L.C.'s Heroic Looter: Ch. 3: Power

Lin goes out late once more in search of things relative to this world hidden under the noses normal humans with a new trick up her sleeve thanks to her mage friend.

"And where are you going at this hour, young lady?" Came the tired voice of Tanner. I thought he had fallen asleep, guess not.

"Ah! Oh, uh... Nothing just going for a walk... Shouldn't you be in bed? You have work in the morning. I have the day off tomorrow so I can do what I want, remember?"

"Excuse the chivalry, but you are an adorable, tiny, girl and you still don't know any self defense. I don't think you should be walking around the city in the middle of the night on your own."

"You're not excused. I'll be fine! I'm... Not gonna be alone anyway, yeah"

Tanner paused, then he looked like he realized something. In a mocking tone, he started to say "You found yourself a b-"

"No!" I cried out in panic, "No, that's not it.... Jeez. Forget it. Just go back to bed will you?" I groaned. I need to work on my excuses....

He seemed to consider for a second before saying "just be careful" before turning away. I thought he'd protest more but who am I to complain. I waited until I heard his door close before leaving.

Since meeting Elinor, -turns out that's the name of the mage with the wind and the nearly killing me- I've been searching even harder for things I still know nothing about. That said, I have met a person that could literally swap genders in seconds. Their name was Alex. They explained that their ability was a low level of shape shifting. Basically they could make their features more feminine or masculine and, of course, alternate the fun bits back and forth.

Alex let me record them change back and forth -clothes on of course- so I could show Elinor, hoping I could get something out of it. Elinor wasn't very interested but she did decide to throw me a bone. She texted a phrase that looks like gibberish but she told me it was like a charm. To invoke it, I have to either speak it or write it on myself. Writing it on myself makes the effect last longer but work a little differently then speaking it. The phrase is Thish keec. The C with an S sound. She didn't explain what it did or what it meant though which worried me... I planned to try it out tonight, see what happens.

Out on the streets, I walked a while before fading away to a shadow and darting off. I went an hour non-stop without slowing down, not really taking anything in. When I did slow back down I became more watchful. Eventually I left my shadow form so I could speak the Charm.

I pulled my cell out and went back to the text to make sure I had it right, and said "Thish keec" in a slow, uncertain tone. Once it was out though, I got a head rush and a wave of something started emanating out of me. I could feel the pull of it in all directions. I felt dizzy. My head felt like a sack of bricks... Or maybe a feather from a bird, I couldn't decide. Eventually I found my face pressed against the pavement. My body ached but the dizzying wave had ended. Getting into a sitting position, I started clearing my head. My phone was close by; The screen was cracked now but it still worked. It hadn't been more then a minute since I said the Charm, if you could even call it that...

I stayed down a moment longer, wondering if I should stand yet and if anything else was going to happen.

"Need a hand there, Miss?" A suspicious looking guy was standing before me, out of nowhere, holding his hand out. "Or is there something else you wou-"

"I'm fine!" I interjected with a bit of panic.

The dude just smiled while lowering his hand. I picked myself up, careful not to look away from him.

"I wonder if it was you who brought me here?" He asked.

"What?"

"Ah... I don't know how to explain it. There was this very strange, prickling feeling followed by... Well, it felt like I was being pulled by a magnet I suppose."

I thought about it for a second before replying "I think it may have been. Do you have... abilities?"

"Abilities?" He grinned "I just might, but I don't think I'm willing to show that to such an adorable stranger just yet." I got the urge to start backing away, but he continued to say "I do know someone who loves to flaunt his power though. A man named Klaus. He gets it from a piece of jewelry that he treasures, like Gollum and the one ring. I'll gladly introduce you. Follow me."

Before I could do or say anything, he just started walking off. I know I should have just ditched right there, but I couldn't help myself, I had to see. Keeping a safe distance behind the stranger, I followed for what felt like a couple of hours before we went down another back ally, then a stairwell. The door we came to at the bottom had what I thought was graffiti on it, but something told me otherwise. It was something like the Charm I way given, only an image similar to a closed eye. As we waltzed on in, the stranger explained that it kept humans and animals out, well letting any other being's in, like us and probably Elinor and Alex.

Soon enough, I was standing in a wide open basement. It was well lite but it reminded me of the basement under the bar in Fight Club. collapsed boxes of the floor, the faint smell of sweat and blood. Grimly.

A middle aged man sat at the back of the room on the floor with two bags. One looked like his gym bag; the other, you could see money spilling out of it. The man himself looked pretty unimpressive. Average height, the beginnings of a beer belly, nearly black hair, cut short. He wore glasses, at least well he read his book. On the other hand, he did have a couple piercings in both ears.

He held up a finger, telling us to wait. When he finished the page, he placed the book on the floor and got up. Now that I could see him properly, he did have an intimidating face. As he came closer, he took an earring out of is pocket and held it up for me to see, then he replaced one of the ones of his left ear with it.

"Only one at a time" he yawned "you win, you get the money, you loose, I take what I want from you."

"W-wait, what?"

"Oh, I'm sorry, I forgot to mention" the stranger whispered, leaning down to my ear "people only come here to try winning that bag of money over there in a fight. It's exclusive to non-humans and/or people with special items. Try not die!" He finished as he clapped me on the back with a laugh.

"Anything you don't want trashed, leave to the side." Klaus -I assume- advised.

I couldn't believe what I had gotten into, number one rule growing up; don't trust strangers. I felt so dumb...

Mr. Stranger took it upon himself to strip me of my jacket. Feeling antsy, I continued to empty my pockets and take off my long sleeve, leaving me in my tank top and jeans. Stranger-Danger walked off with everything and hung out by the entrance.

"You're free to quit whenever you want but it counts as a loss. No restrictions. Understand that you may die. If you call quits and then attack me again, you will die."

When he finished explaining, he held his hand out, palm up. Confused, I mimicked him. Stranger-Danger laughed again and called out "Slap his hand to start the fight, dork!"

I turned to glare at him, but discovered Mr. Crazy standing there, holding up my phone like he was taking pictures. Before I could react, I felt my hand slapped. I turned my head back to see Klaus Hulking out.

His size and shape changed to something like an ork from Warcraft. It surprised me so much, I nearly wet myself! Thankfully, I became a shadow instead. I didn't get the chance to crumple down to the floor though. Klaus' fist struck my form first. I could have let it pass threw me, but I got the idea to take hold and join the shadows on his body. I snaked around to his back and solidified one hand. Like that, I bashed him on the back of his head as hard as I could. He hardly seemed to feel it. When I tried a second time he finally caught on and started reaching for me.

Abandoning this idea, I targeted somewhere... lower, hoping for more of a response. Even that turned out to be a waist of time. I slipped away and into one corner of the room. It took a moment but Klaus did catch on. Materialized, I let him see me where I stood. He did what I figured he would. Charge me. Once he was close enough, I did my thing and let him crash into the wall. The impact was scary. He left a crater in the wall and shook the building. Klaus just walked it off.

I continued to dart around well Klaus seemed to be trying to figure out what to do. Thankfully I got a fresh idea before he did. I went at him once more, charging in solid form. Klaus didn't seem to think much of it, he just did the same. At the last second, I switched to shadow and attached to him again. This time I went for the earing. Lucky me, he's as dumb as The Hulk well he's like this. I managed to get a hand full of piercings and began yanking on them. I ripped a couple out but I had to go for a second attempt to get the remaining. Klaus was not happy about it. He grabbed hold of my physical hand and started to pull me off, crushing my hand and wrist in his grip. I was quick to respond before he do any real damage, and keeping me free of him long enough for that second grab-and-pull, getting the magical earing off of him. With it in hand, I brought it to my shadowy plain and moved away from Klaus as he thrashed about, screaming and shrinking back to normal.

I wasn't really sure what to do from there on... I came back to my normal existence and just watched. Klaus eventually got back to normal and quieted down. Now kneeing on the ground, head hung, and bleeding from the earlobe; he pleaded for me to give back his magical earing. "You won. Please, the money is all yours, just, please leave that to me... I'm begging you."

"I didn't even know this was going to be a fight, I don't want the money... all I came for was to see something, uh... more then human, I suppose. And get evidence of it. You can have this back, just don't attack me again, alright?" I replied, holding out my hand out with the earing.

Klaus didn't even speak, he jumped up and sprinted over, snatching up the little thing. Head still lowered a bit, he looked up and more or less whimpered a thanks.

I nodded, then turned to look for Mr. Crazy only to find that he's ditched. I found all my belongings still there minus a twenty dollar bill... Jerk must have swiped it. I checked my phone to see that he actually recorded the fight. I wasn't sure how to feel about this... but I let it go. I ran back over to Klaus and asked to take some pictures of the earing before finally heading off again.

In the morning, I noticed a text on my cell. It said "Nice work, Shadow Walker. Still, it seems you need to learn how to fight properly. You should get on that before someone figures out how to catch you." and ended with a heart emoticon... Or are they called emoji's now? Whatever, Mr. Crazy has my cell number and gave me his with the contact's name as "Masks"!

I was stunned and frustrated, I didn't know if I should call him or delete his number. In the end I just left it and reached out to Elinor to show her what I got.