Pratt
"Gather around! I am the great magician Pratt and I will give a hundred dollars to however is able to find out how I do this trick!"
The people gathered around him, some eager to de-bunk him and some just simply curious.
Pratt held out the fan of cards he had in his hands. "Watch as I defy gravity and levitate these cards in my hand." He held out his and turned it over. The cards didn't fall off, in fact they seemed to be stuck on the palm of his hand.
He placed the cards on his other palm of his hand and lifted up the hand. "See? No glue or tape!"
There was some clapping from the crowd but one person stepped forward. The man snatched the cards from Pratt.
"You held on to the cards using the flap that has been cut-out aren't you?" The man asked, holding out a modified card. It was made out of two cards that had been pasted together, one had a flap that had been cut out.
Pratt frowned. "How about another trick eh?"
"How about you give me that 100 bucks?" The man grabbed Pratt so he couldn't run away.
"You did promise him kid!" Another guy shouted from the crowd.
Pratt rolled his eyes and pulled out his wallet. He pulled out two hundred dollar bills and handed it to the man. "I hope you enjoy taking money from teenagers."
"Free money is free money." The man smiled.
Pratt frowned at him one last time before turning around and walking away.
Pratt got just out of earshot when the man shouted. "Stop that boy! The one with the blue jacket! He took my wallet and watch!"
Pratt smiled triumphantly. Too easy.
He wrapped the watch around his wrist and stuck the wallet into his back pocket. The man feel for the simplest trick in the book, the old sleight of hand.
Number one rule of magic: Always be the smartest man in the room. Always be two steps ahead of everyone.
Speaking of two steps, Pratt needed to be somewhere. A certain man needed to be set straight.
He gathered up his cards and slid them into his jacket pockets. His baton strapped to his belt.
"There he is!" The man's voice materialised behind Pratt somewhere. Pratt smiled, turned around to salute to the man before breaking into a sprint.
"Get him!" The man ordered to the people he had gathered. All of them running after Pratt.
Pratt turned the corner into an alley that led to a fence. He jumped to grab the top of it and hoisted himself over the top. The men that were chasing him had a lot more trouble traversing the fence.
Pratt turned into another corner and down into the subway, mixing among the crowds of people. He reached the platform and stepped into one of the metal carriages.
He leaned against the wall of the subway, watching as the metal carriage moved away from the platform.
Pratt smiled again; too easy.
Pratt took a seat beside a girl jogger who was taking a break.
"Excuse me?" She demanded.
"You are excused." Pratt feigned ignorance.
The girl rolled her eyes, leaning back on the bench. Honestly, Pratt was just here to wait for a certain 'client' but hey, might as well have some fun.
"Does that pretty face have name?" Pratt asked, turning on his charm.
She was a pretty thing. Short blond hair, blue eyes, athletic. She showed more skin than clothing; wearing track shorts and a sport's bra.
"Yeah, it's 'Not Interested'."
"Nice to meet you Not Interested. My name is Finn." He lied, no need to give a proper name to 'stand-by'.
"Hi Finn. Go away."
"You seem like someone who likes magic." Pratt pulled one of the desks from his coat.
"Hardly."
"Do you know the purpose of a Magician's assistant?" Pratt shuffled the cards, specifically this was his tarot deck.
"Don't know, dont care." She said, though her voice denoted a little bit of curiousity.
"She's a distraction while the magician does his work or vice-versa. The old sleight of hand." Pratt stopped shuffling. "When the magician is actually waving his magic wand and bringing the attention of the audience there, his other hand is doing something else."
She turned him and eyed him properly for the first time. She nodded slightly as if she approved. "And do you have a assistant?"
"I wish, but alas fate is unkind."
"Are you...taking applications then?"
Pratt smiled. "I'll think about it." He turned to face her. "Other than being a experienced magician, I am also a good fortune teller." He pulled the first card on the top of the deck; showing the card to her. "The Lovers. Hmm, what a coincidence."
"What does mean?"
Pratt put on a smile. "Well it means that that a certain relationship between two people might work out well."
She smiled. "I'm Clara by the way."
"Clara? Are you trying to say that the first name you gave me was false?"
She giggled. "Maybe."
Pratt's head snapped to a new voice. Looks like his client was here.
"I have to go darling, it's been fun. I'll call you." Pratt said.
She frowned. "You don't have my number."
"I'm magic. I'll fine it out. Claire right?"
"Clara."
"Clara of course." Pratt moved off, leaving the girl behind.
Mr Diego was surrounded by two of his bodyguards. A son of Hephaestus in charge of Diego Industries; that was starting to mix mortal technology with godly technology; not for good intention of course.
"Sir, sir!" Pratt stopped right in front of the man.
"Excuse me us kid." One of the bodyguards attempted to stop him.
"Please sir, I'm just a basker that's trying to get by. Please just pay attention for few seconds." Pratt begged.
The bodyguards turned to their boss, Mr Diego sighed but spoke. "Make it quick."
Pratt put on a big smile. "Thank you sir." Pratt put his fingers to his temple. "Let's start out with a little mentalism, shall we?" Pratt made eye-contact with Mr Diego. "I'm seeing....that you were a scrawny kid-not a lot of friends and had a pet. A golden retriever? Or maybe a bulldog, named giggles."
Mr Diego smiled. "No, I was a child that got everything I deserved and I had a cat named bubbles."
Pratt swore. "Can I try again?"
"Sure." Mr Diego sighed again.
"Okay. I'm seeing....you had a uncle. On your mother's side, a very gruff, loud individual. His name was... Sebastian? No. Lucas, Lucas Hernandez."
Mr Diego rolled his eyes. "No. My uncle's last name was Gomez." He sighed. "I'm sorry but I really need to go."
"No! Please! One more chance." Pratt begged. "Just one more, it'll only take a minute."
The bodyguards looked to their boss again, looking for approval. Mr Diego sighed. "Alright, but this is your last time."
"Thank you sir. Thank you." Pratt smiled, then his voice turned more calm. "For this trick I need your phone sir."
One of the bodyguards looked suspicious, but Mr Diego was obviously annoyed and wanted to get it over with so he gullibly handed Pratt his phone.
"For this trick, I will break our phone and put it together again." Pratt said, then he threw the phone on the ground and stepped on it multiple times.
The three of the them looked stunned for a moment, completely not expecting the outcome.
Pratt bent down to examine the phone. He feigned a wince. "Well something went wrong there." He picked up the remains of the phone and tried to hand it to Mr Diego. "Sorry about that, no hard feelings?"
Mr Diego frowned at him and attempted to shove Pratt. Pratt simply stepped back and let the old son of Hephaestus tumble.
"I'll take that as a no." Pratt looked to his watch. "Well it's been fun but I'm running late." He turned to the two bodyguards and shrugged. Then he started running.
"Come back here!" The bodyguards shouted.
Pratt ran until he reached an alleyway. He pulled out his baton and waited for the onslaught. One of the guards was by far faster than the other, he reached Pratt first.
Pratt struck out first, his fist colliding with the bodyguard's throat. The bodyguard recoiled and Pratt struck out with his baton, knocking the man out.
The second man unfortunately got a cheap shot at Pratt and knocked him to the ground.
Pratt shook the stars out of his hands. His hands closed around some of his cards, looks like they had fallen out after he had been knocked down.
Pratt turned to face the man. "Wait!" Pratt begged, surprisingly he did.
Pratt grabbed a bunch of cards. "Pick a card?" The man frowned and reached out for him.
"Is it the 5 of diamonds?" Pratt flung the card, this deck specifically had been laced with metal so it functioned like throwing knives.
The man recoiled as the card gazed his cheek and drew blood. Pratt continued throwing the cards, each other only grazing the man's skin. The guard lunged for Pratt but the child of Athena rolled to his feet.
Pratt hooked the baton on one of the guard's knees; pulled it up and pushed the man's body down. He fell like a brick.
"For my next trick, I shall knock you out." Pratt waved his baton in mockery of a magic wand and then he kicked the man in the head. The man groaned in pain.
"Thank you, I'll be here all week." Pratt sheathed his baton and pulled out Mr Diego's phone.
Luckily, the phone that had been broke was a fake. What kind of phone these days was so easily broken?
He unlocked the phone and accessed the files in it. Pratt sighed, a password. How in the world was he supposed to get pass this?
Well one way was the security questions. But how in the world was he supposed to know the name of Mr Diego's first pet or his mother's maiden name?
Pratt smiled triumphantly to himself. First pet name? Bubbles. Mother's maiden name? Gomez.
The app unlocked itself and Pratt deleted all of it contents. For extra measure, Pratt took out memory card from inside it and snapped it into two.
He knew that Mr Diego could probably remake all the blueprints Pratt had just destroyed but at least it would take a little bit more time now. He gathered up his cards and turned to leave.
He walked past a homeless man along the way in the alley. He wasn't begging for money though, more of just resting.
"Hey." Pratt called out, dropping the Diego's phone onto the man's lap. "Here, have fun with it."
Pratt continued on walking, not waiting for a reply or response.
Pratt climbed into the motel he had paid for. Inside he took off his jacket and slung it on one of the chairs while setting his decks and baton onto the table.
He laid down on the bed, hopeful for some rest.
"Nice work today." A new voice materialised.
"Jesus, Mary, Joseph!" Pratt jumped and fell off the bed.
He stood up and turned to the voice. A young adult, black hair.
"How'd you get here?" Pratt shifted towards his Baton.
"I let myself in." The boy smiled. "I saw what you did just now. Very impressive."
"I'm flattered truly." Pratt but his back to the table and closed his fingers around his baton.
"What's the first rule of magic? Always be the smartest guy in the room?" He stood up and held his hand out in front of him in surrender. "I'll be the smart one then. I'm not here to hurt you. I come in peace."
"What are you here for then?"
"For recruitment."
"What?" Pratt demanded.
"Do you know of the Legion of Thieves Pratt?"
"Unfortunately no."
"Well we're the Thieves of Thieves. Sort of like what you do, only there's more of us." The boy explained. "I'm here to recruit you into our cause."
"How do I know I can trust you?"
The boy smiled. "We're Thieves; I think that answer is obvious." He held out his hand. "I'm Xaro."
"I would introduce me to you but I you already know who I am." Pratt took his hand.
"So." Xaro clapped his hands. "Are you in?"
"So we just steal things?"
"Yup."
"And trick the jerks that prey on the weak and give them they're just desserts?"
"Absolutely."
The grin returned to Pratt's face. "Let's discuss starting pay then."
For the stronger the Light; the thicker the shadows that fall. 17:05, June 10, 2014 (UTC)