Birthday Banditry: Part Five

Slyndar had arrived at Neopia Central 133759 Crunch Avenue. He glanced up at the building, and the burglar rethought his plan. Daylight robbery was risky, true, but who would have thought they would be robbed now? No one. Exactly. Even though the shadow pet preferred to work at night, he could handle daylight robberies too. Night was just easier partially because he was painted for the job. Daytime robbery was just not as easy and could prove a challenge, partially because he stood out. The shadow pet hid his bicycle in some nearby bushes and rubbed his hands together. He enjoyed a challenge every now and then.

      The burglar peeked in the nearest window. An owner and three pets were scurrying around, making last minute preparations for the upcoming party. One of them walked towards the Shoyru's lookout. He ducked, but looked up onto the side of the building. The best choice for an entrance was on the upper floor because everyone was on the bottom floor. Climbing would be simple, but he was afraid to be detected. Sound waves traveled. The best solution he could think of was to fly.

      Shoyrus are agile by nature and are blessed with the gift of flight. Now Slyndar was a very skilled flyer, but he didn't show it often. He always preferred to climb when given a choice. The pet warmed up his wings by flapping them a few times and ascended to the elevation of 15 feet, using a camouflage potion to blend into the surroundings. He could see everything better up here. The Shoyru pressed his ear against a wall and listened for movement. He quickly found a room that he didn't detect sound waves from, and the room just so happened to be built of white chocolate. What a lucky coincidence.

      Slyndar knew that it would take a long time to eat through it, and he was quite prepared to try his alternative strategy. Fire mote, ice mote, and butter knife. (He thought about a chainsaw, but it would make too much noise.) He commanded the fire mote to melt where he indicated, and the area of chocolate quickly melted. He took this opportunity to slice, using the butter knife, a small circle where he could fit though. He did this very quickly and, using the ice mote, he froze the chunk of chocolate so it was solid enough to hold, and he removed it form the wall. This procedure sounds fairly complicated, but it was simple, actually.

      Slyndar climbed in, still holding the chunk of chocolate. He fitted it into the hole and used the fire mote to melt it to fit. He froze it so it would be stiff enough to stuff back in the hole. Then he melted it and smoothed out the seams so it would seem that he had patched it up. Finally, he froze it back up so it looked like it was never entered. He stood back for a moment to admire his handiwork and newly mastered skill.

      He quickly stuffed the butter knife into his backpack while the two motes disappeared. He turned to look around the room he was in, and his eyes quickly adjusted to the darkness. Slyndar observed his surroundings to realize that he was in a storage area of some type. He carefully stepped over the junk and broken toys. He headed towards a pink room that he sensed no movement in. The pet shuddered at the hue of the walls and realized that Foozy's owner had built this room just for the petpets. Snoozing on the rugs were a Faerie Harris, a Faellie, and a pink Doglefox. The Shoyru's eyes widened with envy. This probably meant that there were 3 pets in the household. This also meant that the owner was wealthy. Envy couldn't help but stir up inside him. Slyndar even didn't have a pet! Well, Elayth wouldn't let him own one because he wasn't responsible enough in her opinion. ("This cookie stealing thing has got to stop," she had put it.) Still, the burglar would rather wallow in self-pity.

      He glanced into the other two doorways. One led to a frilly pink bedroom. The other contained a staircase leading downstairs. Slyndar climbed on the banister of the staircase. He glanced down. The coast was clear. Wait, where was everybody? The pet slid. Too late now.

      . . .

      Rainbowflash crept towards Neopia Central 133759 Crunch Avenue while her bodyguard followed closely behind.

      "Must we take this route?" Smirktooth complained bitterly as he used his cutlass to slash away the fire bushes.

      The disco Kacheek wasn't in the best of moods.

      "You've got a better idea? The boss said to keep outta sight at all times and leave no trace. Don't complain about it," Rainbowflash snapped. "I don't make the rules around here."

      The Jetsam's voice was dripping sarcasm.

      "You're in a lovely mood today."

      The pair made their way towards the house. The sun shone brightly, making it hard to stay hidden.

      The fighter stared at the house.

      "We'll go up on this one?"

      Rainbowflash thought and studied the house and terrain.

      "Yeah. Since we can't fly, we climb. I say that jelly wall over there, it'll muffle any sound waves."

      The pets scaled the edible walls with style. They then climbed on the wooden floor right above it. Because it was wood, it was easier to grasp. Well, easier than jelly at any rate.

      The Kacheek thought while she spoke.

      "We can't cut through this thing. I mean, it's wood, even if we did glue it, the cut would still be visible."

      Her bodyguard glimpsed at the rest of the building visible to him.

      "Look o'er there! Our entrance!"

      The bodyguard pointed his fin towards the direction of the window, and the bandit and burglar carefully made their way towards it.

      The disco Kacheek looked down apprehensively.

      "You know, it would be pretty hard not to see two burglars climbing a wall in broad daylight. I checked my old textbooks, but I couldn't overcome this barrier."

      The bandits and fighters all went through special training in order to master stealth and strategies.

      "Did you check Chapter 5 of Tactics for the Restless? Then you would have factored in that we are on the back of the house and not in plain view. But, you may use the Kacheek Invisibility Cloth, or whatever it's called, if you're not comfortable."

      The disco pet nodded, prying the window open, while still holding on to the side of the house. She muttered something about sending someone with wings instead to make the work a lot easier.

      The Jetsam nodded in agreement.

      "Yes, but I heard there is a new rule that trainees with the flying ability have to go through certain courses for stealth flying at the Academy of Flight. I think Hypoteny mighta hinted about it or something, but trainees have to go through there now, and it takes time."

      "Academy of Flight?" asked the Kacheek skeptically as the window popped open. "Oh, come on, you know that place doesn't really exist. I've heard far-fetched tales about it before. Something about the elite flyers that run this flight school for advanced flyers, or something like that. Secret organization, if you ask me, probably up to no good."

      "Kinda like us?" commented the Jetsam quietly with a slight smile. The Kacheek scowled in reply.

     "Oh, you're so optimistic," grumbled the fighter as he clambered in the window, keeping his voice down. "Merciless_hacker said she found some information about it while she was thumbing through the Neopian archives."

      The Kacheek swiftly jumped inside the building, working quickly to relock the window.

      "Neopian archives? Those are open to the public, are they not? Others would have heard of this school for the elite by now."

      The Jetsam gave the bandit a meaningful look and sudden realization hit her.

      "Oh, those archives. Yeah, I think Seer might have gotten them from questioning the-"

      A glare from her comrade told her she had said enough.

      The Kacheek frowned as she muttered under her breath, "You know, this was as easy as 3.14. It wasn't as hard as the boss put it all. Did we miss something, is there some unknown danger lurking about? Or did she just overemphasize?"

      The Battledomer shrugged as he checked the blueprints.

      "Probably the latter. Hypoteny usually exaggerates the difficulty of the jobs," he said grimly. "It gets us focused."

      They stealthily entered another room. This one contained a staircase, the one that Slyndar had slid down only moments before. But they weren't about to know that. The aroma of freshly baked cookies lingered in the air.

      The fighter grinned and gestured towards the stairway.

      "Ladies first."

To be continued...

Author's note: All names, characters, flavors of cheeses, places, and incidents are all by-products of the author's weird imagination. Any uncanny resemblance or namesakes are purely coincidental. All risky maneuvers were performed by stunt doubles and professionals. Do not attempt at home.