Hannah, Brynn, and Nabile and We Hate Hanso Club 2: Part Three

     When she returned a few minutes later, she handed them a packet.

     "In there is some pertinent information that might be useful in helping you locate them. Also, procedure on what to do if you catch them," the assistant explained. "Anything else I can do for you?"

     "No, this looks comprehensive," Brynn said as she skimmed through it.

     "Okay. Have a good hunt, and good luck!"

     The assistant showed them out and they went back into the lobby, Brynn giving it one last longing look. They walked outside and the other two looked to Brynn.

     "According to this, we should check pawnshops on the east side of Neopia Central's marketplace. They will be likely to pawn it as fast as possible, and their preferred buyers seem to be down there."

     "Well, what are we waiting for? Let's make those immature brats pay for swiping my necklace!" Hannah cried, putting up her fists.

     "And all the headaches they gave my husband when they broke into our treasury," Nabile added.

     "And for spoiling our good day," Brynn finished with a dark smirk.

     Hannah put her her hand out, and the other two put their hand on top of hers. They broke with a triumphant cry and hurried off in the direction they had been told they might find the brothers.

     ***

     "I've got a map!" Hannah declared a little too gleefully.

     "Hannah, it isn't a treasure map; it's just a map of the marketplace," Nabile pointed out.

     "Well, yeah. It's certainly not as exciting as a treasure map, but it's got all of the shops listed. I've circled all the pawn shops!" Hannah explained.

     The other two leaned over to look.

     "Good going, Hannah," Brynn cried. "This will save us so much time in locating all the shops they might go to."

     "What's the plan?" Nabile asked.

     "We go to each shop in turn, ask if they bought any necklaces in the last hour. If they have, we check them. If they haven't, we tell them that if Meercas come to sell one it is stolen not to buy it as the DoN will know later if they knowingly buy stolen property. That should scare most of them into not buying it, and hopefully a few will do their civic duty and report it," Brynn explained.

     "It's so great to have a knight on our team," Hannah said, and Nabile nodded.

     "Nice to see that my skills are handy even on vacation. Okay, this one is closest; we'll start here," Brynn replied.

     ***

     "That's five shops and no luck so far," Hannah complained. "You don't think they are going elsewhere, do you?"

     "The Meerca Brothers have an original thought like selling in a different location? As if. Qasala has a better chance of seeing snow on the hottest day of the summer," Nabile laughed sarcastically. "Rotten little losers shouldn't even qualify as thieves they are so pathetic."

     "Thief pride runs deep still, eh?" Brynn teased.

     "Hey, just because I did it to survive, doesn't mean I didn't take pride in my abilities. Besides, I never took more than we needed to survive," Nabile said with a shrug. "And, just remember, I'm twice the thief your boyfriend is, despite being reformed for as many years as I have been."

     "More than that," Hannah chimed in. "Of course, you'll never be half the thief Kanrik is."

     "Oh, you're so cute," Nabile teased.

     "Shut up," Hannah said, pushing her playfully.

     "Turnabout is fair play," Nabile countered, giving her a little push in return.

     "Here is another place," Brynn said, jerking a thumb at a shop across the street from them.

     They crossed the street and entered the shop. The inside of the shop was dark, only one bulb lit it from overhead. The shopkeeper, an emo Usul leaned against the counter looking bored.

     "Look, dudes, I'm not paying a Neopoint more. Take it or leave it," the Usul was saying to her customers.

     Those customers were the Meerca Brothers, who were wearing obviously fake mustaches. Heermeedjet even had his on crooked.

     "Found you! Give back my necklace, you creeps," Hannah screeched.

     The two brothers jumped and turned to face them.

     "No, no," Meerouladen said, attempting the worst Tyrannian accent any of them had ever heard. "No necklaces here. You have wrong Meercas."

     "Weren't you just trying to sell me a necklace?" the Emo Usul asked in the same bored tone she had been bartering in.

     "Yeeees! But, not necklace you are looking for. These are not the Meercas you are looking for," Heermeedjet said, waving his hands.

     Hannah strode forward and ripped the mustache off Meerouladen. She held it out in front of his eyes. "What do you have to say now?"

     "Do you know how long it took me to get that on straight?" he shrieked.

     "Give it back!" Hannah demanded.

     Meerouladen looked to his brother. "Okay."

     He reached into his pocket, and then darted down an aisle, his brother on his heels.

     "Brynn, guard the door!" Hannah called. "Nabile, cut them off on the other side."

     Nabile darted down the aisle closest to her and came out ahead of the brothers and Hannah behind. The Brothers look at each other and then dived through the window next to them.

     "Hey, you'll have to pay for that," the Emo shopkeeper's voice was still the bored monotone it had been the entire time.

     "Send the bill to the DoN!" Brynn shouted as the three girls exited the shop through the front door.

     "This way!" Hannah cried, heading down the alley they brothers had dived into. The Meercas were already halfway up the building, by the time they reached the alley, climbing expertly from windowsill to sill.

     "There is no fire escape!" Nabile cried in dismay. "How are we going to get them now?"

     From inside the shop, the shopkeeper called out in her bored monotone, "Hey, you have to pay for that."

     "I will in a minute!" Brynn shouted.

     The other two turned to look at Brynn who had a huge bucket of paint. She hefted it and it flew into the air, completing an arch over the brothers and dousing them in paint.

     "Hey!" they both shrieked. "This will never come out."

     "Cry me a water pet!" Brynn shouted up at them as they climbed over the edge of the roof. She turned to look at her friends. "Let's go pay the shopkeeper and then start tracking them."

     "Wait, the paint was to make them leave a trail, wasn't it? Brynn, you're a genius!" Nabile cried. "Those two will never think to wash it off!"

     "Yup," Brynn said with a satisfied smirk.

     They paid the bored shopkeeper, who was still acting like what had just occurred was the most commonplace thing ever to have happened in her shop, and left. Nabile went up onto the rooftops and followed the trail up there, calling to her friends to help them follow on the ground, until the paint trail left the rooftops.

     Once it picked up on the ground, Nabile climbed down and joined them in the hunt along the winding alleys of the Marketplace.

     "So, are these two are part of the thieves guild?" Brynn asked.

     "If they are, they're not gonna be when I'm done," Hannah said with a dark grin. "Kanrik will not be happy with them. The last thief dumb enough to try to steal from me was Hanso, and look at him now."

     "I would love to, as I have no idea where he is," Brynn said with a frown. "He's going to regret it when I find him, though."

     "I want to be there for that," Hannah said with a huge grin.

     "You take a little too much pleasure in Hanso's suffering, Hannah," Nabile commented.

     "That's because I'm only a spectator. You two actually get to cause the suffering," Hannah pointed out.

     Nabile shrugged at Brynn and they all laughed. The paint trail ended at the doors to a large warehouse.

     "Well, this looks good," Hannah said ominously.

     "Yeah, I'm not going in there unarmed," Brynn said.

     Hannah opened her purse and pulled out a pair of gloves and tossed them to her. "Took these off a pirate. They're pretty good for punching."

     Brynn tried them on while Hannah tossed some nun-chucks to Nabile and pulled out a collapsible bo-staff out of her bag for herself.

     "You seriously carry all of this around with you?" Nabile asked, trying out the nun-chucks. She could make them work, she decided.

     "You don't? I've got a bunch of other stuff in here that all adventurers need, like rope, traps, healing potions, several more kinds of weapons, a mini oxygen tank, several disguises, and, well, a lot of other stuff. Man, you guys are so under-prepared. Remind me never to let you pack."

     Nabile just shook her head and laughed at her friend.

     "Well, let's go get your necklace back."

To be continued...