Spy Criminal Watch! (Legacy)

Job Info:

Merry Christmas Marick...yeah, right. Ah well, no rest for the wicked I s'pose. Oak Town was his current location, taking on yet another job solo. This time he'd been approached in person by man claiming to be an assistant of the client, but being unable to reveal the name of said client. Suspicious as this was, Marick couldn't exactly turn it down now that he had plans on what he wanted to achieve. Besides, this job would help him out in more ways than just money.

The job in question was to spy on a man who was believed to be a thief. The 750 Jewel was somewhat of an enticement but would not have been enough for Marick to take this kind of job normally. No, this was for him to learn a trick of the trade he was now involved in. Mercenarism often involved sleuthing, spying, anything to ensure you and your possessions were protected from some of the more malicious people in the world, since the Rune Knights and the Magic Council weren't likely to dirty their hands to help the rogues caught in the middle of the darkness and the light. Marick didn't understand why, but he knew he wanted that to change. But first he had to learn more about life as a mercenary, and what better way than to live as a mercenary?

And so here he was, walking through the streets of Oak Town headed towards the location that the accused 'thief' was often seen and where his client had often had his money go missing. Marick did note that his client must have been stupid to have repeatedly gone to this location and had money taken from him on numerous occasions, especially with such confidence of a thief being in the area.

Marick was beginning to approach a park area now, with the location of the so-called 'thief' being on the opposite side. It was here that he suddenly stopped, spotting a familiar face sat on a bench on the outside of the park fence. It was the assistant that had first approached him on behalf of his employer who requested Marick's aid, sat there with a coffee in hand. Upon spotting Marick,  the assistant downed the remnants of his coffee - Marick assumed the coffee was cool, otherwise that was an awful mistake - and walked over to the card wizard. "Ah, Mister Lowell, thank goodness. My employer asked that I give you more information on the thief so as to assist you further."

Marick nodded to show he understood, only to have a sheet of paper stuffed into his hand. He raised it to take a look and frowned. The accused was apparently a fairly muscular young man with scraggly blond hair, and he was often seen wearing a grey sleeveless top, khaki trousers and simple brown shoes. Rather a bland appearance, and not really much to go on since there were probably a few people dressed like this. Still, it was certainly better than what he had to go on before so he couldn't complain. "I see...well then, this shouldn't take too long. I'll keep tabs on him for a short time. If you don't mind, I'd like for you to act as bait. Behave how your employer would normally behave around this area. We'll see if this man targets specific people or if he randomly chooses or if, in fact, he isn't the thief at all." The assistant was flummoxed for a second. On the one hand he could be robbed, beaten, murdered, anything by this thief. On the other hand he had the eyes of Marick watching his every move; a mercenary who would get a lot more money from completing this job than he would from letting him get robbed or worse. He nodded reluctantly.

"GOOD! Then I expect you there in 5 minutes once I've gotten myself into position."

Marick walked away from the assistant and perched himself on a bench on the opposite side of the park, giving him perfect view of the 'thief' without looking too suspicious. He now had a card in his hand and was rolling it across his knuckles effortlessly. The assistant would be here shortly, meaning Marick could see this thief with his own eyes. After waiting a few minutes Marick finally saw the assistant. He seemed more confident than 5 minutes ago, which was a good sign. The assistant walked to each stall around the park stopping at one or two briefly before moving on. Occasionally he would stop for a little longer in order to buy something - Marick didn't care what, as it was probably groceries or something - before then moving on to the next stall. Marick glanced back at the accused. No movement yet. Someone's gotta make a move...if not him then someone else...

The assistant was now about halfway through the stalls when Marick suddenly saw something move out of the corner of his eye. Where the blond man was sat there was now another man. A man with dark brown hair and wearing a suit, suggesting he was of higher status. The darker man placed his hand on the blond man's shoulder and seemed to be talking to him. This was rather odd that was for certain, but there were still no signs of a robbery just yet. Marick therefore remained in his seat to see how this would play out. He couldn't act too early afterall, or he'd not have any proof of what was going on.

No matter how hard he tried, Marick couldn't shift the feeling that something bad was about to kick off. It wasn't often he felt such an overpowering urge to watch someone closely. In fact this job wasn't intended to be a serious one for him, yet he found himself being incredibly diligent now that this character had turned up unexpectedly. Movement again, this time from the blond man. He walked towards the crowd of people, his eyes seemingly set on the assistant. Marick's eyes looked over at the man in the suit again and a low growl emanated from his throat. It all clicked into place very quickly; this man was somehow controlling the young man - whether by blackmail or magical means was undetermined yet - getting the innocent man into trouble and, Marick assumed, taking the profits for himself. This was low even by Marick's books.

He gripped his deck and pulled out a card, launching it at the suit-clad figure. The card missed, but surprised the man who looked around quickly to see who'd attacked him. At the same time the young blond man suddenly collapsed in the middle of the crowd, who quickly turned their attention to him. Magical mind control... Marick thought to himself. His card returned to the bottom of his deck as it hit the wall behind the man, who was now fleeing the scene. "Oh no you don't..." Marick snarled quietly, before dropping his coat onto the bench and sprinting after the culprit. The chase was on!

The culprit fled down the backstreets of Oak Town, trying any way possible to get away from Marick. But Marick's natural determination proved to be more than that of the suit-clad wizard, and pretty soon he was directly behind the wizard. He suddenly had to dodge though as the wizard fired off a blast of electricity that only barely missed Marick. The brown-haired man skidded to a halt and turned to face Marick - who had jumped into a wall to dodge the hit - laughing at his opponent. "Well you managed to dodge, that's something to be proud of. But your accuracy with that card was poor. You have no chance of defeating me with that kind of magic power kehe."

Marick dusted himself off and stood up straight, a smile appearing on his face. "Judging me on that throw is a fool's mistake. I merely used that to get you away from the public." he replied coolly, throwing his coat aside and pulling out his hand of seven cards. "To take me on face value is like believing a rhino is less dangerous without its horn. Your actions are not only cowardly, but to be using mind-play on an innocent, homeless young man is completely out of order. So...I've come to set you straight."

"Oooooh, scary. Well in that case, show me justice! KEHEHAHAHA!"

"Justice? Please, you make me out to be some member of the Rune Knights." Marick replied as he played a pair of 6's, sending two fireballs towards his opponent. The alleyway was so tight that there was no escape from this hit, and although one fireball his the wall behind the man, the second still hit him directly in the stomach sending him backwards a few steps. The man growled, his cocky demeanour replaced by a more serious, pissed-off air. "You're not with the council so you must be a legal guild made...that makes me mad!" he snarled, released a fireball of his own. Marick smirked again as he played a third card to block the oncoming attack.

"Wrong again." With that he launched himself forwards raising his fist and attempting to punch the mage. This move was predicted, as the mage blocked the attack and cast another spell, this time a wind attribute spell that blew Marick backwards into the wall beside him. Now Marick was closer he could see numerous rings on his opponents hand, each encrusted with a different jewel and marking. A ring user...I see. This may be more difficult than I first thought... he thought to himself. He pushed away from the wall in time to dodge a second bolt of lightning, skidding back to the center of the alleyway. "Not a Legal Mage, not a member of the council or the Rune Knights...you must be guildless...kehehehe! No-one to back you up when I desecrate your body. No-one to care for you when I destroy your mind. No-one to miss you when I extinguish your life! KEHEHAHA!"

Marick smirked once again at the dark mage's comments, causing his opponent to frown. "What you smirking at?". Marick looked the dark mage directly in the eye before he opened his mouth. "You make it sound like I NEED assistance. I almost feel sorry for you." With that he let rip, throwing 6 cards down the alleyway, bouncing them off of the walls of the buildings. His opponent watched, mortified as he realised there was absolutely no way of escaping this unscathed. As the cards struck him he screeched aloud and crumpled to his knees. All six had hit their target. He panted and curled his hands into fists. "Why are you interfering here Merc? Don't you have other ways to waste your pointless life?"

Marick walked over to the man and put his left hand under his chin, raising his head to look him in the eyes. "I thought the same, first thing this morning. Then when I got here...well, things took a turn for the unexpected. See, I'm a Solitaire...so you can understand why nothing fires me up more than a cheat. Except a cheat who pins all blame and responsibility on an innocent person." By now he was up close, face to face with the brown-haired man, who was looking more and more terrified with each word that left Marick's lips. "And it just so happens that I found such a person right in the middle of this job." he continued, before bringing his right hand forward and pushing the man to the ground. He then turned and began to walk away.

The dark mage watched Marick as he walked, stunned at the sight of his opponent turning his back and walking away without finishing the job. After a few seconds a smirk appeared on his face. "For all that big talk, you should've finished the job." he growled. Marick stopped and looked back for a brief second. "When you're feeling high and mighty, sometimes it's best to look down." his reply was nonchalant before he began to walk again. The culprit looked down and screamed as he saw the 6 of spades beneath his legs. Marick closed his eyes and sighed as the scream of horror turned to a scream of agony upon the card activating. The scream went progressively quieter until there was a brief silence, then became louder as the mage came down from the sky and crashed into a metal bin a few meters in front of Marick, out-cold. The Solitaire grabbed the piece of trash and threw him over his shoulder, not stopping once as he exited the alleyway.

Of course when he left the alleyway there were quite the number of people watching him having heard the screams. He heard murmurs questioning what had happened and why, but merely dismissed them as he walked to the center of the crowd to where the younger blond-haired man and his client's assistant were stood. Upon arriving, Marick simply dropped the unconscious lump to the ground.

The assistant looked from Marick to the lump, then back to Marick again completely perplexed. "Erm....excuse me for asking Mr Lowell but...what is the meaning of this exactly? I thought this man here was the thief my employer was after?" he asked, pointing at the blond-haired man on the ground who was now beginning to come to. Marick smiled and knelt down, placing his right hand on the young man's shoulder. "Oh, this man was the thief that's true. But he's by no means guilty." he replied, resulting in an even more perplexed expression appearing on the assistant's face. Marick then got to his feet and gave the second lump a nudge with his foot.

"This lovely little lump here contains another mage. A ring user mage to be precise. He was using his powers to play with this young man's mind. Unfortunately he succumbed to the spells very easily due to his currently weakened state, and thus became a puppet for this man who seemed to know exactly when the richer members of the society would be coming and going. It was a crafty ploy, since if this young man was ever caught, Mr Unconscious here would get off scot-free."

The assistant seemed to understand, but still had one more question to ask about this situation. "If I may be so bold...was it you who put him in this state?" he asked sheepishly.

Upon hearing the question Marick winked and chuckled. "Cheaters never prosper." he replied simply, before lifting the lump up again and walking over to the bench he'd previously been sat on. He dumped the mage onto the opposite end of the bench while he grabbed his coat, then waited for a short while as the assistant went to alert the Rune Knights. When the assistant arrived back Marick had pulled his coat on and was preparing to leave. "Are you not going to wait for the Rune Knights to arrive? This was your doing afterall, and you deserve praise for it."

Marick merely shrugged and smiled again. "I only did what the Rune Knights would've done had they been alerted. I'm happy just to take the reward I was promised and then enjoy the rest of my christmas." The assistant couldn't help but to smile back, clearly understanding where Marick was coming from. "Then I shall keep you no longer. Here is your payment..." he handed Marick a small bag, containing 750 jewel "...and you can rest assured the young man will be given a good christmas as well. I've spoken to my employer and he's given money to him so he can stay indoors and eat over Christmas. You can go and enjoy your own holidays now Mr Lowell. Thank you." Marick took the bag and nodded before he walked away whistling 'We wish you a merry christmas' to himself. Merry Christmas Marick...time to get wasted!