“Hey, Will, I just thought of something,” Nick said to me. We were in the middle of practicing magic together at my apartment. I had just instructed him on the usage of teleportation. “What’s the difference between the left half of the apple and whole apple?” He held out the whole apple that we were practicing on.

“Well, besides the obvious of one being part of the other, I don’t know,” I responded.

“The whole has more atoms than the left.” I tilted my head in confusion at his statement. It’s obvious what he is saying, but I have no clue what his point is. Nick lit up his hands and cast the teleport spell, but instead of the whole apple vanishing, only the left half did. He held up both halves, one in each hand. He set them down and grabbed another whole apple. “We don’t teleport whole objects. We teleport clusters of countless atoms,” he said, flashing his spell once more. This time, he held a paper thin slice of apple in one hand and two half-apples in the other.

“You used a teleport spell to cut a apple. Nick, that’s genius!” I cheered. Teleport spells consume magic based on mass and distance. A tiny bit of mass over a short distance could be cast almost as easy as breathing, and yet could render anything structurally unstable. “Crap, that’s a dangerous spell. You could kill someone with that.” He gave an evil smirk as a chain of thoughts raced around in his head. “Nick, I know that look. Oh no, you’re not planning another noodle incident, are you?” I shuddered. ‘The horror...’

“Let’s rob a bank.”

‘Jonathan Smith’ walked into the Suntrust bank, five minutes from closing. He was ‘completely unaware’ of the ‘fly’ sitting on his head. <<I can’t believe we’re doing this,>> the fly thought from its perch. It looked around and spotted the open vault behind the teller windows. It lifted off of its carrier’s head and flew into the vault, sitting down on the wall.

<<I know, Will, it’s the perfect crime. No DNA, suspects who don’t exist, abilities that aren't real. I’m so excited,>> ‘Jonathan’ thought to his partner in crime.

<<I’m in place. An hour after the bank closes, pull your car up to the curb out front. Cut the cameras from within your car. Call me when everything is in position,>> I said to him.

As ‘Jonathan’ walked out of the building, he thought, <<Got it. I can’t wait to be rich.>>

An hour later, a silver truck pulled up to the curb in front of the bank. The woman driving it started looking around. Every time she spotted a camera, it would spontaneously be cut in half, much to her delight. When she was certain that no unwanted eyes were watching, she looked back in her truck. <<Clear,>> she thought to her king. A familiar presence manifested in her eyes, and a second later, wads of cash started appearing in her truck. A few seconds after that, her head turned on its own, making her look at the passenger seat. A flash of light blinded her for a second. When it cleared, a little boy of eight years old sat in the formerly empty seat.

“Shmurich.” 'Drive,' he commanded in changeling speech. She complied, pulling out of the parking spot and driving away at a very reasonable speed. After a moment, a flash of light filled the cabin of the truck and replaced the occupants with two smiling teenage boys. Laughter erupted from the pair.

(Five minutes earlier)

I am so board right now. Do you know how boring it is to be a fly on the wall while nothing is going on? ‘Come on, come on, come on, come on, come on,’ I chanted to myself. Finally, a thought popped into my head.

<<Clear.>>

‘Thank you, Nick!’ I set to work. First, I cut the security cameras that I had found in the room. I assumed the form of a little boy and started stuffing my pockets with twenties. As soon as they were full, I peered out of Nick’s eyes. I saw the back of his truck, to which I teleported more cash. Satisfied that I had taken enough, I turned Nick’s head so that I could see and aim for the passenger seat. With a flash, I found myself next to a rather busty version of Catherine. Why he picked that body, I won’t ask.

“Shmurich.” 'Drive,' I commanded him in changeling speech. He did so, taking care to not go too fast. The last thing we need is be caught with all of this money. I emptied my pockets, storing that money with the rest. After about half a mile of driving, Nick and I returned to our normal human skins. I looked at him and he looked at me. We burst out laughing.

“Hahahaha! Mu glib se! Di port el pozok!" 'We did it! We robbed a bank!' Nick cheered.

“Chi maru!" 'Oh yeah!' I cheered back. We gave each other a high-five.

“So, what’s the haul?” Nick asked, switching back to English. I had done some planning while I was in the bank, and made sure that I had taken some specific loot.

“I grabbed about a hundred thousand dollars, in old twenties. They have the serial numbers of the new bills, so if we tried to spend them, we would be caught. hundreds are too large to spend without getting unwanted attention. I also did not take it all, because we still have to hide it. There’s no way we can take this to a bank to save all of it at once, which means we have to hide it from our families. It looked like there was over two million in there, but that’s a lot of paper to deal with.”

Nick considered my words for a moment, before coming up with an idea. “Why don’t we rent an apartment of our own? We move in there, and it gives us a safe place to hide out. Changeling HQ and all.”

I considered his idea before deciding that it was a good plan.

The last of my belongings made its way into the cardboard box. I fiddled with the stone that Chrysalis had kicked over through the portal. My mother stood in the doorway to my former room. My mother sighed, “Ohh, my Will is finally taking on the world. Moving out on his own, a new job as a bank teller…”

‘Bank robber,’ I corrected in my head.

“I’m just so happy for you!” My mother let out a little squee, a sound I’d never thought that I would hear from her. “Just be careful. I’ve heard about the robberies happening lately. Be safe.”

I chuckled at her choice of words, then pocketed the stone and picked up the box. Nick’s truck sat out front, waiting for me. I set my box in the back and climbed in.

On the drive to our new apartment, Nick turned on the radio.

“In other news, the Wells Fargo bank on Peachtree Street is the fifth bank robbed this week by a group dubbed by the police as ‘the phantoms.’”

I smiled, knowing that the cops were sill clueless as ever about our activities.

“This group, whom the police have no suspects for, is able to infiltrate and escape from the vaults without even touching the vault doors. The only known pattern they follow is that all of the security cameras in the vicinity are damaged and the vaults are never totally emptied.”

The report continued with the two of us laughing the whole time.

Our apartment was too big for just two guys. A very luxurious place, it cost quite a pretty penny. But we could afford it. We have several boxes already stuffed with cash, and can pretty much get more as we need it. I figured that we could use the extra room for hive… expansion.

I still had not decided whether I wanted to convert someone else or have a kid of my own. Chrysalis said that as long as there was enough of an education on the hive mind’s memory, changeling larvae could become self sufficient within 2-3 days. Of course, I had never replaced a stranger before, so none of my changelings would know how to do so either. They could rip feed, but my trail of victims is already large enough. They could make original personas, but It takes time to establish a relationship. Converts are easier to place, but have motives of their own. Then there is the problem of capturing them for a long enough time to convert them. ‘Decisions,decisions…’

While I was pondering the future of my hive, I fiddled with my stone. I felt some of the stone break away under my claws. Holding the stone up to my eye, I saw a glint of green. My hands lit up with a similarly colored aura and I used my magic to chip away the grey stone. After a moment’s work, my worthless stone had unveiled a treasure. I held in my hands a large, cut emerald.

Author's Notes:

*Ding* Have a chapter!

Have you ever seen the movie Jumper? It inspired this chapter.

Finally, after all these chapters, William starts exploiting his powers for financial gain!

And look! The Chekhov's stone is back! Mini-Tom really is a gem!

Guess what? I just had inspiration! The projected length of this fic just increased by 5 chapters!

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I have to give thanks to all the wonderful readers of mine that have boldly pointed out my flaws. Without them, Black Queen, Red King - along with all my other works - would be of much lower quality. Thank you all!

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Now, I have a problem: 'William' is not a very good sounding changeling name. I want an awesome name for William to name his true form. If you want, comment a name and then I will have you vote on the three I like most. You can make up a name or use your OC's name, if you wish (I will give credit). The name must be masculine or androgynous. Have fun!

(edited 12/21/2013)