Deceit - The Phantom Thief

Chapter 2: A Cunning Scheme

The journey back to HQ was long, filled with the usual tedious, repetitive rant about heist safety. The thief had heard it countless times already - he knew that he didn't have the time to play around and that he needed to take his job seriously, but he was the leader and that surely meant he could do whatever he wanted. Playing around during missions had become habitual and allowed him to escape the tedium of daily life. He needed to have some fun once in a while. Was that so much to ask?

Of course, he loved HQ; he'd dedicated several years of his life, along with the other members of the organisation, to renovating the underground lair and making it habitable for himself and his friends, but even an exciting place like headquarters could be so boring sometimes. They'd been living there since they were children and the same black and white walls of bolted metal plates every day became dreary, dull, and uninteresting.

There were about ten main rooms in total, though they were all the same, more or less, if you removed the furniture and homely decorations they had dotted the place with to distract themselves from the fact that it was all just one large metal prison.

The thief sat in the back of the plateless checkered van with the pigtailed brunette who had been yapping at him like a needy dog for the past fifteen minutes.

"And that's why it's important you listen to what we tell you! My brother will be mad at you again! And Minerva! Isn't that right, Vigour?" her voice high and loud, she leaned into the front of the van where a tall, muscly man in a red afro was driving.

A slender man with short brown hair swept into curtains sat beside him, fiddling about with the amethyst. He went from examining the stone to recording information on his phone, the screen glowing a hazy bright blue as if it were a ghost, a poorly taken photograph.

"Sorry Boss, but I'm gonna have to side with Pigtails on this one. It was a really close call this time. Did you see how many police were there? You could've jeopardised DICE. We can't take those risks, no matter how fun you find them." Vigour blurted out quickly, seeming as if he just wanted to shut the bossy girl up, but he had a valid point. He checked the rearview mirror cautiously as if to make a point.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever you say. This time it was necessary though! I had to stick around longer than expected because a sneaky little detective tried to snatch the goods! I wasn't going to abort the mission you dummies! You're all so MEAN!" The Phantom Thief snapped in more of a whine than anything else as he removed the clip from his hair. His hair fell as he shook his head, the tentacle-like locks snaking out in all directions. "Mmm... That's much better." He mumbled to himself, satisfied.

"Detective? You were stopped by a detective? Are you sure? Boomer made sure that anyone who breathed in that gas would be-" She smacked her hand sharply, the slapping sound of skin on skin ear piercing. "Comatose." 

"Of course I'm sure! When Ego turned the lights back on, I saw him trying to escape with it! He didn't look like he was sleeping to me, Pigtails!" his voice took on a whiny and pouty tone.

"Tell me about this detective. Was he old and ugly? Did he smoke a pipe and speak with a heavy British accent?" She tauntingly twirled her thick hair around her slender fingers.

The leader scoffed. "Actually he was rather good looking. He was young, Pigtails! He was so easy to read, too! You'd think that a detective would have a major poker face but nope! Not this particular detective. It was kind of cute, honestly."

The man in the passenger seat was listening to their conversation. "You say he had this amethyst, hm? If you want me to, I can check it for fingerprints and we can find his identity that way." He had a slightly nasally voice. His eyes were still glued to the purple stone.