Chapter 1: From the Frying Pan

A chill erupted upon on him at the mere sight of a gun being pointed in his face, drenching his back in sweat. His face trembled along side his body as he slowly raised his hands above his head, not even daring to allow his sight to leave his assailant's muddy brown eyes. From his periphery he realized he was not alone in this situation, dozens of hands also raised in the air with equally trembling bodies. His assailant looked from the outside like any other office worker white buttoned up, dark blue slacks and black dress shoes...only if you ignored the makeshift black mask he wore.

"Alright ladies and gentlemen," a voice boom from the now silent room," You all now how this goes, do what we say and no one needs to get hurt. Scoot back until your backs hit the wall and stay there."

Daring to allow his eyes to slight off the gunman in-front of him, his sight landed on a figure in the middle of the building that drew in the eye. The figure appeared to be male in a white three-piece suit that emphasized his larger than average frame, maybe he would have been handsome if it wasn't for his black skeleton like face. No lips, no nose, nothing, it was as if someone ripped off his face and burned his skull black. Just looking at him caused Albert's eye to jump away from the suited man and lock back on the man in-front of him who gestured with his gun to move back. Slowly following the man's instructions he moved on his knees backwards until his back laid straight on the wall next to his fellow hostages.

'I can't believe not even a second in this world, I'm already being held at gun point. And by Black Mask's goons none the less!'

"Now empty your pockets of everything: phones, wallets, jewelry, watches. Don't try to be hero, it never works out for anyone involved." Black Mask said with a large machine gun tucked in the crook of his arms," My men will be by with a bag, put everything in there and sit there and don't say a word."

True to his word, from the far side of the line of people a masked man went before each person who in turn empty their pockets of anything of value into a beige cloth bag. Looking around, Albert saw a wide open space covered in white tiles with teller desks and grand statues. Men and women in casual and business wear emptied their pockets of everything they had on them. His hands reached into his pockets until his fingers felt two rectangular object, pulling them out he saw in his right hand an old, thin leather pound wallet with an elaborate design etched into the side of it and in his left hand was a beaten up phone one would have seen 10 years prior with it's iconic two piece design (its a flip phone). Even the person to his left scoff quietly at the sight of this relic of the past, which was quickly followed by the gunman following in their stead. Shrugging his shoulders, he could only wait for the goon to reach him.

'If that is truly Black Mask, that definitely limits the locations I could be. I have to be in Gotham, unless if he has started to vie for power outside of it? But why would he even want to rob a bank? From what I can remember he's filthy rich already, and even if he wanted to rob a bank he wouldn't come in person for something like this? I'll just have to wait and hope nothing bad happens.' As if to mock his thought, a window screen popped up in his view.

[You have received a new Case: What is Black Mask After?!]

[Black Mask is an infamously wealthy crime lord and has no need to do such a low level job such as robbing a bank himself! He would just hire someone else to do it for him! There has to be something else that's going on to draw his eye! Find out what that is!]

[Requirements: Find out what Black Mask is after without dying!]

[Difficulty: D]

[Rewards: Inheritance Key, 1 Improvement Point]

[Tutorial: Please say Status into order to see your Character Sheet.]

Cursing his luck, he dragged his eyes to the ground to avoid drawing the attention of his captors. Why would the system decide now would be a good time to make it's appearance?! His mind spat out an array of foul words into the void for all to hear before calming and speaking as low as possibly,"Status."

[Name: Albert

HP: 20/20

MP: 9/9

SAN: 45/45

LCK: 45/45

Skills:

- Appraise: 25%

- Art/Craft (Photography): 55%

- Disguise: 20%

- Fire Arms (Handgun): 60%

- Library Use: 60%

- Listen: 30%

- Occult: 35%

- Psychology: 50%

- Spot Hidden: 60%

- Stealth: 40%

Talents:

- Resourceful

- Lucky

Cthulhu Mythos: 0%]

Even though he was warned that he wouldn't be able to see his full status sheet, he was still disheartened that he wouldn't be able to see all of his stats anymore but least he could still view his skills. Focusing in on his Appraise skill, he tried to see if he could make the system expand on it's uses after a full 10 seconds and receiving no response from it he could only lament basic system. Trying a different tact he tried to use Appraise on his old leather wallet and after a bit he still couldn't tell anything besides the fact that it was old, leather and that it was indeed a wallet. Even though he couldn't gain anything at the moment, he felt that if he spent maybe half hour with it could possibly uncover something about its origins. Inwardly he shook his head, it seem to him that these skills acted passively and couldn't be directed.

Albert was soon shook out of ruminations by a loud bang, followed by screaming and small drops of wet hitting the side of his face. Swiveling his head to the side he was not too far from him, to see sight only by other on a television screen. A neatly dressed man laid sprawled out on the floor in front a gunman with a giant part of his head missing, red. Red smears covered those closes to the man, bits of gray intermixed to red storm. A woman wearing a wrinkled business suit clutched at the mans' body as she wailed, her studiously styled hair began to come undone as she cried into the coat of the man's suit. Shaking his head, Black Masks voice loomed over them all," That's why playing the hero doesn't do anyone any good, now that that's out of the way continue."

But Albert couldn't hear him, like everyone else closes to the man, for he only had eyes for the pool of red slowly spreading out from the origin. It was like the lake of blood grabbed his sight and wouldn't let go, little critics made of white and gray swam along the river filling the air with a stench of iron. His chest tightened and his breath froze, his mind whirled at the lost of life oh so close to him. The calloused disregard for life struck at his psyche, an entire childhood of being taught that all life is valuable and sacred was instantly shaken. The sight of red, the smell of iron, and wails of despair consumed him in it's entirety. He was shaken out of his spiral by a gentle hand on his shoulder.

"Ya can't look at it son, it'll drag ya into the grave along it." A rough and gentle voice said from Albert's other side. Snapping his head to the side he saw a man with more wrinkles than skin and sparsely covered head of gray. In contrast to his gentle grandfather appearance, his dark eyes were wise and haunted. Slightly glazed over as he look over his shoulder at the wailing woman and corpse,"Take a deep breathe through yer nose and out through yer mouth, yer gonna make it out of here."

Following the older man's advice, Albert did that just that. The pungent scent of iron was forced to back of his mind as he breathe deep in and out a couple of times before his nerves were settled down enough to give a grateful nod to the him. Trying to tune out the woman's wailing his eyes were locked onto the ground in front of him, with no real luck.

'Right,' he thought,'I almost forgot where I was, this isn't Metropolis, Star City or Jump City, this is Gotham where the sickest and most vile of all villains call home.'

The next couple of minutes were silent besides the woman's soft sobs, as the goon collected everyone belongings. Seeing this, Black Mask nodded his head and said with his gruff voice filling the building," Now that's out of the way, who works here?"

A couple of hands were reluctantly raised in the air

"Good," Black Mask started before point at one hand," You. Who is the manager in charge today?"

A man's tentative voice answered," M-mrs. Halton."

"Where is she then?"

The man gulped,"Sh-she went on lunch break an hour ago…"

Even without lips, anyone could tell that Black Mask was frowning causing everyone to flinch away from him. As an air of menace began weigh down on everyone involved his next words brook no arguments,"Then you better hope someone knows where the vault keys are. Gather them up."

Plaintive cries echoed as the people who raised their hands were yanked onto their feet by the masked goons and forced at goon point to walk towards the crime boss. Pacing in front of the line of shivering employees, Black Mask demanded," Where is the safety security key?"

"W-we don-" A single gunshot echoed through the room followed by the thumping of a body crumpling to the floor, a pool of red soon followed. The employee's already shivered bodies froze like a deer in headlights.

"If you haven't caught on yet," Black Mask began," Every time I hear an answer I don't like, one of you will earn a permanent vacation from yours truly."

His chuckling voice sent out another stream of terror to suffused into their bodies, it was as if the whole room held their breaths in unison as they awaited this madman's next step. A softly voice whispered," There are no keys." Pausing Black Mask leaned forward with his hand cupping his non-existent ear.

"Why don't you repeat that a bit louder buddy?"

The soft voice was revealed to be a thin man wearing a suit a bit too large for him, his greasy black hair was pushed back out of his beady green eyes. His pale skin paled further as he spoke," There are no keys or password on the security vault. Its keyed to DNA authentication. Its impossible to get in unless you have a safety security box yourself."

"Ain't that fancy!" Black Mask guffawed while pressing his gun into the man's body," That sounds a lot like something I don't like! If you stop talking I might blow that rat like head of your body."

"N-normally it would be impossible to get in on any other day," the man said quickly," But Mrs. Halton had an appointment today with someone who has a space keyed to them."

After hearing what the man said, Albert started to feel a sense of deeper dread seep deep into bones causing all the hair all over his body to raise.

"That is might convenient indeed," Black Mask patted the man's shoulder as he said,"Who did she have an appointment with then?"

Visibly relaxing, the ratlike man continued,"Some kid by the man of Albert Nelson."

That sense of dread Albert previously felt shot up to a level he couldn't even put to words,'What kind of trouble did this body get me into?!'

Turning his back to the sniveling man, Black Mask called out to the crowd,"Now we can either do this the easy way or the hard way. Albert Nelson can raise his hand voluntarily and receive my hospitality or one of my men can look in that bag until we find his ID but that'll take up a lot of my time and make me incredible inhospitable. You have until my men find your ID Albert, the clock is ticking."

With a nod to his man holding the bag, who in turn began to rummage around and opening wallets before tossing them to the ground. Each wallet that hit the ground seemed to echo through Albert's ears, they encompassed his entire being with an unsteady thump. Seeing no other way out of the situation, his hand shakily raised in the air. He couldn't help but feel uncomfortable under the weight of their eyes, the gunman in front of him pulled him to his feet before shoving him towards Black Mask. As he got closer to a member of the Rogue Gallery, he couldn't help but noticed exactly how he was in comparison to everyone else. He silently cursed his lesser than average Size, he didn't think it would matter so much oh how he was wrong. It was like he was facing tall muscular trees from all sides, when he stopped he could only look on meekly at one of the most dangerous man in the room.

Black Mask looked him up and down before waving the bag over, when the bag landed in front of Albert he spoke again," Find your wallet and show it to me, if you're not who I need, I don't mind giving this fine room another coat of paint."

Shivering, Albert obliged by shoving his hand in the bag of belongings. After looking for a few seconds and feeling the weight of tens of peoples' gazes on him caused his already cold drenched body to release even more sweat, so much so that it was visible by everyone. Albert's mind whirled as he hurriedly looked for his wallet, the impatient tapping of Black Mask's foot didn't help the matter.

'If this isn't the right time to use Resourceful then I don't know when else!' he thought.

After filling the talent with his intent, he felt something leave his self. No not his body, but from his very being and streak out into the world around him and the next moment his fingers were filled clutching a familiar rectangular object. Pulling his hand out, in it he clutched his weathered leather wallet, pushing aside the feeling of loss his entire being felt he shakily withdrew his ID and handed it to Black Mask. He compared the photo to Albert's face for a tense moment before nodding and turning towards the crowd," It seems this Albert is reasonable, just sit there and I'll be out of your hair in a bit. But first," Spinning around he shot the black haired man in the face," I hate rats the most."

Flinching away from the crumbling man, he couldn't help but feel conflicted. Sure this man is the reason why he's up here, but that didn't mean Albert wanted him dead. But now it was all for not as he was quickly surrounded by six of Black Masks' goons, who in turn pointed at another trembling employee," You will show us where you keep the good stuff."

Pushing the employee forward Black Mask followed with his men and Albert quickly in his wake.