn't let this incarnation of the Masque crew turn up like the last.


The young man checked his watch. "There's still a couple of people we're waiting on, but I think that you've all been patient enough." He stood up and cleared his throat, addressing the room. "My name is Alex M. I know all of your names. And soon, if all goes well, so will each of you. Some time ago, the Masque gang was effectively disbanded, due to a rather unfortunate event which ended in the majority of the members' arrests."


Alex paused to glance at Tyson Kiaser, whose criminal history he had become quite familiar with. "But many of us are survivors here. I am rebuilding the Masque gang from the ground up. Today, you have a chance to be a part of it. We will be targeting the corrupt and greedy of this city, the ones who stand on the heads of others to reach the top. But we won't be killing them - we won't be killing anyone. We'll be stealing their resources, their relationships with the public, and perhaps even their freedom." Alex took a sip of water and sighed. "Many of you have secrets. Things you don't necessarily want to share with others, or with me. And I can respect that." Chuckling slightly, he admitted, "Though I have to say that I know just about all that I need to about each of you." Not completely true, but close enough.


The young man sat down again. "So, any questions?"

 

[PeachyEm]

Louis was late. It wasn't surprising, really, he was late to just about everything. There's no greater entrance than one where you're fashionably late, is there? Though, he sort of had the feeling that this wasn't some friendly get-together or casual business meeting. The message he'd received had been quite ominous, maybe a little creepy, but he was still pleased to be here. He needed a new job, something more interesting and exciting. And as this person seemed to know about his "skills," he assumed this would bring that.


He was met in the bowling alley by a desk worker - Wilson - who seemed to be expecting him. After a short chat and an odd camera room he was lead out to a small hallway. "Door's open," Wilson said, leaving Louis to his own devices. Well, here we go.


Louis pushed open the door, trying to be quiet as he stepped into the room. Perhaps being late wasn't the best idea - He'd missed out on the first part of the introduction, but he caught about the second half as he snuck quietly into a seat. He wasn't tense or worried, not even all that confused. People were sort of his element. And, he had to admit he liked the idea of taking from the greedy. That was a good cause. This wasn't that illegal, was it? He decidedly just stayed quiet for now, happy to sit back and watch and take things in. He found observing helped him - He did have a lot of experience, after all. He trusted his instincts.

 

[Mirai]

After Alex gave his speech, one more guy walked in, he seemed comfortable, almost as comfortable as Diana was while she tested out the different variety of wines. "So batman, I do believe the Masque Gang isn't called the Masque gang for nothing, yeah?" She glanced over at Lucius, who has been holding onto a rather creepy lookin Satan mask, for a quick second.


(I hope this is not too short.)

 

[kaito9049]

"Correct," Alex replied, nodding to Louis Bennington, the other con he had invited, as he did. Gesturing to Lucius's mask, the young man continued. "Traditionally, members of the Masque gang have worn ornate, well, masks. Now the trick is to not be seen at all, but in the case that you are, it's wise to be wearing something to cover your face. Unless you're speaking to someone, of course. Masks are only worn by thieves or madmen, so make sure you're one or the other. Or both."


Alex cleared his throat. He was getting off-track. "You may wear a simple ski-mask, if you so desire. But for those of you who are feeling a little...creative, there is a workshop down the hall. Assuming, of course, you accept my offer." He sighed and rubbed his temples. "To be honest, the masks are a little cheesy for my tastes, but they're sort of the gang trademark." Looking up again, he asked, "Any more questions?"

 

[kaito9049]

After a period of time, during which no one spoke up (though because of earnest compliance or simple fear Alex couldn't be sure), the young man decided that it was best to move on. "Very well," he said, looking over each of the potential recruits. "I will not force you to join the Masque gang. But I will give you fair warning: if any of you are considering leaking any information to the police or to enemy entities, just remember that I have your information too." Alex paused for dramatic effect, something he had picked up over the months. Satisfied that his message had gotten across, he delivered the final offer.


"Make your choice now. Walk out that door and go back to whatever life you were living. Or use your talents and skills to fulfill a greater purpose. And, I suppose, make some cash on the side."

 

[LumaThePhoenix]

Tyson folded his arms as he listened to Alex speak. He weighed his options. On one hand, he had the chance of a lifetime to get paid while actually using his thieving skills for good. On the other hand, he had to worry about trusting everyone else in the room. It was a risk he was willing to take. "So we're gonna be good guys by doing bad things to bad people? Throw in a milkshake and some ribs and I'm in." He says with a smirk.

 

[SimpleReading]

Jeanne thought for a moment, about the situation she had found herself in. She looked around at all the people that were there, and pondered her decision. She had never thought about using her talents as a way to "fulfill a greater purpose." She stared into space, not quite paying attention to what others were doing in the room. She had grown comfortable in the room, figuring that if anything bad was going to happen, it would have already happened by now. It would definitely be dangerous, and could end with her being thrown in a cell at the end of the situation. There were so many threats to think about, what if someone recognized her? She would have a mask, theoretically, but they could still recognize her clothing, or hair, or anything else about her. But wasn't that the point of it all? To risk it all for the greater good, she wasn't going anywhere with her life at this point, plus, cashiering doesn't pay college bills.


She was snapped out of her little thought session by a voice, it seemed that someone had accepted the offer already. Acting on impulse, before she could talk herself out of it, she quickly spoke. "Yeah me too, whats the worst that could happen?" She joked, leaning forward again and crossing her legs. She hoped he wouldn't answer that question, for her own well-being.