A Bolt and the Queen

**Users Involved:** User:TheHandOfZeus, User:ComicMaster619
**Date Started:** December 23, X943
**Setting:** Akane Beach
**Characters Involved**: Merlin Ladra, Cepheus

## Eye on the Prize

The air was bustling with the sound of machinery and coins loitering the stands of people playing across the casino, as a single hooded figure moved along the in flood of players throughout the bright venue of hotel resort. Without drawing any attention, the stranger swiped a bottle from the counter of the bar, binging it in one go before tracing his hand along his chin, wiping off the excessive drink dripping down along his mouth and slamming the bottle against the table. Shifting his gaze toward the the end of the room, heading into the backroom, the hooded figure brought his cowl down, revealing the face of the Celestial Spirit Mage Nazumasa Kido, but underneath, unveiling the malicious intent of the Celestial Spirit and Dark Mage Cepheus. Grimacing as he stretched out his hand to the crowd and people, Cepheus touched numerous tourists and guards in the process of reaching his destination, exerting his influence as more and more strangers accompanied him to the casino's basement where a unit of guards were stationed near the entrance.

"What are you doing here?! This area is closed off from th—", before the guard could finish, the various tourists following Cepheus jumped across from him, viciously attacking and assaulting the guards, all the while the guards that were already under his thrall drew their weapons on the remaining force, allowing him to enter the facility to its deepest depths, all the way to the vault door, examine it before prying it off.

Once he opened the door, a flood of light filtered out. Several bags filled to the brim with money lined shelves. Boxes of poker chips were stacked around the room. In the center was a pedestal with an unusually shaped lacrima. Next to it was another guard who was putting the gem into a bag.

When the guard noticed the door opening he turned to the source and an expression of surprise came across the guard before it turned into a smirk and a shutter effect came over him. When the shutter finished in place of the guard was the very short thief and Tartarus Gate member, Merlin Ladra. "Sorry buddy. But I got here first."

Snapping his head straight at the the invited guest, a shock reaction washed over his face, Cepheus glaring at the interloper while crossing his arms indignantly, the small party he had with him slowly circling around the young lade. "Whoa, yours? Says who? The way I see it," stopping partway in his sentence, an electrical aura of black lightning shrouded him from head to toe, lifting a single finger to point at her, "you're the one trespassing on my job." With a snap from his fingers, the possessed group rushed at her from numerous directions, with Cepheus backing away, grabbing a metal rail from the nearby table and sparking it with his magic.

Merlin watched the crowd rush into the room. She waited for the closest one to get closer to her before utilizing her illusion magic. Disappearing from sight at the same time as the leading person turned into her. In the chaos it would have seemed like a seem less transition. Each of the possessed patrons going after what they believed to be the thief.

While the chaos began Merlin used her short size and lithe build to run through the crowd until she was out of it, and the room. Still invisible to Cepheus, she turned to the man holding the poll and turning visible.

"Not bad, but not good enough." She said brandishing the stolen item in her hand before putting it in her bag.

Throwing the electric pole at the look-alike, Cepheus was was taken by surprise that the would-be-thief was actually one of the patrons he had possessed earlier, beaten to such a degree that the illusion subsided as soon as he had gotten a closer look, the electricity shaking the air around him as he turned back to glance at where the casino's cache of Jewels was, only to see it vanished, in the same manner as the interloper. Smashing his hand against the vault door, a massive indentation lifted it off the hinges, his hand bruised as sparks of lighting flew across the room. "Good enough?! You haven't seen good enough yet." Racing back at the entrance, Cepheus' magical aura began to stretch and contort as if it were some sort of viscous shadow, spreading all along the the room, engulfing most of visitors and tourists.

Moving and contorting in an unnatural manner, Cepheus had extended the reach of his "possession" across even more bodies, a look of fascination encroaching on his face as he let off a pulse of electricity along the area to help him identify the location of everyone in the room, his followers looking all over the place and attacking those not under the effect of his magic. "Invisibility or Light Magic, unusual trick for a human I'll say."

"Well you'd be wrong on both fronts. Though I get the feeling that, if I tell you. You'll try to find a way around it." She said while standing in front of him. She didn't care much as many of the possessed people.began to attack random civilians. After all it wasn't part of her job to care, only to steal. But she did find him, and his magic interesting. "But I'll tell you what. Let's play a game. Seeing as you have such an offensive magic I wouldn't beat you in straight fight."

"Ho ho," rubbing the tip of his chin whilst still tucking his other hand underneath the other, Cepheus took a moment to stop his followers in place, rushing over all the entrances and barring anyone and anything from entering or exiting without one of them knowing. Jumping across the casino, Cepheus glanced around for any signs or clues she could have left, still out of sight through some unknown means. *Ruling out light and stealth, what else could it be?* he thought. "Find and seek huh, alright," smashing his hand into the palm of his other hand, electricity began to build all along his arms and shoulders, collecting a significant charge in preparation for the next move. "Alright, challenge accepted thief."

Dispelling her illusion she would again be visible to him. Standing a bit closer to him this time she had a smug look plastered on her face. "Good. Now let's pick what we want to search for. Let's say..." She reached back into her bag and pulled out the lacrima from before. "We'll keep it simple, if you can find this first and bring it back here, then you can keep it. But if I find it, then I get to keep it."

While she was holding the lacrima up for him to see, there also would have been a visible guild mark on her left hip, the Tartarus Gate guild mark. "But I'm going to warn you, it won't be easy."