After Kirstie succinctly explained her plan, everyone got in their position. Avi and Kevin hid behind a building while Kirstie confronted the man. Avi had wanted to do it, but after she promised not to scare him away, or at least scare him in the right direction, Kevin agreed to let Kirstie go.
"Stop pouting, it was her plan anyway." Kevin whispered to Avi, which only made him pout even more.
'Why does Kirstie always get to talk to everyone?'
Kevin rolled his eyes at how childish Avi was being and turned back to the scene that was about to unfold.
Kirstie walked up to the guy as he was finishing up the stolen apple. When he ate it all the way to the core, he threw it behind his shoulder and continued on his way. He walked for a few seconds before pausing, realizing he never heard the apple hit the ground. Turning around, he saw Kirstie holding the eaten apple by the stem.
"You do realize it's wrong to litter right? Especially when there's a trash can so close." She told him, throwing away the rest of the apple. He was about to say something but she quickly cut him off. "Oh, and before you say anything I'm American. So not that there's anything wrong with the language spoken here, it'd just be easier for me to understand you if you spoke English."
She finished with a smile and he stared at her. He blinked a few times and finally spoke up.
"Who are you?"
"I'm Kirstin but my friends call me Kirstie. What's your name?" She asked, and he smirked.
"Wouldn't you like to know?" He said, crossing his arms.
"I would actually, that's why I asked."
"Listen Kirstin-"
"My friends call me Kirstie." She reminded, and he stared at her for a second.
"Okay Kirstin as I was saying, I don't know what goes on in your head, but I don't just give my name to anyone. Especially in this part of town, you never know who to trust." He explained.
"Oh I know, but that's why I wanted to talk to you. A little birdie told me a bit about you, and my friends and I wanted to have a chat."
He froze and watched her carefully. She immediately put her hands up, showing she had nothing on her.
"It's okay, we don't want to hurt you. We just want to talk." She tried to tell him, and his eyes scanned over her quickly.
'Yeah right.'
Kevin heard the voice in his head, and saw the man's eyes narrow suspiciously.
'Kirstie look out!' He thought to her, but it was too late.
The small man quickly pushed Kirstie and bolted in the opposite direction. Since she was unprepared for it, the force of the shove sent her backwards into the trash can, knocking it over. Getting up, she was thankful she wasn't hurt, there was just a small ache on her right elbow from hitting the metal. She of course saw this happening before encountering the man, she just didn't expect it to happen so suddenly. Luckily things were still going according to plan as the man ran straight towards where Avi and Kevin were hiding.
Once he reached them, both of them jumped out and grabbed him. Apparently things like that must've happened to him before, because he was prepared to get out of it. The moment Avi and Kevin grabbed him, he started struggling and yelled out a few words in Portuguese. Kevin tried to calm him down, but he stepped on Avi's foot as hard as he could and elbowed Kevin in the ribs to make them let go of him. He succeeded in getting free and ran off as Kevin held his side and Avi hopped on one foot. By the time Kirstie got there, he was almost out of sight.
"Come on, we need to catch up to him!" She told them before running after the man.
Kevin followed her and Avi slowly put weight on his foot until it felt better. Several moments went by before his foot was feeling back to normal. Quickly running after them, he caught up to Kirstie and Kevin who had stopped at a fork in the road.
"Which way did he go?" Kirstie asked as Kevin looked for clues.
"Hmm, well there are lots of clues pointing to the right." He told them, and Kirstie was about to run when he stopped her. "Wait, if he's as good as the guy who gave us the folder says he is, then he wouldn't leave obvious tracks like these. That's ameture work."
"So we go left?" Avi asked, and Kevin nodded.
"If we hurry, we could still catch up to him."
They all ran down the left road as fast as they could and just as they were about to give up, they saw him. He was trapped with nowhere to run. Two buildings were on the sides of him, and a large metal gate was blocking the exit.
"It's not nice to hit people." Kevin said when they finally caught up to him.
The man glared at them and took a few steps back.
"Me deixe em paz!!!" He yelled, getting in a defensive stance.
"Just listen to us, we only want to talk." Kirstie tried again.
"Mentiras! You can't fool me."
"We're not trying to trick you, just trust us!" Avi told him, and he started looking around.
"Eu nunca confie em ninguém." He said, then he turned around and ran towards the gate.
They didn't move because there wasn't really anywhere for him to go, but he quickly proved them wrong. He stepped on a small wooden crate, jumped on a trash can lid, and somehow hopped over the gate to the other side. With a final look over his shoulder at their shocked faces, he smirked and ran down the alley.
"You've gotta be kidding me!" Kirstie yelled to the sky.
"Wow, he's slippery. How are we supposed to catch him if he keeps doing things like that?" Avi asked.
"By following him. If he does something, then we have to be right behind him and copy what he does." Kevin told them, and Kirstie groaned.
"Ugh, I don't want to keep chasing him." She complained.
"Okay fine, how about this? Whoever catches him gets the bigger bed in the next hotel room we get." Kevin said, and Avi and Kirstie glared at each other.
Without missing a beat, the two of them quickly mimicked his moves, jumped over the gate, and ran after him while Kevin tried to cut him off in the other direction.
When the man saw them behind him, he knocked over crates with fruit and trash cans to try and slow them down. They jumped over the fallen items and were slowly starting to catch up. As they got closer, Avi suddenly stopped for a few seconds and ran off in a different direction. Kirstie paid him no attention, believing now she was going to win the bet. The man quickly turned a corner and when Kirstie did the same, she saw he was nowhere in sight.
While Kirstie looked around confused, the man quickly ran to the end of a hidden alley. His plan was to make it back in the streets and blend in with a crowd. It would've worked too, if it weren't for a huge force slamming into him and knocking him over. Slightly dazed, he looked up at his attacker and recognized it was the person whose foot he stepped on. He tried to get up, but the man had him pinned.
"Solte-me!" He said, but Avi didn't listen and put a hand on his neck.
"You're not getting away this time." Avi told him, and they pouted as he picked them up and held onto him.
"How did you know where I was?" He demanded, and Avi chuckled.
"Wouldn't you like to know." He said with a smirk, mimicking his words from earlier.
He glared up at Avi and before he could say anything, he heard footsteps getting closer to them. He started to panic a bit when forced himself to calm down. He could still get out of this. Taking a deep breath, he let his bangs fall in front of his face. Concentrating hard, he gave a little sniffle.
"Ow..." He said in a small voice, and Avi looked at him for a brief moment.
That was all it took. When he glanced up at the slightly taller man, he made his eyes fill with tears. The moment they locked eyes, Avi's gaze immediately softened.
'Gotcha.'
"Are- Are you okay?" Avi questioned hesitantly, and he shook his head.
"No... you're holding my wrist too tight. It really hurts." He said, sniffing again.
Avi didn't know what to do. On one hand, they were supposed to catch this guy, and he did. But on the other hand, he was hurting him, and he didn't like hurting people.
"Could you maybe loosen your grip? Just a little?" He asked, keeping their eyes locked.
Avi was having an internal battle with himself. He knew that if he loosened his grip, then they could get away. As hard as it was to catch him today, he knew no one would be able to find him again. But looking into his pleading eyes, Avi found himself unable to control his movements and he slowly started to loosen his grip. Before he completely let go, a loud voice rang out in the silence.
"AVI!!!" Kirstie yelled as she saw him, and her voice snapped him out of the trance.
He quickly tightened his grip before the man could slip away. Angry that she interrupted them before he could get away, they started pulling their arm as hard as they could. He used both hands to try and get free as Kirstie and Kevin caught up to them. Avi only held on tighter as they tried to get away, yelling curses in both English and Portuguese. Overall, the way he was acting reminded Avi of a small child having a temper tantrum.
"Acalme-se!" Kevin told him, and he stopped pulling and glared at him.
"Não me diga para me acalmar!!!" He spat, and continued struggling against Avi's iron grip.
"We just want to talk to you, we know you can help us." Kirstie told him.
"You don't know anything about me!" He yelled finally snatching his arm free, but Avi quickly grabbed it again.
"Your name is Mitchell Coby Michael Grassi, you're 23 years old, you're half Italian, when you were little you were separated from your family and somehow found yourself living here. You grew up in fear until you discovered you could manipulate people to do what you wanted. Then you turned to a life of crime, destroying property, stealing valuables, picking pockets, and things like that. You never got caught, and when you did you would just have them let you go, you love Starbucks coffee, you can't eat gluten, and you love the tv show Spongebob Squarepants. Is that enough or shall I continue?" Avi asked him.
His face went pale and he went completely still. After staring at Avi for what seemed like forever, he finally broke the silence.
"H-How did you know that?" He asked, his voice shaking a bit.
"We'll explain later, but right now we need your help. Someone stole our car, our phones, Kevin's wallet, and our clothes. We met a guy who told us about you, and before you ask no, he didn't give us his name." Kirstie explained. "Can you help us get our stuff back?"
Mitch was silent, thinking hard about his options. He came to a conclusion and slowly nodded.
"Okay... I'll help you, but you need to tell your friend to let go of me." He said, glaring at Avi.
"Oh no, what if he runs away again?" Avi asked, and Kevin shook his head.
"It's fine, I'm sure he won't. You can let him go."
Avi was a bit skeptical, but released him nonetheless. With his wrist finally free, Mitch crossed his arms, still angry. He turned away from them but didn't go anywhere. Instead he used a hand to lightly rub his wrist where it was being held. Avi felt a pang of guilt go through him when he saw red marks where Mitch was rubbing. Before he could apologize, Mitch turned around and started talking.
"Alright, what did this person look like?"
"Oh, um... He was about my height, dark brown hair, dark grey hat, blue and white jacket-" Kevin started explaining, but Mitch cut him off.
"Did the jacket also have a red stripe on it?" He asked.
"Uh, yeah. Yes it did."
"Hmm... what kind of socks was he wearing?"
"Socks?"
"Yes socks, now answer the question."
"I didn't see the lower half of his body. Sorry." Kevin apologized, slightly confused at what socks had to do with anything.
Getting frustrated, Mitch pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed.
"Claro que não, that would be too easy. Did you see if he had any piercings? Specifically in the right eyebrow?"
Kevin thought for a moment before slowly nodding.
"Yeah, it was slightly covered by his hair but it was there."
"Was he wearing a watch?"
"Umm... Avi, a little help?"
Avi closed his eyes for a moment before opening them again.
"Yes he was." He confirmed.
"What color was it?" Mitch questioned, turning his attention to him.
"Uh, grey... No silver! It was a shiny silver." He said, and Mitch nodded.
"Okay, I think I know who took your stuff."
"Great! Who is it?" Kirstie asked excitedly, but Mitch lifted his hand.
"Segure seus cavalos. There's one thing I want to know first. O que é que eu ganho com isso?"
Avi and Kirstie looked at Kevin for a translation. He rolled his eyes with a small chuckle and explained.
"He said hold your horses, and he wants to know what he gets out of helping us."
"Can't you just do it out of the kindness of your heart?" Kirstie asked hopefully.
"Eu não tenho coração." He said, his voice monotone.
"He basically said no." Kevin told them when they looked at him again.
"Ugh fine, what do you want?" Avi asked, and Mitch put on a thinking face.
"I don't know what I want yet because I'm not sure what you guys are capable of, besides somehow tracking me down and catching me... I guess you'll just have to owe me a favor." He told them with a smirk.
"Oh great, just what we need. Okay fine, we owe you one favor." Avi told him, and his smirk got even wider.
"Perfeito! Now let's go get your stuff back." Mitch said walking past them to the sidewalk. "Oh, and not that I don't know you can but, try and keep up."
He gave them a wink and bolted out to the street. Quickly running after him, they kept up pretty easily until he turned a corner. Once they turned the same corner, he was nowhere in sight. They looked around and Kirstie let out a groan.
"Ugh, not again!"
~*~*~
(A/N Sorry for not updating in forever! I had a bit of writer's block and couldn't come up with a chapter title (thanks ShrimpsOnSticks!!!), and also midterms. Anyway, thanks for reading and slap that vote button with your nose!!! <3)