C5: Kingpin
That night.
New York City lay cloaked in moonlight.
Within the fortified Golden Palace skyscraper in Manhattan a towering monument to wealth and fear security personnel swarmed every floor. The entire building was under heightened lockdown.
Wilson Fisk, better known in the criminal underworld as the Kingpin, was no mere brute. Despite his enormous frame and seemingly cumbersome size, he possessed one of the sharpest tactical minds among New York's criminal elite. He had risen from the slums of Hell's Kitchen to become the most feared kingmaker in the city.
With assistance from his precision-trained intelligence network, Fisk had already decrypted the cryptic message left by the infamous thief Kaitou Kid.
He knew the thief would attempt to steal his signature item, a black obsidian-handled cane concealing advanced tech sometime between 9:00 and 11:00 p.m. on April 4th.
Fisk wasn't interested in second chances. For someone bold enough to challenge him, there would be no leniency.
He had stationed his own elite mercenaries ex-SHIELD operatives, HYDRA defectors, and former League of Shadows assassins across every level of the building. Should the phantom thief dare to show himself, he would be turned into a corpse riddled with holes.
…
Time crept forward.
Minute by minute, the tension ebbed. The fabled thief remained unseen, and complacency began to seep into the ranks of the guards.
"I told you, he's not coming tonight."
"No way a solo thief would take on Kingpin."
"He's got guts, sure but he's no match for Wilson Fisk."
On the top floor, the executive penthouse where a panoramic view of Manhattan twinkled beyond bulletproof glass, none of this chatter registered with the man in charge.
"Time's up."
The man in black tactical gear Bullseye, Fisk's deadliest enforcer glanced at his watch. Around him, soldiers armed with StarkTech rifles and Oscorp-manufactured surveillance drones tensed.
"Looks like the ghost decided to stay in hiding."
"Maybe the phantom thief is just a myth. Or a coward," Fisk muttered, sneering as he dropped the phantom thief's note to the floor and crushed it underfoot. "I must have overestimated him."
He turned toward his men, prepared to give the stand-down order.
When the doors suddenly burst open.
A guard stumbled inside, visibly shaken.
"The thief! Kaitou Kid has been spotted!"
"What?!"
Bullseye's reaction was immediate. His eyes flared with sharp focus as his body tensed like a coiled spring.
Click.
Then, without warning darkness.
The lights died with a hiss of extinguished voltage.
"What the hell?!"
"The power's out!"
"Damn it!"
In the suffocating dark, panic briefly flared. Their once-mighty weapons now felt dangerous and useless hard to aim without risking friendly fire.
Only Fisk remained calm, standing firm in the pitch-black office. "The building's emergency power grid reboots in three minutes. Until then, keep your weapons steady. If anything moves near the entrance, shoot on my command."
With that, he reached toward the cane at his side.
Then—movement.
The gleam of moonlight on glass. His sharp eyes caught the flicker of something beyond the towering floor-to-ceiling window.
He froze.
"Bullseye. Window!"
Without hesitation, Bullseye spun, already arming himself. His fingers flicked a metal playing card through the air.
CRASH!
A figure burst through the window in a spectacular shower of glass a white tuxedo, fluttering cape, and trademark top hat. The thief.
"Bingo," Bullseye said, and his card struck true.
Thud.
The body fell but the sound was wrong. Bullseye's brow creased.
Three minutes later, the emergency power restored with a hum. The room flooded with light.
The thief's fallen form was now visible.
It was a mannequin. A grinning, lifelike replica of Kaitou Kid, rigged for misdirection.
They'd been duped.
Bullseye's ace card protruded from the mannequin's chest a grim joke, mocking his own precision.
Fisk brushed glass from his shoulder, his face expressionless. But as his gaze dropped to where his cane should have been, his composure cracked. It was gone.
He had mocked the phantom thief for failing to appear and yet, the real heist had already happened.
A long silence fell.
Then Fisk turned, scanning the room with calculating eyes.
"Who was the man who barged in earlier?"
Everyone hesitated.
They had dismissed the intruder as a panicked informant. But now that Fisk mentioned it the power had failed right after his entrance. And now he was nowhere to be seen.
Coincidence?
Highly unlikely.
"That… that was the real Kaitou Kid!" Bullseye growled. "What are you standing around for?! He's still in the building fan out and flush him out!"
The guards sprang into action.
"Replace the damn window before sunrise," Fisk barked, his voice low with fury.
"Yes, sir. Right away."
As Fisk exited the penthouse with the others, the room grew quiet again. The chaos faded leaving behind only shards of glass and silence.
Then—movement.
A section of wall shimmered.
Two eyes opened.
From the wall itself, a figure detached a slim youth with pale skin and a top hat slung over one arm. In his hand, Fisk's cane gleamed.
Just barely made it. The timer on the prop was almost up.
Kaitou Kid—alias Li Ran in this world exhaled quietly. The reason he had managed to evade even Kingpin's ruthless scrutiny was due to a particular item drawn from the System earlier.
Chameleon Tea: Once consumed, the body mimics its surroundings entirely. Whether it's wood, stone, or steel, the user blends in perfectly, becoming invisible to both the eye and infrared detection. Duration: 15 minutes.
Though labeled as a low-tier item by the System, in practice, it was absurdly useful. He hadn't just escaped he had remained right under their noses the entire time.
While Kingpin and Bullseye tore through the building in vain, Kaitou Kid tucked the stolen cane into his coat with a satisfied smirk.
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