Thief: Part Eleven by _joleveeflareporeon |  |
Prologue
Wow! That's a rare thing... In most "amnesia stories"
the main character starts remembering his or her past and all ends happily practically
right away... But that's when this tale gets interesting... Viper now knows
that he is really a multi-hired secret agent and above all, an extremely wanted
ex-Mafia member... He's now been forced out of his "retirement" by his most
recent employer or else it's bye-bye for me and Raven... Let's hope his mission
succeeds...
Chapter IX-A Thief in the Night
So Draken, Scorpion, and Doppelganger, Viper's double, blindfolded him and
threw him into the back of a van. They'd given him some type of laser beam contraption
and a screwdriver to help him steal the Rainbow Swirly Thing. The plan was,
they would drive round back of the museum, let Viper go do his thing, he'd come
back, and they'd drive back to HQ. Simple enough.
Viper began forcing himself to take slow, steady,
deep breaths as he heard the engine rev up. When the van lurched forwards, Viper
felt his stomach do the same. For about twenty minutes, the vehicle drove, taking
sharp turns every so often. Finally the van screeched to a complete halt. The
Lupe felt one of the three agents remove his blindfold and handcuffs. Viper
was free.
Viper thought about bolting for a moment, but
thought better of it when he realised that his only family was at risk. That
and the fact that there were three Neopets much stronger than he was just a
few feet away. So Viper picked up the two tools in his mouth and jumped out
the back door of the van that Draken was expectantly waiting beside.
The mutant gazed around, trying to see a way
to get into the museum. Draken shut the van door. Viper assumed that the others
were still inside the van. He shivered from both fear and the chill breeze that
frosted the night. It was a dark night with no visible moon or stars, and not
a single lamppost was lit. The van, it seemed, had driven across the grass to
the back of the Neopian Museum.
Draken looked at Viper and thought to himself,
How easy would it be for me to kill you right here and now, and put an end
to all of this... Instead of doing that, he padded up to Viper. "Okay, we're
gonna be back in an 'our to pick you up. If you ain't back by then, we're smuggling
your owner. Oh, and don't even think 'bout running away 'cause," He pulled out
a thick metal collar that had a little red blinking light on it, and quickly
snapped it around Viper's neck, "we've got ya bugged."
Viper glared at him, nodding solemnly. Draken's
only response was a slight smirk before heading back into the van. The engine
revved up again and the van zoomed away, leaving Viper all alone. He looked
around again. Just in front of him was the museum's side wall and to his right
and behind him was a barbed wire, electric fence, at least eight feet tall.
He sighed. What would happen to his criminal record when the cops caught him...
again?
The mutant grinned. But they wouldn't catch
him, for he had just had a brilliant idea. Just a few feet away, he had spotted
a puddle of murky mud. But it wasn't just any murky mud. Some careless Neopian
had spilt an odd black substance in it, making it especially sticky. The mutant
curiously dipped his muzzle in it and spread it on his right arm. It worked
perfectly, dying his grey-purple fur coal black. Viper dropped to the ground
and rolled around in the altered mud, covering his whole body. He got back up
and grinned at his success. Viper was no longer a mutant Lupe, but a shadow
Lupe... with spikes and little weird tubey things on his back. To be sure that
he wouldn't leave smears of mud all over, he waited for it to dry in the breeze
for several minutes.
Viper's mood suddenly shifted. He'd used up
five of his precious sixty minutes. He had to find a way in besides the front
door... Then it hit him. The roof! It was made entirely of glass, so he could
climb up there, laser a hole in it, somehow get down without killing himself
and... he hadn't thought any further ahead. On the wall that faced him, there
was a rain pipe that he could climb up.
The mutant stepped up to it, placing his paws
on either side of the pipe. He dug his claws in, and pulled himself up a few
feet so he could grip the drainpipe with his back paws as well. Slowly, he removed
his forepaws, and placed them up higher on the gutter. As he did so, he felt
the pipe rattle and creak beneath his weight, threatening to collapse. Viper
gulped, and cautiously, he continued to worm himself up the gutter. The moment
he was close enough, Viper grabbed hold of the roof's ledge and pulled himself
up. At first it was difficult for him to get his grip on the rounded glass roof,
but after a bit, Viper got used to it.
Through the glass he spied several night watchmen,
two of them had guard Anubii. For once, Viper was glad of the lack of light.
That meant no shadows. And no shadows meant that the guards couldn't see him
up on the roof.
Viper found that if he walked a few meters to
the right, he'd be right on top of the Battledome room. Slowly and steadily,
trying not to lose his balance, he walked over to the window panel above the
Battledome room. Viper pulled out the little laser saw and pressed a button
on its grip. Instantly, a six-inch long beam of red light popped out of it like
a light sabre. Carefully, the mutant gently touched the laser to the glass,
allowing the beam to melt a hole right through it. He began tracing a circle
in the window but stopped suddenly when he came to a C shape. It occurred to
him that if he cut a full circle, the middle would fall through and shatter
on the museum floor, alerting the guards. So instead of continuing his circle,
Viper began making the C thicker until it eventually became wide enough for
Viper to slip through.
Now the only question was how he was going to
get down without breaking his neck. Viper thought of a plan though, and he was
now melting the glass on either side of a metal bar that held two windows. He
took hold of the bar with his forepaws and slipped through the hole. The Lupe
swung back and forth a few times and was about to jump on an unoccupied display
shelf, a few feet down, when a guard's flashlight beam landed on it. It swung
around the Battledome exhibit for a bit before finally disappearing. When Viper
was certain that the guard was gone for good, he, careful not to trigger any
alarms, jumped onto the shelf. The ledge bounced slightly, but remained solid.
The Lupe breathed a sigh of relief and dropped from the shelf.
Warily, he searched the room for his ticket
to freedom. Viper groaned, unable to see well in the dark with just one eye.
He was about ready to kill for a pair of night-vision goggles. He could only
mildly recall where the Rainbow Swirly Thing was. At last, he spotted a cage
of lasers surrounding a locked glass case at the back of the room. Ears pricked,
he sneaked up to it.
Viper examined the lasers closely, his nose
almost touching them. There seemed to be no way around them. Where's Einstein
when you need him, eh? mused Viper angrily. The Lupe sighed and, with extreme
caution, stalked across the room and poked his head through the doorway. He
saw the guards walking around with their flashlights, every now and then, looking
into the rooms. At the end of the long, wide hall, Viper could see the main
desk with the computer. If only, thought the mutant. I could get to
that computer... then I could shut the alarm down from there.
To be continued...
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