Activity

Arsene had crawled through the vents, searching and scheming. His radio had detected more conversations about the safe, which described it as being large and difficult to transport. Such a safe would contain interesting contents, if Arsene could look inside. After finding a laptop, which was in a storage room, Arsene started searching through the ship’s records. Strangely, there were no records of a safe or protected goods. It was possible that Arsene had intercepted a conversation that was on the shore, but he somehow doubted it.

The door then opened.

Sliding back into the vent, Arsene took out his phone, putting it on record mode. Time and experience (and perhaps a family member) taught him to be a tad paranoid.

“We’re going after the safe tonight?” One voice asked.

A second voice answered, matching the voice on the radio. “Yep, we have the location and the two of the keys. Sadly, the third is missing, so we have some searching to do.”

The second was missing, who had it then? Did anyone have it? Did Arsene accidentally steal it and put it in the boy’s pocket?!?!

“We need to find that key. We only have so much time. Speaking of which, what time is it?”

There was a pause, until the man declared. “My watch is gone…how did I lose it?”

“You lost a solid gold watch? The one with your identification code? Man, the boss is going to kill you.”

“That’s okay,” the second man said, “I have a tracker on it. If I dropped it or if someone stole it, we’ll find them.”

Was that watch the same one Arsene put into the boy’s pocket, possibly with the key?!?!?!?!?!?!!!!!!!!!!

 

Arsene had crawled as fast as he could to find the boy. He needed to hurry. Searching, Arsene found him. Walking up to the boy, Arsene casually started. “Hi, remember me strange, paranoid, amateur knife-fighter?”

The boy glared. “Yeah, I do. It was a felony.”

Smirking, Arsene countered. “Oh well, birds of a feather flock together.”

The boy glared menacingly at the robber, proceeding to demand. “Leave me alone.”

Arsene let out a nervous chuckle, before looking back and seeing the men from the luggage bin. “Uh, can I talk to you…”

“You already are.”

With his stress reaching its limits (something that normally wouldn’t happen), Arsene grabbed the boy by the arm, leading him to the sick bay. “Oh yeah, I know. I meant talk somewhere we could easily duck in cover or brace for impact or stay alive…”

The men were approaching, one of the two having a gun ready. Arsene could tell he was holding a gun in his pocket, simply because of how he was holding it (which is possible to do, but that’s a different topic). “And um, right now.”

Instead of complying, the boy jerked his arm back. “OH NO YOU DON’T!”

Arsene tried to shush the boy, which only caused him to get louder.

“I AM NOT GOING WITH WHATEVER CRAZINESS YOU HAVE PLANNED! YOU’VE ALREADY KIDNAPPED ME, GIVEN ME STOLEN GOODS, MADE ME BUY STUFF WITH THE STOLEN CASH! WHAT OTHER DISASTER DO YOU HAVE PLANNED?! AM I TO STILL BE CONSIDERED YOUR TEAMMATE!? OH SURE, WE’RE JUST THE BEST OF FRIENDS, WE MET DURING A BANK ROBBERY, IN WHICH I SAVE YOUR HIDE FROM THE GUARDS! NOW, I’M STUCK ON THIS ACCURSED BOAT, BECAUSE YOU DRAGGED ME INTO YOUR DIRTY WORK! ACCOMPLICE. FELLOW THIEF, PARTNER-IN-CRIME, I THINK NOT! NOT ANYMORE ARSENE LUPIN!”

There was a very, very brief pause as the boy realized where he was. He was with Arsene, admitting to possessing and using pirated money, currently holding stolen goods, in the middle of a HUGE crowd.

“Get them!”

The boy panicked. “WAIT! WHAT DID I DO?!

Guards raised their weapon, aiming at the two. Even with the dragon scales, Arsene wasn’t sure that would be enough. He might make it, but the boy…Arsene wasn’t sure what to do. His power might do the trick, but he couldn’t activate it. It was not right to use it. Not here. Not in front of everyone. Why couldn’t he have just have a good or normal power like his brother or the boy.

When the shots were fired, Arsene unwittingly activated his power. The black, gold and silver energy enclosed the two, erasing the bullets before they hit. Cutting a circle with his power, Arsene allowed himself and the boy to fall into the next floor, escaping. Arsene never imagined something like that happening.

The curse he tried to hide had come back.