Party Crasher (Legion of Thieves)

Party Crasher
Anastasia Quinn

''“System error. Access not granted. This is the property of CIA. Classified information,''” A guy read off from the computer. “I have to hack the security system at least several times until I can get access to what you’re looking for.”

“To the gods be damned!” she exclaimed and hit her fist against the table. “We don’t have that much time left until the you know what realizes someone already stole the files.”

“Access denied,” a robotic female voice spoke through the speakers.

“There goes another dead end,” he said. He looked at her deadly glare that made anyone who looked at it feel so insignificant. “Let’s try that again.”

And to think she was having a good night.

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Just thirty minutes ago, she entered the halls of a huge mansion. Fancy white decor made the place fancier than it already is. Everyone in the place, wearing beautiful and overpriced white clothes, mingled with each other while others danced to Mozart. She too wore a white dress; it was a high-low flowy chiffon skirt and a cream white corset with pearly accessories and cream wedges to match the dress.. She wasn’t used to being dolled up like having her curly hair styled and her bangs being kept by a bulky yet stylish pearl hairpin and her face painted with makeup. She also wore her lucky pendant necklace around her neck; it was a small rose with a snake spiraling around it. If looked long enough, one would notice that the rose was faintly glowing red. It was her only memory of the last of her family.

She slowly walked through the small crowd of rich people-mostly because she was afraid she might trip in her five inch heels. A waiter offered her a champagne glass and she downed it immediately and gave the empty glass to the still-processing-what-happened waiter. The sweet and alcoholic drink left an aftertaste of grapes in her throat. She then started looking from left to right.

“You looking for something, Miss?” a male voice from behind asked. She turned around and saw a blonde guy with blue eyes looking like he was either in his late teens or early twenties. His smile was attractive and hot.

“More like someone, actually,” she replied, smiling back at him.

“Well, I hope you find who you’re looking for. But if you don’t mind me saying, the dance floor, right over there at the center, is the best place of finding people around here.”

“Is that your way of asking me for a dance?” she smirked.

“Ah, she catches up fast. So how about it?” he stepped closer towards her. She grinned at him and dragged his hand to the center of the dance floor. They danced to some EM and pop music until their feet were all ready to hit the hay.

“That was fun,” she said as they caught their breath and exit the dance floor.

“It was,” he yelled. The background noise was getting louder as if someone wanted to crash the fancy white party and make it into an all out rave. “Let’s go somewhere more quiet!”

She didn't know if she heard him right but she just nodded and followed him to an elevator. These people are rich and lazy, she thought. They went inside and he pressed the RT button.

“So,” he started, “I never caught your name.”

“Because I never threw it,” she joked, “Besides, mother always said, don’t talk to strangers or give them your name.”

“Are'’t we too old for that?” He stepped forward.

“Aren't you too old for this?” she took a step closer.

“Well, the night is still young.”

"That doesn't make any sense."

"But you do."

Ding! Before anything could happen, the elevator doors opened to a beautiful night sky. She knew it had to happen now, so she went through the doors and hid to the left corner. She pulled her necklace from her neck and threw it off the edge of the roof

“Hey, where’re you going?” he asked.

“Just a sec!” she replied, “I just gotta fix my dress.”

She pulled out the pearly hairpin from her curly hair and twisted the big pearl until it detached itself from the pin. She pulled the pearl out revealing a needle attached to the pearl. The needle was covered in some kind of liquid substance. She carefully hid the pearl behind her hand and discarded the rest of the pin.

Footsteps followed from behind her. It was his. “I was just looking for you-“

“Tasia,” She cut off. She pulled out her hand, still hiding the needle, reaching out for his. “You asked for my name earlier. It’s Tasia. Nice to meet you.”

“That’s a really ni- AH!“ he took her hand and the needle pushed through his skin, the liquid going through his system. “What…. Is..” his eyes began to droop. Heck, his whole body felt like a sludge. “This?”

His body fell to the ground.

“Well thank gods for that,” she said casually, “now for the gross part…”

She pulled up the skirt of her dress to reveal a hidden strap to her right thigh. There was a tiny dagger attached to the strap. She carelessly unsheathed the dagger which resulted to her cutting her own skin. She bit her lip as the pain grew. Dark liquid started pouring from her leg. This was not how the non-professional surgery was supposed to go. Her head started becoming light. She knew she was going to faint at any time, but she had to stay awake. She breathed in and held the dagger tight. She had her magic healing cream with her but it was only enough for one and she planned to save it for him.

“Here goes nothing,” she slowly injected an injection of anesthesia towards his neck.

She knew if she didn’t do this properly, she might have to kill him. No, she thought, no one deserves to lose their family. She poked the needle through his neck successfully and injected it. She reached for her dagger, that was sanitized and sharpened, and cut through his skin. She cut an X mark, big enough for her fingers to fit but not deep enough to make the wound deadly.

She reached in through the slimyness and gooiness and her finger caught something small. Bingo. She grabbed it carefully and took it out. To anyone, they may see a regular microchip-with sticky blood on it-, but to her, it meant more. She tore fabric from her dress and wiped herself. She stitched up the wound and put the healing cream on his wound.

Good thing he was tranqed, or that would've hurt so much.

A few seconds later the cream disappeared along with the wound. His neck was good as new. She dragged his body to the elevator. Luckily, the elevator and the hallways she entered were empty. She dragged his heavy body to one of the bedrooms. It was unfortunate of her since she was still bleeding, but she kept chanting to herself “Stay awake or die”. She tucked him in safely on the bed and wrote a letter on a piece of paper:

''Hey, you passed out. You must've been so tired so I tucked you into bed. ''

''Thanks for the dance! XO''

-T

Then she went out as fast as a limp person could run. She ran for the nearest fire exit and made a leap of faith. She landed on something soft thankfully.

“It’s okay, Tasia. You’re safe,” a comforting familiar voice said. It made her relax, then everything went black.

She kept hearing beeps and clicks that her eyes sprang open. She sat up to realize that she was wearing a hotel bathrobe and her thigh feeling better than it did…

“Passed out for ten minutes.” He said. “I patched your wound up and started on the hacking. And don’t worry, I only covered you up with the bathrobe. You’re still wearing your dress.”

“Then we better not get caught, Julian,” she said. “This is going to change everything.”

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“Almost there, Tasia,” Julian said.

''Acess Granted. Welcome, Mr. President.''

Julian’s eyes widened. “You almost killed the president for this?!”

“Technically, it was his son,” she countered, “And, I was very careful with it.”

“Your skills, your knowledge; where you got them? I have no idea.”

“Let’s not talk about that. Now, show mama what you’ve got.”

Julian pressed the Enter button and files opened up immediately. They read the contents of it and they realized how classified the information was.

“What?! The volcano eruption last 2010 was caused by a- mrphh” he was gagged with a cloth.

“None of this gets out. You hear me?” she asked. Julian nodded at her. “Good. Now time to sell this piece of information for a very valuable price.”

Julian made muffled sounds, probably incoherent words. Tasia simply looked at him with no emotion whatsoever. “Your time is up. Time to go back in.”

She pulled out her necklace and the silver pendant glowed red. As if the pendant was a super vacuum, it sucked Julian in. On Julian’s chair remained nothing but the cloth she put in his mouth. She sat in his chair and looked over a few files until she found what she was looking for.

Orphanage Fire Caused by the Child Robber of the National Bank

The article read. Eye witnesses of the account who testified, lives lost listed down, everything she already knew was in that file. That dreadful file that got her into trouble was the only thing she wanted. There was definitely something missing.

“Indeed there is,” A man’s voice agreed. "Selling it to publishers for news will be useless. It's already been published how many years ago."

She turned around and saw a tall man standing a few feet away from her. He was holding up a small chip, similar to what she stole. It wasn’t bloody and all, but it was the exact thing.

“Be careful of who you trust, Tasia,” he said. “Even those contained in tiny pendants.”

He tossed the chip to her, and she caught it with two fingers. She replaced the chip from the computer with the one he gave. She accessed it without any difficulty or hacking. It opened up a single file with one word in bold and all caps: “CONFIDENTIAL”. She clicked on it, hoping to see what she was looking for, but it shut down her computer.

“What?!” she turned to the man with a huge scar over his left eye and cheek. “You corrupted it!”

“It did say confidential,” he said.

“I earned that.”

“Of course you did. Your skills of tracking that chip all the way from Manhattan, sneaking into an invitation-only party without an invitation and not once did you get caught and actually take the chip from the boy’s neck without causing real harm is talented. You have potential.”

“Stop the flattery, I only did it to see that one file and you corrupted it.”

“Your determination is also another asset of yours. I have an offer I would like to give you. It’s more than what contains, uh, contained of that chip.”

That caught a bit of her attention. “Go on….”

“I am inviting you to join us in the Legion of Thieves,” he said.

Tasia didn’t buy any of it. ''Legion of Thieves? What kind of organization is that?''

“The kind that needs people like you,” he said as if he read her mind.

“You mind-read.”

“You catch up fast.”

“So I’ve been told,” she thought about his offer. Joining an organization full of crooks and thieves? She is one. “Tell me more about this organization.”

He nodded and told her about the Legion of Thieves. She found it interesting. She didn’t even know that kind of organization existed. Back then, she was on her own – nobody to call her family except Julian. If she had a family….

“So… Mr. uh...”

“My name is Xaro Leitz,” he continued. “And yours is Anastasia Quinn.”

“Okay, you know my full name. Just call me anything but Anastasia, Mr. Xaro Leitz. I accept your offer, I would be honored to join the Legion.”

“Then welcome to the team,” they shook hands as a sign of pact.

“No backing out now, right? A pact is a pact.” She said.

“Yep.”

“So now, I’ve got to say something. Nathaniel Sparrow is my brother.”

His expression changed like he just ate a bad taco and he was trying to hold it in. “I see… You can move your things when you’re ready. There will be a room set up for you. Your training as a newbie will start immediately once you step inside the headquarters. I will see you there. Until the next time we see each other, Ms. Quinn. Goodbye.”

He said those words so fast that she didn't even have time to register it all before he melted into the shadows.

What did she say?