In the name of fashion (Mortll - PM for invite)

[Zodiac]

She was bored, and as some who knew the gypsy could testify to, that could be a dangerous thing under the right conditions. She walked along the halls of the 8th Dimension Mall making her rounds of the various outlets that sold cloth by the yard and other sewing shops. She was always looking for something new to weave into one of her creations. A bold or subtle pattern, the right balance of colors, a lot of planning-far more than most would think-went into making the outlandish skirts and tops she wore that reflected her Romany Gypsy heritage. Always searching for that new bit of flair to add in to a new creation.

So far, not much of anything had jumped out at her eyes and screamed 'I am what you seek!'. Her bag held several rolls of trims and close to 50 spools of various threads, but nothing worthy of being considered part of a new skirt, top, or vest. Everything she was finding had been used before or else was just boring.

She hated being bored.

She wandered along as she debated where to try next. The sounds of cheers and laughter pulled her gaze to were people were using the wall to mock rock climb. "How many of that group is actually sober?" she wondered, Judging by all the noise they were making, not many. Zodiac took a seat and rested for a few moments till a new sound caught her ear.

The water splashed gently as the apex predator glided along in it's never ending motions in the large pool. She watched as the near mindless thing prowled along. What she recalled from books told her that if the shark ever did stop swimming, the odds of it being able to start again were highly against it. It's own weight would pull it down to the bottom and without the motion of movement to pass water over its gills, it would suffocate.

"For an apex predator, you are kinda lame." she sent the thought to the beast. If it even registered it had heard something it did not show. It just kept prowling the never ending circle of its prison. Considering some of the things she had seen and fought, the shark would probably be downright boring.

An odd notion filled her mind. She had made a lot of things from the various furs and pelts she had collected during her times of hunting. Lion, bear, wolf, rabbit and others. Didn't people make things from shark skin as well? Zodiac pulled out her iPhone and began to search the subject and was surprised. They did make clothing from a shark's hide. She amended her search to seek out where she could purchase samples, but hit a type of roadblock. Shark skin could not be imported due to some stupid international laws, so she checked how to actually purchase the animal itself. Again, unless she was a zoo, a private collector faced a monstrous ordeal to get one that would involve months of preparations and money spent just to be considered to buy one of the damned things.

She shoved her phone back into her purse with a huff of annoyance. She could probably use the black market to get one, but it still would be pricey just to experiment on an whim of fancy. She turned back to watch the animal again, despite the fact her eyes occasionally was picking out the various forms of security in the place and making note of them.

[Mortll]

Mortll had been pouring over the books for the restaurant for the past few hours. Her eyes turned from the computer screen and she sighed everything was going as planned there were some areas where waste could be trimmed and she would deal with those later but right now she needed a break. She picked up her bag and headed out the doors. She whistled a small tune as she prowled through the hoards of humans that had amassed in the mall , they were great for a profit but being as antisocial as she was a great deal of the time they mostly set her teeth on edge.

She passed the Rock wall where a loud group had gathered cheering each other on The shark tank was near ... Now that was one thing Mortll never quite understood the reasoning to have such a great predator caged and locked up for others amusement. She could somehow feel a kindred like to the beast it there in its cage much like most of the predators here in Harper Rock. They could move freely within the world but the rift kept their powers strong here and it had all seemed to be some sort of personal cage at times .

That shark though was another story , It had been ripped from its world to be plopped in a tank to swim in circles and feed on carrion tossed to it from people who just wanted a cheap thrill. Its grandeur had been ripped from it . Emasculated and weak pathetic example of a great species . Mortll decided to walk over to see the beast swimming dully around in the water maybe she would go into shadows and push someone into the tank just to see them scramble and see if the shark had gotten so complacent in his habitat that he wouldn't take the bait of a fresh meal .

She spotted the long lanky Gypsy as she approached the area of the tank. She smiled it had been a bit since she had seen the woman they had used to get into so much together . She slipped up beside her on the bench she was sitting at surrounded by a clutter of shopping bags she looked deep in thought . Mortll didn't say anything rather she thought it at the woman " Hey there beautiful what type of mischief are you up to this fine evening ?" the wicked little grin turned up the corners of her mouth at she watched her friend closely .

[Zodiac]

She barely noticed someone sitting beside her, but the voice she could not ignore. Mortll and herself had shared some experiences-good and bad- during their time in this place. Her eyes turned to look at her while the rest of her sat perfectly still.

"Me? Mischief? Oh gods, am I that obvious? I'm getting sloppy big time." she finally turned in her spot to face her friend. "What do you see in that over grown bath tub there?" she gestured to the shark tank. "Right now in my current state of mind I see gloves and boots and vests and skirt accents. Maybe even some swimsuits. All in motion going round and round. Shark skin. Been sitting here looking it up on line. " she turned back to the tank. "Lots of things can be made from the stuff. I got an urge to create in a original medium and that overgrown catfish is calling to me."

"A big dream, I admit it." she clarified. "The hide itself is damn near impossible to import. Stupid animal rights laws. To out and out buy a shark is almost like adopting a kid! Want to inspect your place, the tank you have prepared for it, how you gonna feed it. Blah! I just want to skin it like a banana and be done with it. What about those fishing types at the docks? Do the sea excursions and such. Wonder how much to bribe one of them fishermen to bring me back one."

She sighed softly and went back to observing the beast lumbering gracefully in its bowl. "How the hell did they even get that thing in here? I don't see a set of doors big enough to do the job." Part of her was still plotting away now.

[Mortll]

Mortll loved it when they linked minds like this and just let each other know what they were thinking ;"You know this mall has freight entrances and most of the shops have back entrances near them . They are marked Employee only . They are big enough to move him out. We have one huge obstacle though The mall is never closed .... But I have a idea all tanks need cleaned they would have to shut down the area move the shark to a different tank and keep it alive during the move I've seen enough animal rescue to accomplish this . Do you think we should convince them that the tank needs cleaned and just hijack the shark while its being moved or impersonate the movers ?"

[Zodiac]

Was she serious?

It was one thing to daydream about stealing several thousand pounds of shark (her best guess. The thing looked fat and in those nature shows large sea animals tended to weight in the thousands of pounds as a rule, so a safe bet in her mind.) but to actually do it?

"Damn, woman. You are way more bored than I am." she laughed in her thoughts.

However, would such a thing work? Her wheels were now spinning in two different directions at once here. Taking the thing when it was all packed up and ready to be moved elsewhere could work. It was not like she could slip it in her pocket and walk out the door. An old movie she had caught one evening late came to mind. 'Jumbo'. A musical circus movie and when Jimmy Durante tired to smuggle the elephant out of the circus and was caught he stood there like a small dog in front of Jumbo (who was not a baby one, but huge!) and shouted 'Elephant? What elephant?'. The imagery matched her mental view of herself with a shark stuffed in her pocket. 'What shark?' as a tail three times her size thrashed about.

"I have bad luck switching goldfish from bowl to bowl," she finally spoke up. "Let alone pretending that I know how to flip all of that from one tank to another. No, if we would do this, I'd say snatch it while it is in transport between this tank and the holding area." Dimly she realized there was a ton of other things to consider. The guards, how to transport the thing elsewhere. Teleport it? She never tired to move anything THAT big before, and then what to do with the remains after that? Chop it up and toss it in the river? The sewers? Summon a herd of fadebeasts and let them pig out? Feed the zombies in the QZ or do one big cookout for homeless people? Free sharkburgers for all!

"Keep talking, Mort," Zodiac enjoyed listening to insanity on occasion, and Mortll did know how to spin it very well. Her eyes glued to the iridescent sheen of the animal's hide as it kept gliding along.

[Mortll]

Mortll sat there mussing in her head a moment it went back to when she was young and her grandmother hanging a hog from a tree dipping it into a barrel of hot scalding water and scrapping it down . She would gut it nothing went to waste . She had a huge cast iron pot she would use to render all the fat and make cracklins. The head would get the jowls cut off and cured while the brains got cooked in milk and canned the rest was boiled in a big pot and scraped down to make hogs head cheese. Bacon and chitlins or they would be used to make stuffed sausages. Mortll kept eyeing the shark and was suddenly seeing shark fin soup sushi and shark steaks as well as Zo's dazzling idea of a wardrobe. "You know I own a Asian restaurant The majority of that shark might not have to even leave the mall ? Or would come right back to it packaged for use ?"

[Alexandrea]

The cats were making figure eights around Alexandrea’s ankles as the Allurist worked in her kitchen on her latest experiment. The only times that Garfield and Penny Valentine were ever in the same room together was when food was involved.

It wasn't the younger feline’s problem, really. Garfield had been there first and he had never tried to get along with any of the other animals that frequently came and went. Himish, the small ball of white fluff that Kira called a dog, was the only one of the pets that Garfield didn't hiss at on sight. So the sudden growling didn't come as a shock.

Alex looked down to see Penny Valentine playing ‘gatekeeper’ in the doorway while the last of the tidbits that Alex had dropped for the two felines sat unnibbled.

“No good, huh? And Penny, knock it off.”

A sharp hiss that sounded a lot like the young cat’s mama, Ginny, followed up Alexandrea’s words as she mentally shared with her cat the memory of Penny Valentine getting picked up and tossed on the sofa.

Message received, Penny stepped aside as Garfield raced passed her and up the stairs to hide under a bed. More than twice the size of the small female, Garfield was just one big pussy. Alex sighed as she swept up the uneaten food and placed it in a plastic tub labeled; ‘Orin’. No matter how badly one of the wannabe chef's creations turned out, that shark would eat absolutely anything.

At first when Alex had realized that, she had felt a bit ripped off. That Orin wasn't capable of appreciating the extra special treats that she used to bring him was disappointing. But Alex was a sunny side up kinda gal and made use of the living garbage disposal rather that let any food go to waste.

She had learned the hard way, however, that sharks could vomit. And so she didn't feed the mall’s mascot and favourite employee anything too weird. And nothing Alexandrea ever made could be considered junk food. Unconventional, maybe. But only made with the highest quality ingredients.

The blonde tasted her latest experiment herself and made a face. Whatever it was supposed to have been, the only thing for sure was it was beyond hope. Resigned to the fact that it couldn't be saved, it was added to Orin’s bowl as well and then placed in the refrigerator for the next time Alex went to the mall.

Penny got busy playing ‘let’s trip our person’ as the Allurist had just got started cleaning up the mess she had made in the kitchen when her private line rang. The number was only given out to a select few besides family so Alex didn't waste any time in answering the call.

The cracking voice of an adolescent male came over the line; “Ms. Quartermaine? Sorry to disturb you Ma’am. It’s Oscar. From Mall Security?”

The blonde was immediately on alert; “Yes, Oscar, I know. What’s wrong? And please, just call me Alex.”

“Yes, Ms. Alex.” The youth went on sounding overly apologetic and very stressed out. “You remember telling us that if we couldn't get hold of the boss we could call you if something came up, Ma’am?”

The Allurist rolled her eyes at the Ms and Ma’am but she got right to the point; “Just tell me what’s wrong, Oscar.”

“Nothing is really wrong, Ma'am. Just Jimmy never showed up tonight and now Mr. Fitzgerald is late to start the night shift. And I got a 10 pm curfew.”

Alexandrea frowned at the thought of the young man working the control room alone. Jimmy and Frank were quickly moved to the top of the woman’s **** list. Alex might not have the authority to fire either one but she was certain if she suggested it to the man who did, he would. But only time would tell if she decided to make such that suggestion.

“You should have called me sooner, Oscar. It’s not fair that you had to work your station alone. I’ll be right there. Call your mom and tell her I’ll be sending you home to her in a taxi. My treat. And if she needs to call me to be sure you are where you say you are? Go ahead and give her my personal number. I’ll see you in just a few minutes.”

She hung up the phone without waiting for him to reply and looked at the time. It was a quarter to ten and she was across town at the Willow Court house. Good thing for Alex that wasn't an issue. She dashed upstairs to change and then tomed home to the roof of The Ivory Tower after grabbing the leftovers for Orin and getting Penny.

Vampire and cat then took the fade portal, arriving at the Wickbridge train station in under ten minutes. Alexandrea, with Penny following close behind, took her time walking to the 8th Dimension Mall and into the hidden security office. But she still arrived with two minutes to spare.

“Did you get hold of your Mom, Oscar?” The blonde said in way of a greeting, and smiled when the gangling teenager turned around in surprise.

“Wow, that was fast! And I didn't see or hear you at all! Some security I am… and yeah, Mom was cool. She even already called the cab. It’s supposed to arrive at ten sharp.” Oscar’s voice kept cracking so it was hard to judge but the young man seemed angry at himself.

“Oscar, it’s used to be my job to be sneaky. Remember?” Alex whispered to the youth and gave him a wink. She had shared some of her tales of past heists with him... although to him and most everyone she insisted her thievery career was all in the past, of course.

“Now you go ahead and get your things and go wait by the main door for that taxi. Stay by the security cameras so I can watch you until you get in, okay? And tell the driver to charge it to my account. Don’t worry about clocking out. I’ll take care of that.”

Alex didn't let him know but she had every intention of filling in the young man’s time sheet to reflect overtime so the cost of the now show employees would be clear in the monthly accounts.

Oscar did as was told (such a nice young man) and Alexandrea nodded with a smile as she watched the taxi collect the lad and take him home. She also watched as the so called ‘adult’ Frank Fitzgerald, finally arrived a full hour late and hurried into the mall. He had just missed seeing Oscar by seconds.

In the minutes it took the man to get himself to where he already should have been, Alexandrea and already sent Odin an email detailing the situation and then, still using the web in her head, arranging with a temporary company to send some highly skilled security professionals immediately.

Even shorter than Oscar, who wasn't a tall young man, Alex had no trouble disappearing in the high backed swivel chair as she turned it around to face the security monitors more directly. Then the head of the night shift rushed in with no apology, just taking hold on the chair and spinning it around to face himself.

“You still awake there, kid?” Frank began with a chuckle that quickly became a gasp as his small brain registered who was actually occupying the chair.

“Nice of you to show up, Mr. Fitzgerald.” The gaze the blonde fixed on the man was like steel. The fact that she was not calling him by his first name, as she usually did, a clear warning sign that he had screwed up big time.

“So tell me, do you often leave the mall’s security in the hands of a high school student?”

The man swallowed nervously as the usually friendly blonde rose from the chair like a cat ready to pounce. Alexandrea drew all of her five feet and one and a quarter inches up as straight as a ramrod pole and crossed both arms as she stepped forward to Frank with a frightening glare.

As nervous as Frank was with how Alex was behaving, he knew that what he could have faced if his real boss had been there could have been a lot worse. And with practiced charm, he started to try and smooth talk his way out of trouble.

Alexandrea knew the sound of someone passing the buck, however. And as the silly human kept digging himself deeper, she started to smile. It was a dangerous kind of smile. Like the one a woman gives a man when she knows damn well she's being lied to.

First Frank tried to blame Jimmy. Whom he claimed was supposed to have been there to help 'the kid' and to cover for Frank, as Frank had called ahead that he would be late.

A quick check proved all that to be false. And when the rest of what Frank tried to pull also didn't hold any water, Alexandrea went ahead and sent a message directly to Odin’s head, letting him know what was going on and the steps she had taken to get some perhaps not so temporary replacement staff.

She instructed Frank to start his shift and go on his rounds to check the other security around the mall while she kept an eye on things in the control room. Hopefully the Temps would arrive soon and then she could check on the rest of the 8D’s staff and their competency herself. She didn't place any more trust in Mr. Fitzgerald.

The blonde sat back down at the control panel to wait and see if there would be any word back from Odin on how to proceed and then watching as two familiar figures relaxed by the shark tank.

One she knew very well. The Allurist’s favourite Mystic and also a dear friend, Zodiac. The other woman; Alex wasn't able to place from the angle of the cameras. But when she had a chance to leave the bug room, if they were both still there, the blonde would be sure to go and say hello.

[Odin]

Odin decided to take the early night off. He would have to be back at the mall around midnight and wanted a bit of time to relax beforehand. He turned off his cell phone, then tossed it onto an end table in the living room. He went upstairs and walked toward the back of the apartment to pick up on a particularly interesting project he was working on.

A few hours passed quickly, as time usually does when you're having fun, when suddenly Odin got an "insta-brain-a-gram," which broke his concentration.

Cursing under his breath, he walked to the sink and washed the blood off his hands and face.

"It's always something," he muttered to himself. It was obvious he would need to get to the mall ahead of scheduled time, and his first action would be to fire that stupid *** Fitzgerald.

Odin glanced down at his clothes.

A change of attire would also seem to be warranted.

After he was all cleaned up, he make his way quickly to the 8th Dimension Mall. He was glad he had left Alexandrea in charge in case he couldn't be reached, and told her so as he swung into the surveillance room. After that he grinned and leaned over and gave her a gentle kiss on the temple.

"Thanks for looking out for things," he said before he sat down next to her. He would take a moment to talk to Alexandrea before he hunted down the soon-to-be-unemployed Fitzgerald.

[Zodiac]

Now that idea had potential. She could see it now. Have a weekend special at the restaurant, both businesses co-credited for it, advertise the hell out of it. Bring both in some extra business. She could picture that things jaws on her walls or a bevy of shark's teeth for jewelry or spells.

Yes, the mindless guppy was looking more attractive now. Zodiac stood up, gathered her bags, and walked closer to the tank to see it better. How much did that thing actually weigh? Even enhanced vampire strength could only manage so much and despite any tools at their disposal, to skin and butcher that thing properly it would have to be turned and flipped in the process. She did not have the Hulk on speed dial, sadly.

"So how do we go about fouling the water without being obvious about it?" she asked Mortll. The more she looked, the more damn security cams she was noticing. It all depended on who was watching the monitors she guessed, but that was a dice roll at best. Could be some old person snoozing away, some kid too busy with his iPad to really care, or someone with the eyes of a hawk putting them fully to work. The odds were still too high without more information and right now she was too colorful a blip to simply melt into the crowd and do closer casing of the place.

"Know anyone who works in security in this place?" she asked her friend. "Someone who might be a little free with information?" A long shot at best but what could she do? She could use her thoughts to follow the digital video feeds, but that would dead end at the monitors. With no way to view what was being displayed, she had no clue what cams were focused exactly on this spot. This was frustrating, but her gypsy blood was rising to the challenge now.

[Mortll]

Mortll had to chuckle she knew the owner and boy would he be pissed if he knew what was flowing through her mind and Odin was tight with information he wasn't the type to let anything go freely. Dye packets launched into the water from afar would foul the water so that they would have to clean the tanks that could be done out of the range of the cameras Then it would be a matter of finding out when they were moving the shark just hanging around and listening could do that and both Mortll and Zo could dig into peoples minds . It shouldn't be that hard to get them to use the service exits near the Dragons lair just by some well organized sabotage of the other roll up doors on the ground floor of the mall . Mortll nudged Zo with her elbow " Come on we have a bit of work to do You go to Apocalypse paintball and get a few bags of paintballs . Me im going to the Chop shop upstairs and borrowing some tools Meet me back at Dragons lair in about 20 minutes and We can lay out part of the plan there and figure out what to do with the monster once we have it ."