The Sin Hunter: Double or Nothing

And So They Wait

"Wait wait! I think I've got it!" "Deck, I guarantee it doesn't mean what you think it means." Crow kicked his shoes against the aluminum vent system, tilting his beak and goggles into the night sky. Somewhere, someone was smoking. "I'm gonna radio the guys, see if they know what's happening." Crow unclipped a box with an antenna from his belt, raising the box to the side of his face. "Shrap, are you in position yet? Over." The radio crackled to life, static hissing while Strap replied. "Almost there, but things aren't working out quite well, over." Crow sat forward, rubbing the crease of his goggles.

"Define, 'working out well', over." The radio crackled again. "Crow, it's easy for you to blend in with a crowd. I'm 14-some feet tall with wings and a neck that stretch so far you'd think it was a string of black licorice. It's not easy moving around in this godforsaken town, over." Crow shrugged, flicking a toothpick out of his mask and dumping the rest of a wrapper out onto the floor. "Just get here soon, we need some aerial cover in case the cops show up, over." "What cops?" The radio stuttered, "this is Greed, the only cops are the ones roleplaying for a bit of dough." Deck laughed, rolling before he tumbled out of his chair, crashing onto the rooftop. Crow rolled his eyes, clicking the button on the radio again.

"Alright, alright, I get it. This isn't easy for you to move around. I'll see you shortly, bud. Over and out." "Roger that! Over and out." Strap replied, and Crow fastened the radio to his belt again, moving toward the ledge of the rooftop. One shoe graced the lip of the roof while the other remained on flat ground, while Crow leaned over the roof, observing the street far below. Lights flashed in the buildings and skyscrapers of the dreary emerald city while neon billboards flashed with advertisements from Lust, Wrath and Sloth over. 'No Envy or Gluttony. Hmm,' Crow muttered to himself. Deck walked to the ledge with Crow, keeping his silver gauntlets crossed while blowing into his hands.

"It's right frigid up here. How long is Jack going to take in there?" Crow turned his beak to the demon, raising an eyebrow in a mixture of concern and irritation. "Jack will take as long as he needs to. That's not our problem to worry about. We have a set time limit. Just be patient." Deck shook his head, combing a hand through his bright green head of hair, letting his pale gold skin shimmer in the lights from the billboards across the street. "Wow. Being so high up really reminds you of how big Greed actually is." Crow nodded, closing his eyes while he stepped away from the ledge. "Yup. A shame how people seek things out just to have them."

Deck thrust from his foot into a full front flip, planting his gauntlets on the ledge while a barbed purple tail flashed out from beneath his robes. "From what I've seen you Sinners do, you folks don't have it too easy. Like puppets with unbreakable coils ensnaring your arms and legs." Crow shrugged, lifting his mask to light a cigarette. Smoke wafted through the goggles and into the rainy air above. "Got that right, Deck. Humankind was doomed the moment it gained free will. With that idea came chase. Words of a wise guy." Deck coughed in the rain, chuckling as his eyes glimmered in the neon light. "Can't have been too wise if he tried to kill the whole reality. I saw that movie. Good plot, too."

Crow shook his head, kicking back beneath their lean-to. "Maybe. But there is genius behind the mask of insanity. You just need to fix your angle, give it time before those you called insane come back around." Deck nodded, leaping from the handstand on the slippery ledge back onto the rooftop, planting an elbow on the skylight into the gala below. "Sure, but suppose you find someone who just won't change. Somebody who openly ignores logic and just does whatever they think is right. Can you really take the word of someone who fell too deep down the hole and then expects you to call them God?"

Crow raised his glove to speak, but as he did, the radio crackled to life again. Crow snapped the radio to his face. "Hello? What's going on, over?" He asked. A voice replied, but not Shrap's. It was Wrench. "Crow, it's Wrench. I haf cracked zhe code and am proceeding through the sewer system into the gala now." Crow paced around the rooftop, chewing on the edge of his thumb. "Good, good. Now plant those charges under the grate and get the hell out of there before anybody sees you, got it, over?" The voice responded while a sharp crack preluded the reply. "I copy zhat. Zhe charges haf been set. Leaving now, over." The radio clicked silent again as Crow shook his beak, trembling in the rain and the excitement.

"Great news, deck," Crow called over to his associate, who had been inspecting a strange mark on the side of rooftop exit. "Yeah?" Deck replied. "Wrench set the charges. On Jack's signal, we blow the hatch, smokescreen through the whole building." Deck pumped his fist, slinging his shield over his pelted, soaking wet arm. "Great! And then we get to the smash n' grab!" Crow, goggles flashing with a translucent, violently violet light, nodded as the Sinner and Demon approached the skylight. Crow scraped his brass knuckles against one another in anxious glee. "Of course, my friend. Of course."