The master thief wasn't exactly like how Teodore imagined him. In his mind, the guy was an elegant, serious older gentleman, calm and disciplined, smart and charming, the master of disguise and magic. Someone people can take seriously.

'Yeah, I think that's Arsene Lupin,' said Marcus when Teodore told him that. 'Or you know, Robert on a better day.'

Teodore's lips flinched as if he was about to smile. The both of them were sitting on a couch in a basement. The building was small and insignificant from the outside but had more place underground than over it. This was the new standard: invisible wealth.  

They watched the kid playing his video game. "Kid" wasn't an overstatement, he was barely even an adult, probably the same age as their new vigilante friend, Tom. He was staring at the biggest TV Teodore had ever seen, with a controller in his hand, ordering his character to blow up something. When he succeeded, the kid cheered very loudly.

Every inch of the big, windowless room looked like it came from a dream of a teenage boy. Besides the various video game consoles, there was a corner for a serious-looking desktop computer with three different screens and a lot of unnecessarily-looking led lights here and there. There was a pinball machine, old arcade games, a soda dispenser, a mini-fridge with a glass door full of energy drinks, bags of crisps everywhere and very questionable wall decor, mostly featuring under-dressed, famous women. The walls themselves were exposed bricks painted black, which worked surprisingly well with the general style of the gaming room. Despite what Teodore would have expected, the boy wasn't messy: the bins were empty and there were no cans or snack wrappers lying around.

'So you say all I have to do is to snatch this cube thing from the masked guy?' the thief said suddenly, after he ignored them so long that Teodore started to think he forgot about them. 

'You do realise that "the masked guy" is likely the most dangerous man on Earth, right?' asked back Marcus. 

'Yeah, yeah,' the kid said. He was tall and skinny in that sort of awkward way teenagers could be. He desperately needed a haircut. And clothes a self-respecting adult would wear, instead of whatever movie-reference heavy, colourful hoodie he actually wore. 'I know. He is like, super scary, I get it. Do you think he'd kill me if he captures me?'

'If you are lucky,' answered Teodore. 

'Good. I like to be lucky,' he said. 'You are the brother of that hot demon hunter chick, aren't you? The one always in the news. Man, she is fine.'

'Kinda,' answered Marcus, before Teodore could have gotten angry at the less than a respectful mention of Jenna. 'She is with us, but I tell you right now, you aren't gonna get lucky on that front.'

'Yeah, we will see,' the boy grinned.

In fact, that was his deal, as the man at the Crossroads had told them. The boy was lucky. He was so unbelievably lucky that he won the lottery every time he played, he could jump off a tall building and somehow land on the ground without a scratch, he could shoot a flying target with his eyes closed. Which he did, kind of, just now, in his video game: like a one-person army, he cleared the level in seconds, without an unnecessarily movement, steadily and efficiently while mostly looking at his two guests or shoving crisps into his own mouth.

Nobody knew where this unique ability came from. The man at the Crossroads thought the kid stumbled upon some ancient artefact or instant spell at some point, something from the fae, perhaps. He wasn't a sorcerer and no halfling could have been this powerful.        

'So, are you in?' asked Marcus now.

'I don't know, sounds like fun, but I'm kinda invested in this game right now, you see…'

'We can pay,' said Teodore.

'Dude, I have more money than I could possibly ever spend. I don't care about that,' the thief said. 'What else you got?'

'People are dying every day, boy,' said Teodore. 'You can help to put a stop on that.'

The kid shrugged.

'Nobody ever cared about me, so I can't see why I should care about them. I'm not really a people person, you know…'

'Sooner or later somebody will do something about this whole situation,' pointed out Marcus. 'If it's us, there is a chance we're gonna be just fine. If it's some army, they will most likely just drop a nuclear bomb on us and even you cannot survive that.'

Teodore found this hugely far-fetched, but the kid paused his game for the first time. 

'I bet I'd survive that,' he said, deep in thought.

'Unlikely,' answered Marcus. 'But if you are looking for a real challenge, Kovach will give you one for sure.'

'Yeah?' asked the kid. 'I don't know, dude. I heard that he is hardcore, but seriously, once I walked into the Louvre, borrowed Mona Lisa for a day then put it back without anyone noticing me. Just saying. You are gonna have to come up with something better than that.'

'He is the one who stole the statue from the British Museum,' tried Teodore. 'You could try your skills against a colleague.'

'That was an amateur job,' the thief said in disgust. 'Anyone can steal shit if killing the guards is an option. That dude just made us look bad.'

'Us?' wondered Marcus.

'Yeah, you know, thieves and cat burglars and whatnot. We aren't a violent bunch, I never even touched anyone. I mean, while working, you know, I touched chicks like a lot… Anyway. Stealing is a fucking art but that guy is nothing but a butcher.'

Teodore sighed. The kid was unbelievably naive, annoying to no end and way too cocky, and that came from someone who was friends with Robert Montgomery, but if this angle would help to get the thief to do the job, Teodore won't point out the flawed logic. 

It took some more negotiation, a lot of back and forth, but the thief agreed to help in the end.

'You know,' said Teodore to Marcus, once they were back in the car. 'I miss the old days. Moody kids with way too much power, vampires who think they are the devil, superheroes, immortal sorcerers, gods, zombies, fae… My life was so simple before.'

'Yeah, you just showed up, kicked our asses and were on your merry way,' nodded Marcus.

'Those were the days,' sighed Teodore. 

'I can curse you, if you want,' offered Marcus, grinning.

'No, it wouldn't be the same,' said Teodore, then something happened that Marcus never expected to see: Teodore smiled.

                                                                      ***

The plan was ready, Jenna and Remy were ready to fight (even though Jenna still had pain and Remy had to use a cane) and they finally had the location where Kovach was hiding. The evening before the battle came and it was very tense. Everyone was anxious The first one losing it was, quite surprisingly, Anna.

'I can't just stay here, waiting for you guys to finish the job!' she said desperately.

'And what exactly do you want to do?' asked Robert dryly. 'I'm sorry, but you are still not 100 per cent, and even if you were, without your helmet you'd be helpless.'

'I can kick your ass right here and now, without my helmet,' replied Anna angrily.

'Careful, honey, he likes that in a woman,' pitched in Jenna. 'But listen. He isn't wrong. I'm sure you can be badass without the helmet, but your injury is another question.'

'You have one, too,' pointed out Anna. 

'But I was put back together by weird fae magic,' she shrugged, which made her flinch. 'Unlike you, I won't bleed out from a sudden move. You know, probably.'

Anna paced up and down, with one hand on her side. They were in Robert's room. 

'I hate this…' she said. 'I feel… Useless.'

'You gave us a fighting chance which is much more than the rest of us achieved,' said Robert gently. 'I know how you feel, Anna. After I woke up from the coma, I felt the same. I couldn't do anything I used to be able to do. Magic was everything I ever knew, the only thing I felt really good at. When it was taken away from me, I felt… Empty. Useless. I ran into battle like an idiot, powerless, thinking that some miracle will happen, that just because I have to, I will be able to use magic, but… I had a chance to stop someone who wanted to hurt Jenna and I couldn't do it. She got hurt. Because of me. Because of my incompetence. I cannot imagine anything that could possibly feel worse. But it opened my eyes, too. Well, actually, it took a while and some help, but in the end, I understood that my abilities don't define me. Magic isn't who I am and the helmet isn't who you are.'

'That's was some speech,' grinned Jenna. 'Remember who you are… Was that from The Lion King? Just asking. For the record, I was the one who had to beat that stupid "being useless"- idea out of his head. Well, not exactly "beat", but some serious exercise was involved. Which I can actually…'

'You can't,' cut in Robert.

'Which I apparently can't offer to you, which is a shame. Show me another dude who would say no to the two of us, I dare you… Anyway, the point is, at this moment you cannot help, but that doesn't mean you aren't cool, okay?'  

Anna sighed and nodded. 

'I guess I get it. Still… It feels shitty.'

'I know,' said Robert. 'Tell you what, if there is a way, I will try and retrieve your helmet. You will heal, eventually, and this city will always need heroes.'

'But even if we can't find it,' added Jenna. 'You kick ass anyway. You'd be alright out there.'

The girl smiled, probably the first time since she had woken up almost a week ago. She never really had friends, not real ones, anyway, except for the Gentleman, maybe. But this bunch of weirdos accepted her and understood her and that was new. New, but something she could have used to. 

After that, the rest of the evening went down pretty much the same way as it always did since they lived in the pub. They ate dinner together (except for Benjamin, who still avoided the company of others and Teodore, who spent almost all of his time in the hospital), even though none of them was really hungry with the battle of their life coming up. Then they just did what they always do. Robert and Martin went out to the tiny backyard to practice fighting spells. Ever since Robert got to teach someone, his mood was noticeably better. 

Remy and Claire played some cooperative video games tonight with Tom joining in. Marcus tried to flirt with Anna pointlessly, because, as Jenna noticed, even though Marcus was ridiculously handsome, Anna was more interested in Teodore. 

Jenna herself occupied her favourite armchair next to the fireplace, listening to music with earphones. Sometimes she did that, sometimes she read one of Robert's books. 

Luther was nowhere to be seen, but everyone was tired to the bone anyway with the argument between him and Robert about responsibility and how the old fae should help them or at least give them more weapons to fight, so nobody really minded it.   

The silence before the thunderstorm was heavy and way too loud in their heads.