Birthday Banditry: Part Seven

"Huh?"

      The Shoyru looked confused, trying to recall the last time he was exposed to public.

      Smirktooth noticed his bewilderment and explained.

      "You see. Our boss sent out the info specialist and a fighter to get the blueprints for this house. I think you saw them. Yellow Draik, ghost Lupe?"

      The bandit and fighter waited for the pet before them as he tried to remember last night's events.

      "Ah, yes. Something yellow and ghostly. I saw them. So you say they were getting blueprints?"

      "Yeah, that was them."

      "Why didn't you, I mean your boss, just send one pet to do the job?" the Shoyru inquired. "I was getting blueprints too, and I know that two pets would've been much riskier that one."

      The Kacheek nodded.

      "Yes, I agree, but that's how Hypoteny set things up. Besides, the second pet is more of a bodyguard. Just in case something goes wrong, you know? The bandit would then flee while the fighter holds them off."

      "Makes sense. So is the Jetsam your accomplice?" asked the Shoyru.

      The bodyguard smiled humorlessly.

      After awhile, the Jetsam had to ask.

      "So, you employed the good ol' chandelier trick?"

      The shadow burglar shrugged.

      "Hey, it works."

      Then he grinned evilly.

      "Nobody ever spots me up there. So it's a really reliable hiding spot."

      The Kacheek frowned slightly, but then grinned.

      "I thought that was one of the tricks only we knew. Obviously, I was mistaken." An awkward silence fell on the group while they tried to think of things to say without sounding stupid. The Shoyru finally broke the silence.

      "Um, could we get down and discuss this elsewhere?" he asked. "The coast is clear and my wings are killing me."

      . . .

      The three pets crept into the Neogarden.

      "That's better," the mysterious shadow Shoyru said, massaging his wings. He hadn't flown in a long time. He'd better get out more.

      "What are your names, by the way?" the shadow pet asked.

      "Rainbowflash," replied, um, well, Rainbowflash.

      "Smirktooth," answered her associate.

      The Shoyru remarked, "Cool. I'm Slyndar."

      "Nice."

      "Yeah, I suppose," said the shadow pet.

      The disco Kacheek checked their surroundings to find Neocola cans and candy wrappers littered everywhere.

      "What went on here?" inquired Rainbowflash. "I thought the party was held indoors."

      Slyndar shuffled uncomfortably as he prepared an answer.

      "Yeah, I mean, after they were locked outside, they sent someone to open the front door, but by that time, they decided to just hold the party outside because it was a nice day," explained the Shoyru.

      The bodyguard couldn't help but narrow his eyes suspiciously.

      "Locked door, outside party? You weren't even invited, how would you know this?"

      "Well I, logic, and I, uh, was the one who locked the door," stammered the Shoyru.

      The Jetsam raised his eyebrows, signaling for Slyndar to continue.

      The shadow burglar explained how he saw that everyone was in the garden and decided to use that to his advantage. He knew that sending someone to unlock the door would buy him some more time. "And," he explained, "time was the key to a successful robbery."

      The bandit grinned, but the fighter looked thoughtful.

      "You came to rob the party, right?"

      Slyndar nodded.

      "But only cookies. I favor cookies. My owner has taken my cookie privileges from me so, naturally, I must find some other method to acquire them. "

      "Your entrance?"

      "2nd floor, white chocolate," replied the Shoyru in true burglary fashion. Then he explained how he had used the fire mote, ice mote, and butter knife to create an entrance and then patch it up.

      The Kacheek looked impressed, and the Jetsam fighter nodded to show his approval.

      "Wow," murmured Rainbowflash, marveling at Slyndar's creativity. "We just took a window. That seems so ordinary now."

      "Oh. I didn't think that would work. I thought it might be too risky and may attract attention from the inhabitants," commented the Shoyru.

      "Not when you know how to pick locks like us. We had to go through several courses to learn how to carry our whole procedure out," Smirktooth grunted.

      "Really? Your organization provides training?"

      Rainbowflash nodded.

      "I don't suppose you'll tell me about your group," remarked the Shoyru with a slight smile.

      "Uh, sure," began the fighter. "But it's a secret organization, if you get my drift."

      Slyndar nodded, "That I can comprehend."

      Rainbowflash smiled and said, "You know, you really know your stuff. If you were to join, you'd be placed in really advanced courses. I'm pretty certain that the boss will let you join, but you'll still have to prove yourself, of course."

      The Shoyru nodded, completely understanding. After all, this was his area.

      The Kacheek grinned, "Our group steals sweet edible things. You know, neggs, candy, cookies? Most of the stuff, we auction or sell, using the NP for other stuff, but the rest we keep. Oh, and we're not all bad. Sometimes we donate the things to the Money Tree."

      Smirktooth winked and added, "But we're still very well paid."

      "How many pets are a part of this?" questioned the cookie burglar, taking an interest to the topic.

      The disco Kacheek paused for a while, counting in her head.

      "Nine. We've got a leader, info specialist, advisor, spy, 2 fighters, 2 bandits, and 1 trainee. We are currently employing more pets. If you have any more questions, here's a brochure, but it won't tell you everything for secrecy purposes."

      Rainbowflash handed the Shoyru the pamphlet.

      "If you're interested, just contact our boss," added the fighter.

      "How?" asked Slyndar, examining the brochure.

      Smirktooth winked, "The brochure will tell you that, and please, don't leave that lying around."

      Slyndar nodded.

      "I'll consider your offer, but as for now, we've got to get out of here. I have to be home before my owner is. My owner and sister obviously don't know that I'm here. Do you have transport?"

      The C.C. members nodded. The pets daintily stepped over the plants to prevent them from harm. Stealing was one thing, but vandalism was another. They made their way to the vacant street.

      "Okay, this is where we arrived. No problem finding your way home?" asked the fire pet as he strapped on his roller blades.

      Slyndar shook his head as he uncovered his bicycle that was cleverly hidden in the bushes.

      Rainbowflash grinned as she climbed on her skateboard.

      "Well, goodbye for now, Slyndar. It was nice meeting you. Consider our offer and, if we have any control of the circumstances, we will meet again."

      "Yeah, see ya!" called Smirktooth as they skated and skateboarded into the sunset. (It wasn't actually dusk. You know that's just an expression, right?)

      Slyndar smiled to himself as he pedaled home. He had met pets with his own interest at heart. It wasn't an evil smile, or a smile with a plot behind it. He couldn't remember the last time he felt genuinely happy. He had almost forgotten what it was or how good it felt. The shadow burglar smiled again, feeling the weight of the cookies in his backpack. Okay, fine. So this smile was a little evil.

      . . .

      Elayth and her baby Uni Floof walked home from the party.

      "That was a great party," the teenage owner remarked.

      "Yuppy!" exclaimed Floof, clutching the goodie bag tightly. "I weally liked the jump rope contest! I won!"

      "Yeah," said Elayth. "Too bad Sly couldn't come. Come on, we'd better hurry home to see how's he doing. I bet he's really bored from sitting home for hours with nothing to do. I left some books for him to read, but you know how fast he gets through those. Race ya!"

      "Okie!" shouted the Uni as she started to trot towards home.

      . . .

      Slyndar had already put away the baked goods and the brochure. He looked outside the window. Elayth and Floof would arrive home soon. They, unlike Slyndar, would be walking home, and that bought him some time. He sat down on the couch and practiced putting on his best bored expression while he thought about his recent escapade. Even though he only had two days to plan out this entire scheme, he had spent a lot of time and effort on it. The kind of time and effort that would get one an A on a project. He had plotted the routes, emergency escape plans, and just about everything he could with only one half of the blueprints. The plan itself wasn't complete, true, but he had done a rather excellent job on the improvisation, in his opinion, except for the slight blip with the pink Doglefox. He'd have to learn from this experience and keep in mind that some petpets were liable to attack intruders. That was completely unexpected. So was meeting Rainbowflash and Smirktooth. He had never met another bandit while on a mission before, and he thought about the Kacheek and her Jetsam bodyguard and the group they talked about. Maybe he would join. It sounded interesting enough and rather profitable, and it was definitely something he would have to check out.

      His evaluation process was interrupted when Elayth and Floof strolled into the room. His owner was holding a brown paper sack.

      The Shoyru looked up coolly, but bored.

      "Have a nice time?"

      Floof nodded vigorously, wearing a huge smile. Elayth just looked around and was relieved that everything was still intact.

      "I'm sorry you couldn't come to the party, Sly," said Elayth. "It was really great. To make it up for you, I told Foozy's owner how much you liked cookies, so she let me take some with me to give to you. And you've been so good these past few days so I figured you deserved something special. Wasn't that nice of her?" said Elayth beaming, as she handed the Shoyru the bag.

      The Shoyru took the paper bag weakly.

      "Yes," mumbled the shadow pet as he collapsed exhausted on the couch. "Very considerate."

      "Sly? Are you okay?" asked his owner, concerned.

      "Yeah, fine, just fine," he muttered.

The End

Author's note: See? That was virtually painless. (But not for me. Do you have any idea how long that took me to write? Oh, what I do for the Neopian Times. At least I don't have to insert all those like I had to last time. *shudder*) Well, if you're really bored, you can read some of my other works. But you can't be that bored, can you? Thanks for investing your time on reading this!