#gearchance

The rhythmic click-clack of a rubrics cube filled the entire barn, occasionally interrupted by chickens walking in and out and playing in the hay. Self proclaimed Heist Mastermind Nolan Chance was lazily playing with the toy, not caring for a second that his teammates were trying to get some sleep two stalls over.

His mind was completely elsewhere, still mulling over their catastrophic loss, how he’s going to get back into the estate again, and trying to figure out just how in the hell that twig vampire can punch so hard.

It was useless, he was not getting any closer to the answer, and he was ready to call it a day, closing his eyes and letting future Nolan deal with all of that.

That was until an alarm went off, loud enough to make him jump. He heard some scrambling from the stall next to him and he quickly got up and walked over to Mae who was already trying to shut the ringing off.

“Oh oh!! He’s here, we got him boss!” - mae exclaimed, as excited as someone who just woke up could. Her fingers clicked away on the laptop as she pulled up a map, a red circle flashing in and out on it, on a lone building surrounded by fields.

“Where’s here?” - nolan asked with his eyes fixed on the location. - “And don’t call me “boss”, that sounds gross from you.

Mae giggled as she zoomed out of the map. It was in the middle of nowhere, a small house with only some trees and farming grounds around it for quite a big radius.

“Some dusty old house. It’s not too far from here, half an hour most. Dunno what business he has there though..” - she mumbled as she began clicking again, pulling up an image of the house from he web. It looked unassuming, just a regular old grey farmhouse with a red tiled roof, nothing special in all honesty. The moment she tabbed back to the map the red circle was nowhere to be seen. - “Aaand he’s gone. That was quick.”

“Yeah, bet he is.” - Nolan grinned at his own stupid joke, that made absolutely no sense. Mae just let out a confused “whaa” before burying herself back in her laptop again. - “We should probably check it out anyways.”

He looked over the barn’s stalls, all of his friends were deep in their sleep, in their less than cozy haystack beds. Slone really didn’t need to cheap out on the budget so much. Getting a few hotel rooms wouldn’t have killed her.

He thought for a second.

“Wake Piper up. It’s fine if it’s just us three going.” - with that he walked out of the door towards the van.

The sun loomed over the edge of the horizon, it’s red light making the scenery almost ominous looking. He never comes back after visits like that. They should be in luck.

The heist van creaked towards its location, the radio cut in and out form a song no one really enjoyed as it was losing service in the countryside. Piper turned the volume down completely after she finally got sick of it, then twisted the rear view mirror to catch a glance of Nolan who appeared to be deep in thought.

“What’s the plan? You think we’ll find a clue in there?” - she asked in her usual tone, blowing her bubblegum and popping it as a way to punctuate her question.

“Who knows.” - nolan replied bluntly. Even if this brings them no closer to the answer they tried at least. He cut his words short, he didn’t want them to see just how stressed he was about it all.

Slone’s been asking about their progress more and more. There wasn’t much time left it seemed, and they were fucked. Utterly fucked. Not even one step closer to how they could get the upper hand, now that Kado was fully aware of them. He’s been in bad situations before but this one seemed as close to hopeless as it gets.

Finally the house came into view and it didn’t take them too long to arrive, no doubt thanks to Piper driving over the speeding limit. Today was way too long already and she just wanted to get back in bed, and who could really blame her.

The car came to a halt and they all looked over the house. To say it seemed off was an understatement, and the moment the sunlight hit its walls they immediately recoiled, looking away.

“The hell?” - nolan grumbled, taking another careful glance in its direction before opening the dar door and jumping out.

Once he was closer it seemed even more unsettling, an old farm house with overgrown wildflowers and weeds scattered all around it. It didn’t seem like anyone lived there. Seemed like the perfect location for some low budget horror movie.

The only thing more worrying was what it was made of, it looked nothing like the picture Mae showed. More than half of the walls and roof glimmered in the sunlight so hard that looking at it from the wrong angle was almost blinding. It was as if it was made from some kind of metal, like a newly minted penny, just far more shinier.

He took a few unsteady steps towards it before accidentally kicking into something hard. He shot a confused look down at his feet, only to find a flower, just as shiny as the house.

“Huh? Is this… gold?” - he plucked it from the ground and studied it close to his face, spinning it around in his hands. He’s seen enough gold bars to recognise the real deal anywhere.

“This is weird..” - Mae mumbled as she caught up to him. He reached out the flower to her and she looked at it, a puzzled expression visible on her face. She reached around for her backpack and put it away in there for a more in depth study back home.

“I’ll go in there.” - nolan took a few more steps towards the house before turning around. - “You can stay as a lookout if you’re scared.”

She puffed up her chest and pouted, clearly insulted, but another look at the strange place was enough to convince her otherwise.

“Yeah... I’ll tell Piper to be ready to dip.” - with that she began walking back to the car, silently thanking Nolan for giving her that option. She wouldn’t consider herself a wuss, but weird freaky places like that were never a good sign. She’s seen enough scary movies and she was not cut out to be the final girl.

Nolan sighed before turning back towards the house and walking up to the front door. It was also coated in gold, so were the windows, and even a part of the lawn closest to the walls. Beyond freaky.

He walked over to the side of the house that seemed normal and tiptoed to peek over the windowsill. He covered the sides of his face as he focused, waiting for his eyes to adjust to the darkness, before a loud crackle startled him strong enough to jump.

“WHAT DO YOU SEE?” - Mae’s voice boomed through his earpiece, and he swore to throw that old piece of junk away the moment they got back.

“JESUS you scared the shit out of me!” - he snapped back, dipping below the window and trying to keep his voice down as much as possible. He could hear Piper snickering on the other end. She really tuned in just to laugh at him huh.

He huffed annoyed, before raising back up again, trying to make out something, anything in the barely lit room.

His eyes finally caught a figure, huddled on the floor in the darkness and his blood ran cold.

“There’s someone in there.” - he whispered into the mic. - “I’m gonna go in.”

With that he walked back to the front door and took a deep breath, pulling out his gun from its holster and gripping it with much more force than necessary.

He knocked, receiving no answer. He raised his hand again and knocked even louder, hearing frantic rustling form the other end before someone spoke up.

“Go away! Please!” - the person on the other side sounded panicked and breathless. By the voice alone it seemed to be a young man. Nolan hovered his hand over the doorknob.

“Are you okay?” - he managed to force out, unsure of what to say. - “I just- I need to ask you about someone.”

“Please! You’re in danger, go away please it’s- I can’t stop it, just please-“ - his words were rushed and slurred, like he wasn’t completely there.

Nolan hesitated for a second before pushing the door open.

What he saw on the other end was a carnage, the floor was covered in puddles of blood and what seemed to be liquid gold, and as the door creaked open further the person in the corner spun around to face him.

His face was pale as a sheet of paper, his dark wavy hair matted with sweat and blood, some of it sticking to his face. His expression was of pure terror, one golden and one milky white eye staring up at him like Nolan was some mass murderer with a knife. Nolan took a step closer, raising both hands to signify he’s not dangerous, completely forgetting he was holding a gun in one of them.

The stranger’s eyes shot up towards it and he stumbled backwards, a string of unintelligible pleas spilling from his mouth.

“Nonono I’m not gonna hurt you it’s okay!” - nolan exclaimed, his eyes fixed on the guy. He thought for a second before placing his pistol down on a nearby cabinet. He had a backup one anyways. - “See? I’m not dangerous, okay?”

The man on the floor finally stopped, his eyes still closely following Nolan’s every move. He reached for what seemed to be a towel on the floor with one hand and covered his other one with it, holding it down with great force.

Nolan watched in abject horror as this went down, not only was one of his hands fully gold from the wrist down, he caught a glimpse of the other one which seemed to be fully missing, with a cut so clean he could see the bones inside. His stomach twisted.

“What the hell happened here?” - he asked in with an unsteady voice, before it clicked in his head.

Kado Thorne happened. Clearly.

He walked closer, his hands still in the air. The man seemed to be in shock, and from the amount of blood lost it was a miracle he was still alive.

“He just- a man, he- came in and- I- He-“ - he stammered, his eyes wide as he forced the words out but was unable to finish them. The moment Nolan inched close enough to stand in front of him a moment of clarity hit him. - “No no, please, the gold- I can’t stop it, you’re gonna get hurt-“

Nolan’s eyes wandered down to his hand, some of the blood that seeped out from underneath the towel shined brightly before it melted into a gold liquid. It was probably the craziest thing he’s ever seen.

“If you don’t see a doctor you’ll die.” - he said bluntly, making the man panic even harder. Maybe he should consider his words before speaking.

“I- can’t - I can’t go to a doctor the gold will-“ - he cut himself off, clutching onto the golden towel for dear life. He was shaking, his breathing coming out in quick ragged huffs.

“I know someone who can help.. probably. She’s no regular doctor.” - Nolan said as he inched even closer to the man, reaching a hand out to help him up. He wasn’t a good guy by any means, but leaving someone in this state would be purely heartless. Not even he could be that bad.

And that wasn’t even accounting for what he was seeing. A guy, seemingly being able to turn things to gold on a whim. If he got on his good side he’d be a very important asset to have.

“Are you sure?” - he asked weakly. Nolan nodded. Slone will probably know what to do. She seemed to know the answer to most of the weird stuff that’s brought to her. This should be no different.

He man struggled to get up by himself, but he ignored the hand reached out to him and it took a second for Nolan to realise why. Oh, of course. He raised a hand to his mic before speaking.

“Piper, start up the car. The guy in here’s hurt real bad. Mae, phone Slone to get to the barn asap. Tell her to bring strong gloves too.” - he said, his eyes fixed on the man the entire time. He began stumbling towards the door and against his better judgement Nolan hooked one hand under his, trying his best to support him without touching any of the gold stuff.

“Uh.. What’s your name again?” - nolan asked, trying to get his mind off of the fact he’s a few centimetres from what seemed to be certain death. The man lowered his head, as if unsure if he should answer.