Shade decided to ignore the doubt-filled comments from the winged teenager. Even if things weren't exactly thoroughly planned out, fifty thousand dollars was a lot of money, and something the shadow mutant knew would persuade the cocky youngster to help out with the heist. Well, Shade did not know for certain that the teenager would help out, but he was pretty sure. Better yet, he was darn sure. And sure enough, Griff was hooked.

"How about...right after sunset? Around eight o'clock? Dropoff should be around nine." Sahde said, reponding to the time aspect of their meetup.

"If nothing else, I'll see you then." Shade said, turning on his heels and walking back towards the door leading off of the roof.

---

If the winged boy decided to observe the dropoff point the next night, he would see approximately ten gaurds patrolling outside of the service entry to the adajacent building. He would also easily notice the ridiculous amount of spotlights that were pointed in every direction. Stretched between the excessive amounts of spotlights were several large, orange power cords, swinging in the light city breeze. They were just waiting for someone to swing by and severe them. There couldn't have been a visible shadow in a hundred yards of the building. What he wouldn't see were the twenty more guards inside the complex, armed to the teeth with high powered rifles and fully automatic weapons.

---

The night had arrived and Shade had switched out his casual clothes for his battle gear. As he threw the large, oversized grey cloak over his shoulders, the shadow mutant 'jumped' out of the Sanctuary at half past seven and landed on the designated roof with five minutes to spare before the strike of eight o'clock. Glancing down at the bright lights flooding the complex below, a shiver of feel ran down the shadow mutant's spine. It was feeling that he did not get very often for he usually had nothing to fear. However, there were definitely not many hiding spots in that swarm of lights below.

Moving away from the hated light, Shade glanced around the rooftop, wondering if his 'partner' had chickened out on him. He really actually needed him for this mission to be a success, because there was no way he could get in there with all those lgihts.

Once they parted Carrick had a slightly sour taste in his mouth the kind he got when he was going to do something he shouldn’t and knew what his mother would say. She’d ground him for a year if she knew what Carrick was thinking about doing but his Da? His Da was the reason he was doing this how many times did his Da put him to bed with a story like this one. A classic robin hood story only they planned on keeping it instead of giving it to the poor, Carrick thought to himself on the flight home that maybe, just maybe he should give some of the money back. After all it was a lot of money even split two ways.

A few hours passed and Carrick decided on two very sharp hatchets as his sharp tools to use. It wasn’t like he was skilled in much else. He could swing them and with the downward pull of gravity they’d be heavy enough to do some damage. He wasn’t super strong or skilled with a sword like Koga so this was his best bet. They were sharp, deadly sharp he had one of the older students sharpen it with his mutation making it razor sharp.

Soon it was the next day and time for the job very carefully Carrick put the hatchets in their leather sheaths on his belt where they snuggly sat and refused to move until he’d release them for work. Again he wasn’t skilled with them so instead of drawing attention to him by walking out of the mansion he just jumped from his window and flew off in the direction Shade said the building was.

Mentally kicking himself for not checking it out earlier Carrick was at least a little thankful when he left the mansion it was still light out. When he got there Carrick realized that Shade drastically undersold the situation. There were a few people roaming the alley ways walking back and forth making it clear they were on guard and for the lights? There were more than Carrick thought there would be. ”This is all Arseways…” Carrick said to himself as he flew high over head with a pair of binoculars.

Carrick cursed more to himself and flew towards the meeting location to look for the ape who was getting him in way over his head. ”Shade? Ya eejit you didn’t say their were going to be this many lights.” it didn’t mean Carrick was poultry he’d still do it he was just not a fan of surprises such a this. ”Where are ya?” Carrick asked looking around the roof top.

The invisible mutant had moved over to a nearby rooftop vent to keep a tad bit warmer in the chilly autumn air as he waited for his partner to arrive. It was a two minutes past their designated arrival time, and the shadow mutant had just had his first consideration that the kid had been too scared to show up when the sound of large wings, flapping in the still air caught Shade's ears. The shadow mutant closed his eyes and 'felt' into the darkness, trying to find the bird brain in the surrounding darkness. He did not have to search far as the winged mutant quickly landed on the roof before demanding for Shade's location. After a prolonged moment of silence (just to make Griff wonder if he was actually there), the invisible mutant replied from the darkness.

"I'm here." Shade said as he flicked his lighter and his disembodied face appeared as the light of the flame disabled his mutation. Once he was sure Griff had seen him, the shadow stalker hopped off of the vent and walked towards the winged mutant, the only notably change being that the sound of crunching gravel and the smoke from his brief as it condensed in the air in front of him.

"Like I said, I've got nothing to worry about after you take care of the lights." Shade said, answering to the boy's concerns

"Good choice." He commented, noticing his accomplice's choice of cutlery. "You still up for the task?"

Carrick looked at shade and nodded his head, ”Hell Yeah! For…” Carrick paused and lowered his voice some more so he wasn’t talking loudly, ”The amount of money that we are about to pick up from here… You best know not to double cross an angel ya bowsie. We have a tendency to avenge.” Carrick said unbuttoning his first hatchet at his waste towards the head that was now visible from the darkness after the lighter was lit.

Carrick smirked revealing his elongated canines ”Shade huh? Figured you were gonna be as useful as tits on a bull… but I see that isn’t the case…” Carrick knocked one of the hatchets free and hefted it upward and rested it on his shoulder with the blade side in the air. ”Last question before we go, where we going to meet?” Carrick asked seeing as that this was his last concern before taking off.

Opening his wings Carrick flapped them once and lifted into the air, ”I’ll get started then ya? Just make sure no one gets a jump on me and this will go off without a bang nice and quite.” Carrick said as he lifted himself into the air away from the street they were targeting so no one could see a giant wingspan carrying a boy towards some lights that just happened to go out. The less people knew he was involved the better and as of right now the only one that knows he was there and involved was shade.

Once in the air Carrick turned south towards the third furthest light, there were seven lights total preventing him and Shade from a large sum of money, With a quick swoop and a clash of broken glass Carrick took number three out before swooping back up and using the buildings as cover to hide himself. Light number six was his next target as his hand tightened around the rubber gripping of the hatchet. Mid flight Carrick realized how convenient a slingshot would have been opposed to the hatchets. Lesson learned.

"This spot seems like the most logical location." Shade said, responding to the youngster's question.

"However, if things do not go according to plan, we can always meet back at the Sanctuary. Humans and police, alike, would think twice before showing their face there. Do you know where that is?"

With their rendezvous points established, the angel-like mutant lifted himself into the air and disappeared into the darkness. Left alone on the rooftop, Shade moved to the edge of the roof and peered down at the target building. It appeared the dropoff vehicle had just arrived, in the formed of a large armored vehicle. Reaching out with his shadow sense, Shade felt the large bird-like wings of Griff swoop low through the buildings. Then a light fell. The tiniest tinkling of galss could be heard from Shade's location as the fragile material was shattered into a million pieces. The shadow mutant opened his eyes as a large section of viable area for him to 'jump' into suddenly appeared. It was time to go to work.

Immediately after the first light was hit, the mercenaries jumped into action. The Torch flashlight that each had on the end of their assault rifles were lighted as they moved to cover their now-vunerable position. Two spotlights, concealed inside the building, blazed to light and began to move through the darkened area as they searched for the mutant that they knew must be present. However, while they worked, Shade was already a step ahead of them, because he knew another light was- there! The second light was hit and as darkness consumed, the shadow mutant was already on the move.

His feet hit pavement as he landed where the second flood light had gone dark. A henchmen in front of him was wildly swinging his flashlight around, trying to light up everything around him. The Torch flahsed past, causing Shade to be visible for a moment, but by the time, the mercenary had moved it back, the slippery mutant had already 'jumped' behind him. The man was obviously shaking in fear of his life as Shade withdrew a knife.

"Boo!" Shade whispered into the man's ear as his blade sliced into the guard's throat. The man tried to scream, but it was cut short. However, the shout immediately draws the attention of the others. Every light in the area seems to fly to the body of the man lying dead on the ground. However, there is no Shade. He has already moved on to his next target.

(OOC: Feel free to move the NPC's around, shoot at you, shine the spotlights around, etc. as you like. I have no special plans for them.)

”Coddle!” Carrick said to himself as he flew low over the building seeing the spotlights shift from the sky to the side of the buildings. They were looking for him now or shade either way he had to finish taking the lights out. Another light out and he was gone again three down now four to go then Carrick could move back to the rally point. Seven lights was all he had to do right? There wasn’t going to be much of an opportunity to hit the search lights that were up and moving and the odds of Carrick hitting a flashlight without getting shot or hitting someone were nonexistent.

Despite people yelling and shouting and shooting their flashlights everywhere it still didn’t occur to Carrick that this wasn’t a game. Three lights down four to go Carrick was being more cautious now making sure the spotlights didn’t hit him before he hit the next light. Carrick couldn’t be seen or at least he preferred not to be seen, he had wings and that set him apart from everyone else as it made him easy to identify and according to a few staff members in the mansion and his friend Jorge he was skating on thin ice and Carrick was pretty sure this qualified on breaking the ice.

Too busy to see what was going on in the shadows Carrick waited a few seconds till one of the spot lights passed over the nearest street light before flapping over to it and swing at the glass with a quick strike. There was a popping sound and then the glass shattered. Carrick smirked and looked to the next ones hearing the yells and shouts turn into some screams.

Still oblivious to what was going on below Carrick used the buildings as cover again this time when he made his way to the third to last light he was hit by the spotlight causing him to go blind for a second. Carrick covered his eyes but didn’t move until he heard a series of loud bangs followed by the sound of several things whistle pass him. That was when he finally realized what was happening he was being shot at. Carrick’s first response was to fly away but instead of getting higher the winged mutant dove towards the nearest building they couldn’t shoot what they couldn’t see. ”Da is never gonna believe this because I’ll never tell him ‘bout it…” Carrick said his adrenaline pumping causing everything to slow while he gathered his wits and focused on now two of the seven lights it seemed the gunman accidentally shot one of the street lights. ”Eejits.” Carrick said as he moved to the next street light.

Shade was beginning to find out that these mercenaries were well worth however much they were getting paid as the shadow mutant was quickly losing places to hide. Even as more floodlights fell, the gaps that appeared were quickly filled in with hessians brandishing flashlights attached to machine guns as more rushed out of the doors on the front of the building. Shade swore he had almost been caught at least a few times now, only escaping thanks to human error. He had managed to down another guard by 'jumping' above him and knocking him out before disappearing again. Currently, he had hidden in the shadow of a nearby vehicle as he crouched to stay in the comfort of the car's shadow.

The mercenaries had began to fire off rounds into the sky seeming to have spotted the source of the ini attack against their carefully constructed light fortress. There were still at least three floodlights that needed to be taken down before Shade could have a dark enough spot to slip into position to steal the precious cargo in the armored vehicle. Gunfire again lit off as the winged mutant made a low pass. But with the tunnel vision of shooting, one of the mercenaries accidentally shot out the floodlight that was above him.

Shade moved before the glass had even manged to hit the ground. He 'jumped' in motion and sprang on the careless man with a knife blade, driving it in just above the collar bone. Then as the mercs reacted to the sudden darkness, Shade 'jumped' back out and slid behind a pillar on the skyscraper's entrance that protected the shadow mutant from both bullets and the dangerous light.

"Only two to go." Shade whispered as he edged near the corner in preparation for Griff's next pass.

‘Don’t stop don’t stop don’t stop’ thought Carrick as he felt his heart beating faster and faster, he was scared and excited and a dozen other emotions all in one but they all told him one thing don’t stop. The adrenaline made everything better more clear two lights left and then this could be all over that was his only part in this make it dark. A stray bullet shot by with the sound of a supersonic bumble bee Carrick closed his mismatched color eyes for a quarter of a second then focused on the second light.

Other than ‘Shade’ being shady Carrick doubted the mercenaries hands full enough to distract them completely if they were smart, which Carrick was hoping they weren’t they should have rallied under the remaining street lights and been ready from all angles. Luckily for Carrick by the time he got to the second to last light it seemed they weren’t too focused on keeping the lights on but rather fighting off the darkness, which was shade.

Swooping low and then up Carrick turned over in a barrel roll swinging his hatchet into the second to last light, it seemed things were going to be done shortly. Like he did before Carrick fly over the buildings and took cover behind the rooftops to avoid being hit. Being hit was bad.

The last light had two men with spotlights under it and they were shooting it in several different directions while there were three gunman shooting about. Carrick swooped low and yelled out, ”Hope ya Eejits aren’t afraid of the dark!” Carrick heard a bang and then swung down hitting the last light causing it to go black except for the flashlights. A quick pain jolted through Carrick’s right arm and he took off back to the rally point.

Like a bat out of hell he was there in the darkness on the rooftop out of breath. He waited for a few seconds and holstered his hatchets then reached up to his right bicep where there was some pain. Pain and blood. Carrick winced and touched the wound from what he could tell it was something like a flesh wound there was no giant hole or a bullet just pain and blood. Carrick cursed and took off his shoe and sock and then wrapped his tube sock around his injured arm. ”Doc is gonna be curious about this one…” Carrick cursed to himself as he looked around for Shade hoping he actually finished the job instead of being gunned down in the streets.

In between the gunfire, Shade heard the winged mutant shout something out at the mercenaries as he swooped in for another path, knocking out the last light that was cutting off Shade's path. He 'jumped' behind a merc firing into the sky and sliced a dagger across the back of his knees, causing him to scream in pain and fall back, still firing. The bullets bounced around the other guards, taking down two others. As Shade moved slid from behind him, a spot light blasted Shade into vision.

Like a deer in the headlights, the shadow mutant froze for a moment before something punched him in the right shoulder. The round's impact hit Shade so hard that he rolled back from the shot. Luckily, the armored vehicle was near as he continued to roll again and again as the other guards tried to blast him. Rolling under the vehicle, Shade was safe from most rounds, but it did not stop the shooting. Hiding under the bulletproof truck, Shade had little room to maneuver. A nearby guard sprinted over and stuck his gun under the vehicle, blasting away. One could only guess if the shadow mutant could survive the assault of a machine fired at such a close range.

Slowly Carrick tied his shoelaces once his shoe was back on. Sock wrapped around his arm Carrick felt some what proud of himself he didn’t cry, yet and it seemed that things were going perfectly all he had to do was wait for Shade to reappear with his money. ‘Half right?’ thought Carrick who was jumping up and down not really fully processing everything that had transpired this night. He was shot at, shot, and was most likely an accessory to some kind of theft. It wasn’t like he killed anyone so it wasn’t murder right?

It took Carrick a few minutes to catch his breath during the time he heard a few gunshots still going off while the area he was at a few minutes before had the spotlights whizzing all over like it was trying to draw people in. Off in the distance the sound of sirens could be heard. ”Eejit better hurry back here or the popo’s gonna get a look at him.” Carrick knew from stories his da told him and all the movies if the police get a look at your face you best leave town.

”Better bring my money though…” Carrick said as he reached up to the tube sock wrapped around his arm and rubbed it slightly before a wince followed. ”Shade?” Carrick asked turning towards the rook hoping the mutant would step out of the shadows with two bags with the money sign on it.

Another second passed and Carrick was in the air again heading back towards where he just ran from where the sky reminded him of those old Vietnam movies where the skies were lit up with planes being shot down. ”Shady @#$!%^$ is gonna get me killed!” he said to himself now wanting to at least try and protect his investment.

Shade groaned softly as he gingerly touched his right shoulder. The bullet wound hit like hell, as if someone had stuck a red hot fire poker right through his shoulder. He could feel the damp, thick feeling of blood of his hand, but it did not appear to have hit anything vital. A suddenly explosion of gunshots near him caused Shade's heart to almost jump out of his chest. However, he instantly relaxed when he realized it was on the other side of the armor plated wall of the van.

When Shade had rolled underneath the van, the shadow mutant had instantly 'jumped' out of that mess. The closest shadow had been right above him, inside the armored van. He could hear the people yelling about something outside before more gunshots began to ring out. However, they barely bothered Shade this time. Instead, he carefully locked the rear door as he began to inspect the three duffel bags that were lying in the back of the van. Opening each other, he was pleased to see they were all filled with hundreds of bills.

"Perfect." Shade said, as he slipped an arm under one of the bag's straps. However, there suddenly was a light in his face.

"Freeze! Don't move!" The words appeared from behind the light, and they were shaky, causing the light to wobble accordingly.

Shade froze in the light, but as the voice seemed to stall, a smile passed over the shadow stalker's face. A blade shot out his left arm as Shade slammed himself against a wall of the armored van to get out of the line of fire. The black blade sailed through the air and collided into something just above the light which Shade assumed was the scared mercenary's head. Several shots rang out, causing bullets to ricochet around the armored van. The bullets ripped into the piles of money, filling the air with shreds of dollar bills. Shade waited, arms covering his head, praying he would not be hit, as the bullets finally lost momentum and stopped flying through the air.

Miraculously, he was not hit a second time. Carefully pulling himself up, Shade was pleased to see that the mercenary was in fact dead, a knife to the brain. Quickly collected the remaining bags of money, the shadow mutant swung them over his good shoulder before peeked through the front window to see how things were outside.

The hatchets were back into thier holsters and Carrick’s heat was racing faster than he could keep up. His pupils dilated and his fist clenched tight as he used the roofs for cover as he flew overhead. There was gunfire and Carrick couldn’t see what everyone was shooting at but it was clear enough to Carrick that he wasn’t the target or at least the spot lights weren’t fixed on the sky for him. Meaning they forgot about him already or they are too busy with someone or something else. ”I’m getting a bonus...” Carrick said as he flew overhead doing the best he can to find Slim.

”No luck…” Carrick said to himself as he landed on one of the buildings and looked over the ledge. A second passed and a door behind him was kicked open and two men in black with guns pulled and searching for a target appeared from the roof access door. ”Coddle!” Carrrick said as he ducked into the shadow of the ledge and tried to crawl out of sight before he was spotted.

“There’s the wing b@@@@@!” one of them yelled pointing his gun in Carrick’s direction. Carrick was sure the gun was pointed at him because a beam of light was focused on him. Looking down to his chest Carrick reazlied not only did one of those guns have a flashlight mounted on it but a laser sight as well. The red dot was right over his heart and he exhaled. This was it. This was the thing that got him killed. Carrick’s face was blank as his eyes shut tight and his hands flung up, ”no…no…not like this.” “We got one of them!” someone yelled.

It seemed everything was going well outside. There was not much shooting going on anymore. Mostly, they seemed to be searching for either Shade or his winged partner. With money in hand, it was time for Shade to make his get-a-way. Pulling the bags of money tighter against his person, the shadow mutant 'jumped' out of the van into a nearby shadow. With the extra baggage, it took Shade a couple more 'jumps' than normal to reach the rendezvous location.

As soon as the shadow stalker's feet hit the rocky gravel on the roof, Shade released the heavy load that he was carrying. The bags landed in a pile with a heavy thud! Searching the area quickly, the shadow mutant quickly discovered that his winged partner was not present. Maybe he had bailed when he had finished destroying the remaining lights, being too scared to face Shade again.

Oh well, more money for me. The Orderling thought to himself. However, a distant shout broke through his thoughts. Shade could not understand what it had said, but he could see the large feathery wings of his partner being spotlighted by a light had was sure to have a gun attached to it.

Without the heavy bags, it took Shade two 'jump's to make it to the roof with the gunmen and his partner. Orientating himself once he was on the roof, the shadow mutant silently positioned himself behind one of the gunmen.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

Three shots rang out from close range. However, the bullets did not rip into the delicate wings of the gryphon mutant. Instead, the bullets tore into the chest of the other gunmen. The shot gunmen stumbled for a moment before collapsing in a bloody mess. The other gunmen appeared unaware that he had shot his partner until he fell to his knees before collapsing and folding onto his back.

" 'You okay?" Shade's asked, his voice floating out from behind the dead bodies.

With his eyes shut the moments leading up to the sound of the gunfire felt like an eternity. He was paralyzed and couldn’t move, he couldn’t even open his eyes as if that was going to make everything better. He felt like a child behind bars in a crib he wanted to get away but couldn’t as if his body was weighted down by a thousand pounds. A few images flashed through his mind, his parents the first time he flew and then the last one before he heard the bangs was a blonde haired girl before it became the image of him staring down the barrel of the gun on the receiving end. Carrick’s heart rate went through the roof when he opened them again after the three shots fired.

Was he dead? Carrick opened his eyes and everything despite it being dark was brighter than usual, was this adrenaline or was he dead. Carrick’s hand shot to his chest and he quickly looked for blood but found nothing, before he could look up to his wings with the same panicked expression on his face Carrick heard Shade’s voice where the gunman stood seconds before. ”Wha…. What happened!?!?” Carrick said through panicked gasps.

Mismatched colored eyes shifted from one of the bodies to the other, both were bleeding and motionless standing around Shade. Shade… saved his life? Carrick blinked once and then shook his head, ”No, pretty fa’ from al’right!” Carrick said his accent coming out heavier than usual given to the circumstances. ”The bloody ‘ell is wrong with ya!?!” Carrick said jumping to his fet and putting his hands all over his body to make sure he wasn’t shot. Another second passed and Carrick realized that both the gunmen weren’t getting up. ”You.. are they… dead?” Carrick asked his eyes and voice still full of panic.

With his heart racing thirty miles a minute Carrick took two steps closer to Shade before he looked down at the bodies and all the blood, there was so much blood. Carrick took a step back and stumbled and fell back. Feeling his stomach lurch Carrick turned his head to the side and threw up. Shade said there was gunman Carrick never registered anything like this. Murder? His heart started to race again while his stomach emptied itself again.

His kid partner was taking the sight of the two dead bodies a little extreme in Shade's opinion. Of course, they were dead! What did the teen expect? To stop shooters with hugs? The shadomw mutant opened his mouth to snap back a witty comment, but he suddenly led his tongue. The memory of Shade's first kill shot forth from his mind. The (at the time) teenage shadow mutant had reacted in much the same way. However, he had at least managed to keep his lunch down. Feet crunching as he walked towards the puking mutant, Shade stopped a feet few away to give Griff some space.

"It was you or them. Be lucky you are alive." Shade said softly, his voice lacking its usual harshness. However, it still seemed a little hard for a teenager. Looking back at the two dead bodies, the shadow mutant sighed loudly before turning back to the teenage. Shade could still feel the warm blood coagulating on his fingers, drying in the early morning wind. Maybe he should have at least warned the kid.

"Look, I'm..." However, Shade could not bring himself to say the next word.

"What the hell did you think was going to happen!?" The shadow mutant exclaimed, suddenly angry at the kid. However, it was not directly aimed at Griff. It was the part of Griff that reminded Shade so much of himself at that age.