Date: October 25, 2011
Location: The Basement, Queens
The problem with stolen diamonds, Lloyd discovered, was not the morality of the theft, but the bureaucracy of the liquidation.
He sat at his desk, a jeweler's loupe which he had stolen, screwed into his eye socket. On the cloth before him lay the twelve raw diamonds and the massive Star Sapphire. They glittered in the dim light of the basement, cold and indifferent to his poverty.
"They are laser-inscribed," Lloyd murmured, tilting a diamond under the light of his desklamp. "Micro-serial numbers etched into the girdle, the Muggles have branded the earth's bones."
Subject 42, the Void-Belly Niffler, was sitting on the desk, looking offended, to him, these shiny things were currency. The idea that a microscopic number made it unsellable was a personal insult.
"Do not pout," Lloyd told the creature. "It is a minor hurdle, in the Wizarding World, we would just vanish the inscription but here, we must be...artists."
Lloyd didn't have a wand, but he had the Raven Skull.
He picked up the artifact he had bought from the blind seer. It was heavy, the blackthorn wood polished to a shine, the obsidian skull cold against his palm. He had temporarily mounted it on a sturdy, iron-wood shaft he'd scavenged from a broken antique umbrella stand.
It wasn't a perfect staff as it lacked a core, but it was a focus so he pointed the beak of the raven skull at the diamond.
"Evanesco Numeris "
He didn't shout, just pushed a needle-thin pulse of mana through the obsidian. The rubies in the skull's eyes flared with a dull red light.
On the diamond, the microscopic serial number didn't just fade; the carbon atoms rearranged themselves to fill the gap and the flaw vanished.
"One down," Lloyd sighed, rubbing his temple. "Eleven to go, this is tedious."
He spent the next three hours scrubbing the identity from the gems and when he was finished, he had a pile of untraceable, high-quality stones.
"Now," Lloyd said, sweeping the gems into a leather pouch. "We turn carbon into concrete, we need a castle, 42 and castles require a down payment."
Location: The Diamond District (A different block)
Time: 2:00 PM
Lloyd did not go back to the scene of the crime. He went to a Private Buyer he had found on the same deep-web forum where he had met Flash Thompson.
The office was located above a deli and the buyer, a man named Sol who looked like a walrus in a suit, examined the stones with trembling hands.
"Clean," Sol breathed, looking up at Lloyd. "Too clean, these look like they came out of the ground yesterday."
"They are heirlooms," Lloyd lied effortlessly. "My grandmother was a miner and she had very strong teeth."
Sol didn't laugh, he just punched numbers into a calculator.
"I can give you four hundred thousand. Cash.....Today."
The diamonds were worth two million, It was blind robbery.
Lloyd smiled. "Sol, look at me."
Sol looked and Lloyd tapped the raven skull cane on the floor.
Thud....
He projected his Aura directly into the man's amygdala and Sol flinched. Suddenly, the pale man in the trench coat didn't look like a desperate seller.
He looked like something that had crawled out of a crypt to discuss finances. The shadows in the room seemed to stretch toward Lloyd's feet.
"Eight hundred thousand," Lloyd corrected softly. "And you will thank me for the privilege."
Sol swallowed hard. He wiped sweat from his upper lip. "Eight.....Eight hundred,Yeah. Okay... Sure."
Ten minutes later, Lloyd walked out with a heavy briefcase, he wasn't a millionaire, but he had liquid. 600000 dollars was enough to buy some good stuff.
Location: Industrial District, Long Island City
Time: 4:45 PM
The real estate agent, a nervous young woman named Sarah, clearly did not want to be here.
She stood by her Prius, clutching her clipboard like a shield. Behind her loomed the property Lloyd had specifically had requested to see.
It was a total monstrosity.
The Kovacs Meatpacking Plant.
It had been abandoned in the late 90s after a series of health code violations that Lloyd suspected involved more than just rats. It was a sprawling brick fortress on the edge of the waterfront.
The windows were boarded up with rotting plywood. The smokestack was crumbling and the fence was topped with razor wire that had long since rusted into orange brambles.
"Mr..... Nipple," Sarah said, stumbling over the name. "Are you sure about this? The zoning is strictly industrial and there's....well, there's a smell."
"The smell of history," Lloyd said, inhaling the scent of decay and stale river water. "It is perfect."
"It's condemned," Sarah pointed out. "The roof leaks, the basement floods, the city has it listed for demolition."
"Which means the price is negotiable," Lloyd countered.
He walked past her, approaching the chained gates.
Gibraltar, disguised once again as the ugly bulldog, lifted his leg and peed on the NO TRESPASSING sign.
"I am looking for privacy, Sarah," Lloyd explained, resting his hands on his cane. "I am an artist, a sculptor. I work with.....volatile materials and I need space, thick walls, and neighbors who are either deaf or dead."
He looked at the desolate industrial wasteland around them. "This fits the criteria."
Sarah sighed. "The bank holds the deed. They want $450,000 for the land value alone, they won't take a penny less."
Lloyd turned to her and opened the briefcase.
Sarah's eyes widened.
"Cash," Lloyd said. "Today, no inspections. No questions asked, I take the deed as is."
Real estate in New York moved slowly, unless money was sitting on the hood of a car. Sarah made three phone calls and Twenty minutes later, she was shaking Lloyd's hand with a grip that was surprisingly firm for someone so terrified.
"It's yours, Mr. Nipple. Good luck with the...sculpting."
She drove away as if escaping a crime scene.
Lloyd stood alone before his new kingdom.
"Open," he commanded.
He didn't use a key but raised the Raven Staff.
"Alohomora Maxima"
The rusted chains on the gate didn't just unlock; they shattered. The iron links fell to the ground with a heavy clatter.
The heavy steel gates groaned, swinging inward on hinges that hadn't moved in a decade.
"Welcome home, boys," Lloyd said.
He stepped onto the cracked floor of the courtyard.
The main building was cavernous. Lloyd pushed open the loading bay doors. Inside, it was dark, vast, and silent. Hooks hung from the ceiling on rusted chains, remnants of the meatpacking lines.
"Perfect," Lloyd whispered, his voice echoing in the darkness. "The hooks can hold the flying cages and the freezers can be converted into habitats for cold-weather beasts. The basement drainage system is ideal for aquatic species."
Subject 42 waddled in, sniffing the air. He found a discarded hard hat and immediately put it on.
Gibraltar trudged in, looking for metal to eat. He found a conveyor belt and began to chew on the rollers.
"System," Lloyd called out. "Register Base."
The blue window expanded, filling his vision.
> [New Base Acquired]
> Location: The Slaughterhouse
> Condition: Ruined
> Security: None
> Mana Density: Low (Requires Ley Line Tap)
> Capacity: Sufficient for Tier-3 Zoo
> Unlock Feature: [Habitat Construction Menu]
Lloyd smiled. "Habitat Construction."
He walked to the center of the factory floor. It was filthy with debris, bird droppings, and decades of dust covered everything.
"First," Lloyd announced, rolling up his sleeves. "We clean."
He raised the staff high. The ruby eyes of the raven skull began to pulse with a rhythmic, red light.
He didn't have a house-elf but he had mana, and he had a focus.
"Scourgify Totalus."
It was a draining spell, one that would empty his core, but it was necessary.
A wave of magic erupted from the staff. It swept through the room like a wind, the dust was lifted, swirling into a vortex. The grime on the windows was scrubbed away by invisible hands and the rust on the hooks flaked off, leaving bare iron.
The vortex of filth shot out of the open loading bay doors, disappearing into the night.
Lloyd staggered, leaning heavily on his cane as his knees shook.
"Efficiency," he wheezed. "Much better than a mop."
The factory floor was now bare, stripped down to the concrete and brick.
Lloyd limped over to an old foreman's office that overlooked the factory floor. It was a glass box raised on stilts.
"That," Lloyd pointed with his staff, "is my office, the Center."
He climbed the metal stairs. Inside, there was a metal desk and a swivel chair that somehow still had three wheels.
Lloyd sat down and placed the briefcase of remaining money on the desk.
He looked out over the vast, empty space below and in his mind, he didn't see a slaughterhouse but saw a sanctuary where the Devil's Snare guards the entrance, grown to the size of a Kraken.
He saw the Niffler's vault, filled with gold and alien tech, Gibraltar patrolling the perimeter, a stone sentinel and in the center...he saw cages holding creatures this world had never seen.
"We need stock buddy," Lloyd muttered, his ambition overriding his exhaustion. "We have the space and now we need the monsters."
He patted his pocket, where the Arc-Reactor Blueprint he had made from the observing the reactor was stored.
"And we need power," he added. "If I am to hatch a Dragon, I cannot use the city grid, so I need to build my own sun."
He leaned back in the broken chair, the Raven Staff resting against his shoulder.
Lloyd Nipple was no longer just a scavenger living in a basement, he was a property owner.....a proud landlord.
He closed his eyes, listening to the wind whistle through the broken windows.
Authors Note:-
Well, mr nipple is always efficient.
Hope you guys enjoyed it so far.
I heard that you reader's liked it so far but can't see the appreciation in reviews...🥺.
Doesn't matter the rating.. reviewing is all that matters.
Also support with power stones for growing this fic to reach more.
For smut lover....i have written a zombie apocalypse smut novel where mc is a villain who steals the hero's girls.....don't forget to add it.