Chapter Text
"Shit. Shit. Shit!" Skales cursed.
He checked the bag where he'd hidden the acient scroll, to find it missing, and instead replaced with a fake. He threw out everything inside of the bag onto the floor. Nowhere, absolutely nowhere was there a sign of the artifact he was ordered to bring to his boss. Even worse so, when he unrolled the fake scroll, it was plastered with a hastly written message.
"Get fucked, Snake skin!"
Though he had little time to be left with his fueling anger, as behind him he heard the shouts of guards, who most definetly recognized him from the heist. He dropped the phoney artifact and ran off without looking back. He took as many sharp corners and ran through the busier streets in order to get them off his tail. He bumped into strangers, nearly hit signs and almost got run over, all to escape the chance of his arrest.
When he finally felt like he would pass out from a lack of air, he headed into a dark and predominantly empty alleyway to catch his breath. To his luck, his manoeuvres managed to get the guards lose track of him. As he wouldn't hear them run past the alley until many minutes later. This breath of fresh air was welcome and certainly needed, as he wouldn't get another in the following hours. A confrontation with his boss was yet waiting him, and he was fucked. Royally fucked.
Skales waited in front of the giant door to his bosses' office, on a rather uncomfortable divan. Waiting nervously for his boss to finish his meeting with another and open the door, he lightly tapped his foot and fidgeted with one of the rings on his hand.
The muted chatter and laughs started to get closer and sounded clearer. Suddenly the door swung wide open, letting out general Skalidor and King Darius
"-Well, it was swell talking to you Skalidor!" Darius said whilst holding the door open for him.
Skalidor noticed Skales as he walked out of the door.
"He-Hey Hypno! Good luck man!" Skalidor loudly said.
In return Skales gave a slight wave and a somewhat forced smile back. Though he wanted to greet him back, there was a lump stuck in his throat from the nerves he was feeling.
Although he viewed Darius highly and had an all-round good relationship with him, for the last weeks he had failed many of his orders and had been increasingly disappointing his boss. Failing many of the orders and missions given to him or proving himself not to be as strong as Darius had wished.
Despite his nerves, Darius seemed to be in a great mood, so there was no real fear to have just yet.
"Come in, come in, no need to be shy!" Darius called out
Skales got up from the divan and headed inside, with the way in which he stood and walked clearly showing he was certainly nervous. Darius reassured him not to worry and rested his hand on Skales' shoulder.
Although it being merely a small gesture, it did calm Skales nerves, somewhat.
"So, you said you needed me for another mission, right?" Skales took out a chair and sat down. Across from him was a large table, with around it many other chairs, as the area was used for meetings with the other generals.
"Yes, that is true, you see, although our armies are strong, one might even say one of the strongest there are..." Darius stands at the other end of the table, leaning with one hand onto it. "Recently we have been losing many of our battles. Far too many." He sighs. "Not to mention the team morale hasn't been the greatest and, some of our members haven't been delivering as well."
That last part made a knot in Skales stomach, being reminded of his failures even if not directly.
"However, I believe we won't have to worry for much longer, as I believe we have a solution to our issue!" Darius pridefully declared.
"And what exactly is that, if I may ask?" Skales asked with a look of curiosity on his face.
Darius got up and grabbed something from his desk. When he turned back to Skales, he rolled out a page that seemingly was pulled from an old book
"General Zoltar's daugther found this in an old book that showcased study of the OrigiVerse's magic. It speaks of a scroll that could give one an increase in power. A so called, Scroll of Brawn." By the sound of his voice it was clear that he knew fairly little about the topic and was merely restating what he'd heard from his fellow general.
"And, despite some of your mishaps and minor failings, I trust you as my right hand to bring the scroll to us. In fact! Once you succeed with this mission and we gain possesion of this scroll, we'll regain all that we have lost so quickly no-one will even remember the mishaps that have occurd" Darius stated confidently
"Well, thank you sir, but also apologies once again for the recent missions I-" Before he'd finished his sentence Darius gladly interrupted it.
"Don't even worry about it, Skales. As I said, this scroll will most certainly suffice to get back our advantage." As he spoke, he walked over closer to Skales.
"Right, well. But how will I get it exactly? And from where?" Even if he was glad most of his screw-ups would be forgiven, he still didn't have much information on how he could complete this mission and actually make things right again.
"You'll find the scroll in the Roorerdam City in the Museum of Origian Magic. It will be on full display, so it won't be too hard to find. But I've heard you know Zoltar's daughter so you could, if neccescary ask her for more intel on the artifact. As for the mission, simply plan a heist in which you can escape without being caught. Prehaps you could ask some of your mates to help you getting it?" Darius said.
It was clear to Skales that Darius was meaning to keep this conversation short and to leave the rest of the mission to his own hands.
"Yeah, I could, I mean, I'm sure they won't pass up a mission given by you, sir." Skales got up from his chair, pushing it back into place and preparing to leave.
"Lovely, make sure to get it here by tommorow, and also..." He stopped Skales in his path and walked closer to him.
"I believe that you, as my right hand, and as one of my smartest soldiers yet, have the capability to fix all the wrongs caused amongst us with this very mission. I am sure you'll conspire an excelent plan along with those friends of yours, so do not let your previous failures drag you down, young one." Darius once again, put his hand on Skales shoulder, and at the end of his sentence give him a pat on the head.
"Oh, thank you so much, sir."
Would that truly be all it took right his wrongs? The idea of it overjoyed Skales. No longer returning empty handed. If this is what it took he was going to put in his all.
He was ready to make things right.
Perhaps he was ready to make things right, but convincing his friends to help as well was evidently showing to be a much harder feat.
His friends had just return from the city, and as it seemed, Skales was the only one in the room interested in the mission. He knew it was truly up to him to complete the final task, but he had expected at least some help. However one of his friends was busy sending pictures of himself to his girlfriend, the other was busy playing around with his seat and the last was looking toward the board with a disinterested expression on his face, with a drink still in his hands.
"I was thinking maybe we could enter from this side and then-" Skales' presentation was interrupted by his friend slurping loudly on an iced coffee.
"As I was saying, we could enter from over here an-" Once again – seemingly on purpose – his friend made a gross slurping noise from his now nearly empty drink.
Skales sighed and tried to continue his story one more time.
"We could enter from this side..." He paused to make sure he wouldn't be interrupted. His voice now showing his growing impatience.
"and then split up, so, in case we're found we won't-" Despite clear signs of iritation, it appearedd friend was either blind to or intentionally looking away from them.
"For Usa's sake can you stop that?!" Skales fists clenched.
"Stop what?" His friend said, with a slight smirk growing on his face.
It looked as if Skales was ready to yell at everyone in the room and even throw whatever he could find, but instead he took a deep breath in, and then tried to maturely address his iritation.
"Can you guys, please just, cooperate? Even a little bit?" Skales asked, starting to sound a bit desperate.
Then one of his other friends, Quiten spoke up. "We could, but, you still haven't told us what we get in return?"
Skales' eye twitched even hearing the sentence. "Oh, you want to talk about returning for favours? That's rich coming from you three." He replied with sarcasm dripping from his voice.
"C'mon dude, that was one time!" Said Viathan - the third friend - looking up from his phone.
Although they made it out to be a one-time thing, this was the third time, this week.
"Funny you say that actually, since I recall you saying it last week too, oh and last monday as well. And also-" Skales could keep on going with the examples as he would probably not run out anytime soon, but his first friend, Richie, interrupted him then.
"OK, ok, we get it. We don't pay you back a lot, sorry!"
"Mhm, glad you can admit it. Also, why is it that you need my money anyway? Did daddy take away your credit card again?" Skales said in a mocking tone of voice with a large smirk growing on his face.
A collective "Ohhh" sounded from the other two friends. Richie's face flushed and he let out an audible sigh.
"Fine. You win. Now tell us that plan."
"Mhm, thank you." In his voice it was clear to hear he was proud of his line.
Skales got out his pointer once again. "Now, as I said earlier, I believe it will be best if we enter from the back area, as there are usually less guards in that area." He then flipped the page on his board, this one showing an image of the museum's ground plan.
Richie then got a notification on his phone, which Skales ignored to continue telling his plan.
"Then I think we should split up in two. So, we can complete the mission faster and ensure that in case we get seen, they won't get to all of us right away."
"So what? When one of us gets found we leave them to deal with it themselves?! Viathan countered. Richie raised his head from his phone for a moment in response, then looked back.
Skales hadn't intended that his plan would be interpreted in that way, nor for his friends to jump to that conclusion so soon. Though on the other hand, it made sense that it would not sound too positive especially as he was thinking through the lens of a 'worst-case scenario', as he often did.
"No, no! Not at all, I just meant that-"
"Then what do we do when we get caught, huh?" Quinten retorted
"Listen, I don't-" Suddenly, the argument was cut short.
"Enough guys, we're not gonna get caught. Besides, Skales is right, we should split up when we enter." Richie said.
Everyone else in the room was surprised at Richie's sudden support of the plan, especially Skales, having seen how disinterested Richie seemed a few minutes back. Although Skales most definitely appreciated it. What he did not see however was the wink he gave the others. As Richie had secretly founded a new plan. One that did not have helping Skales as it's central goal, in fact, it was quite the opposite.
"Continue, please." He spoke. The other two gave each other a look and sensed Richie was planning something while Skales was blissfully unaware.
"Right, next one of us should take care of the security camera's. This is why the back is the best location, as they can be tampered with from somewhere near there."
It was dark out. Despite the many people still out in the areas within the city centre, the city was ready to rest. Though it would not, as the four friends were ready to commit a heist.
Three of them - Richie, Quinten and Viathan – were already there. Skales arrived belated as he had some troubles sneaking out. When he approached them, he heard them murmuring about something, yet he couldn't make out what they said.
"Hey, uh, guys?" Skales tried not shout as it could bring attention toward them. When his friends finally noticed him their conversation abruptly ended.
"There you are, took you long enough." Said Viathan.
"Right, yeah. Sorry about that. You guys know how my dad is. Anyways, you know the plan, right?" The three of them gave eachother a look, one that started a feeling of suspicion in Skales' gut. They then looked back at Skales and collectively replied,
"Yeaaah, of course."
The tone once again, brought suspicion, but now there was no time to overthink, as this was the most crucial part of the mission. To enter the museum without being caught.
"Well, Vi, Quinten, you two make sure all security cameras are off." He rummaged through his bag and got out a rope, that he handed over to Richie.
"Here, you said you were great at this, apparently."
"Absolutely, just watch." Richie bragged. He spun the rope around in a lasso and attempted to throw it on top of the roof, around one of the large air vents. However, as he attempted to climb op the rope, thinking it was steady, it fell down, hitting him in the head.
Skales let out a short snicker as he could barely keep his laughter in, and the attempt looked rather hilarious.
"Ow, ugh! What's so funny, huh?"
"That looked pathetic." Skales said in a joking manner, with his hand over his mouth.
"Oh really, well if you think it's that easy, why don't you have a go Snake Skin " He held out the rope to Skales.
Skales rolled his eyes at the nickname and grabbed the rope. He threw the rope around and aimed for the air vent. Unfortunately for Richie, it seemed like - for Skales – it really was that easy.
He looked over at Richie to see his reaction. Like he expected, he was looking away, narrow eyed. "Show off." was all he replied with.
They both climbed up the rope and got on the roof. There they awaited the signal from the other two guys. Following it, they walked up to another, larger vent, that would lead to the display rooms. Richie got out a crowbar and handed it to Skales.
Skales tried to open the vent, though, physical strength wasn't his strongest point, thus he struggled to open it. Unfortunately for him, the vent wouldn't even budge.
"Look who's 'pathetic' now."
"Ugh, yeah I know, sorry! Just take the bar and open the vent." Skales threw the crowbar onto the floor, Richie picked it up and as predicted, it took no more than 10 seconds for him to get the vent opened.
"Yeah right, 'pathetic'."
After crawling through some pretty tight vents and nearly getting lost in the system, Richie and Skales managed to find an exit that led into the first floor. They both jumped down, whilst trying not to make a lot of noise.
It was dark, with the only source of light coming from the moon outside, but the area was also spacious, so each artifact had lots of room, making it easy for them to stand out despite the fact.
they looked down over the balcony that gave a full view of the bottom floor. There seemed to be no sign of guards down there, though neither a sign of the scroll.
Skales looked around the area. He then noticed a doorway that led into the other showrooms. He signalled to Richie that they should head that way.
They walked over quietly. Once they entered, Richie noticed a scroll-like atrifact lying down in the showroom. He almost wanted to make his way down, until Skales stopped him. As there were night-guards still roaming the area.
The two of them ducked down and observed the three, chattering guards, trying to make out what they were saying.
"How long 're you still 'ere for dudes?"
" 'till 12 PM, I believe."
"Damn, you're lucky, I'm going until 6 AM"
"Same, dude."
"Huh, but if you two have the midnight shift, what are you doing here right now?"
Skales looked over to Richie, then sighed, thinking it would take ages for the guards to go away.
"Hey, is it just me, or is there some red light over there?"
"Huh, where?"
"Oh crap." Skales said under his breath. Both of them had forgotten that their eyes do somewhat glow in the dark.
"Just close your eyes dumbass." So, both of them did.
"Bro, I think you might be trippin' I don't see a thing."
"No, I'm sure I saw something over-"
"If you seeing things glowing, maybe it's the Scroll of Brawn."
"Prawn? What like a marine biology scroll?"
" Brawn. It means strength."
"But what does it do then?"
"I dunno, all I know is it makes you strong 'n shit and that it's over there" He pointed over to the right, where the next showroom was.
Skales and Richie then realized that it was exactly what they were looking for.
"Can we go check it out."
Suddenly the conversing between the three guards was interrupted by a loud crash in another room. It caught everyone by surprise, except for Richie, oddly enough. Who seemed to take it as yet another step to the plan.
The guards ran to the other room where the noise had seemed to originate from.
"What the fuck was that?" Skales said, in a somewhat distressed voice.
"What does it matter? The coast is clear." Richie got up and made a run for the next room. Afterwards Skales quickly followed.
Once in the room, Richie quickly started to make his way down to the showroom, by sliding down from one of the banners hung from the balcony. Skales still waited by the balcony.
"Richie, wait! We can't be sure how long they'll be gone for." He tightend his grip around the balcony.
"Yeah, that's exactly why we have to be quick, get down here!" Richie had already made his way down and was looking around for the scroll. Skales made it down, he then saw something glowing. He tapped on Richie shoulder and pointed.
There it laid, just ahead of them. Like Darius had said, it was on full display, standing out amongst the other artifacts in the room. Just looking at it you could feel the energy coming from within the scroll. It was truly a sight to behold for Skales and Richie
While Skales was hesitant to even approach it, Richie was eager to pick it up. When Richie went to reach for the scroll, Skales placed his arm in the way.
"Be careful. We don't know what power it holds" he whispered.
"pssh, don't be such a wuss. Besides, one of us has to grab it anyway, so what's the worst that could happen?" He took it in his hands and a surge of energy flew through his body. Like that one guard had said, the scroll began to glow in bright colours.
"Alright, can you hand it over to me now?"
"I just grabbed it, can't I check it out for a sec?"
"We don't have time for that Richie, we can't be seen with it. Hand it over." Skales' eyes narrowed. Right now wasn't the time to joke around.
"Sound a little suspicious, Skales." Another voice then said.
"Viathan?! What are- wait, where's Quinten?"
"Don't worry, he's keeping the guards busy, but we have to hurry." Right as Viathan said that, the guards arrived back into the previous showroom.
"Intruders!" One shouted.
"Oh no. We're fucked."
"I don't think so." Richie channeled an energy through the scroll and blasted it at the guards.
"RUN, NOW!" He threw the scroll over to Viathan, who put it into his bag.
The three of them all ran in different directions. Richie running to the the room behind them, Skales into the room beside them.
The chase that followed turned into a loop of cutting corners, jumping over atrifacts and continious yelling. Either between the guards or the serpentine.
Eventually when Skales reached the entrance, he reunited with Quinten, who seemed to now have gotten his hands on the bag.
"Here, take it. You're the fastest of us all." Quinten said with in breathy yell. When Skales got his hands on it, he stopped for a moment.
"What about you guys. I can't just leave you here?!"
"We'll be fine, Richie always has a plan." That brought a faint smile to his face.
"Good luck man." Skales ran towards the doorway and managed to kick down the door with ease.
He'd ran all the way from the entrance to a nearby street, when he noticed something strange about the bag. It was nothing like the bag Viathan was holding earlier.
"Shit. Shit. Shit!"
When Skales walked to the office he had waited in front of just this morning, everything around him seemed much larger and scarier, as if he were slowly sinking into the ground from his guilt and embarrassment. The closer he got to the door, the more he could hear people talking in the office. He could make out a few of the voices, such as Darius' and Richie's.
Yet, he heard another person talking too. One who seemed so familiar, though still so vague. He knew it wasn't Viathan or Quinten as the voice sounded deep, yet it wasn't someone like Skalidor either.
Once Skales finally reached the door, he waited for a brief moment before he turned the handle and walked in. If he who had been awaiting him in the office, in that moment he would have ran off immediately.
To his dimsay, the third voice he had heard this whole time, was that of his Father; Slitheraa Sinclair. He had been angrily discussing something with Darius, most likely regarding punishing his son.
When Skales opened the door, all eyes were on him.
"Oh, Skales, you still managed to make it here." Darius said, with a forced smile on his face and nervous tone.
Skales looked around the room. He saw all of his 'friends', yet to his surprise Richie seemed the only one somewhat happy to be there. While Viathan and Quinten actually looked upset even a little afraid. Though Skales wouldn't have blamed them, as truthfully, there wasn't anyone more afraid of his father than himself.
After Darius' greeting the room was silent, though in the atmosphere you could feel all that was unspoken. Skales then realized Darius was waiting for a respones.
"Yes, uh- sir. I- well, I needed, I just had a-"
"Issues getting here?" Slitheraa interrupted in a cold tone, narrowing his eyes.
"Yes, that. "
"We have heard about how you got caught, Skales." The sentence raised confusion in Skales, as all of them got caught, not just him, though if the incorrect scroll and expressions of his friends faces were enough, then someone was twisting the events that had happened.
"How we got caught, right? They got caught as well, they just used me as a distraction and took-" Before he finished his father's voice pierced through the room.
"Silence!" Silence fell over the room, and Skales couldn't help but flinch as his father's voice rang through the room.
"You will speak, when we ask you to." His tone softened a little but there was still a sense of threat in the way he spoke. He gave a nod to Darius.
"We've already seen how confusing this whole affair has become and everyone is saying something else, so, I believe you should take turns telling us the full story. Darius said, looking over to both sides.
Skales saw a smug smirk arise on Richie's lips. Skales desprately wanted to yell at Richie and the others, to scold them for tricking him and leading him into failure. But he simply couldn't Not with him around.
"Now, Richie, could you start please?"
"Oh, but of course, your majesty." Richie cleared his throat in an overdramatic way. Skales rolled his eyes at his sleazy attitude. "So, we arrived at the museum at 11 PM, well, all of us except for Skales, who was late as per usual."
Darus sighed. "Keep your remarks to yourself Richie."
"Ugh, alright fine. When the four of us were there, we followed the plan that Skales had given us and we split up. Me and Skales going for the scroll, Viathan and Quinten tampering with the security footage."
Slitheraa and Darius gave each other a look and then Darius replied: "But there was actually security footage of your four released on the news. So that didn't go as it was supposed to, did it?"
A look of surprise and confusion shot through Richie, who turned around to face Viathan and Quinten. "You two said you had it taken care of?" He whispered angrily.
"Sorry dude, we couldn't keep it on forever because we had to take care of the distraction." Viathan said.
Quinten gave him a harsh shove and whispered back to him: "Vi, you dumbass. We were not supposed to mention the distraction." It was too late as they had been heard.
"Distraction, what distraction are you three speaking of?" Slitheraa's eyes narrowed.
"Oh, Nothing big, mister Sinclair! I mean it wasn't as if we caused some big crash to distract the guards, we only---"
"You caused a crash?!" Slitheraa's hands balled into fists.
"Oh no, no, no! I meant that metapho- fore- uhh, metapho-iraclly---" Quinten stumbled over his words and Viathan quickly took over for him.
"Nevermind him, Sinclair. He meant we did the exact opposite of causing a crash. Right, Quinty?" Viathan seemingly signalled something to Quinten in his eyes and Quinten nodded.
"Yeah, Vi. In fact, if you want to hear someone who did cause a crash, look to Skales. When our distraction had ran up, the guards made it to the showroom."
"And then Skales used the scroll even though I told him---" Richie was interrupted by an agitated Skales, who had had enough of the lies and blaming.
"I didn't use it, you did!" He yelled.
"Uh, did not!" Richie sassily retorted.
"Enough! This discussion isn't getting us anywhere!" Darius stepped in between the boys. He sighed, placing his head in his hands. He took a deep breath and tried to keep his attitude mature.
"You boys will all share the punishment for this mishap" Darius stated. Skales pushed his nails into his skin and his expression widened. He had hoped at least Darius would take his side.
"Haha! Good one, heh." Richie laughed. The others clearly weren't seeing the humour in Darius' statement. Richie's confidence began to seep away.
"You're joking, right?" Darius' expression remained stren, at this point Richie's smirk had faded entirely.
"Oh, come on Darius! We were the ones who got you that scroll, remember?" Richie pleaded, quickly being interupted by Slitheraa.
"And the ones visible in the security footage. All of your foolishness has only made our reputation more threatened!" Slitheraa's voice pierced the room. After that, Richie kept his mouth shut.
"Then we shall decide tommorow what your punishments shall be. Now, me and Skales need to... have a little chat." Skales dreaded what was about to happen. Even more so, he couldn't believe Darius was allowing this to happen.
"Darius, sir, please could you reconsider." Skales begged of him. Darius sighed, his expression showing a hint of empathy, but it was clear he'd made up his mind.
Skales felt his father's cold hand grip onto his shoulder. "Are you coming, son?" Skales' body froze. His breathing heavier. "Yes, sir..." He managed to mutter out.
When they walked out the door and into his father's study, he wished he could disappear forever.
The door slammed open and Skales ran out. His body ached but he did his best to ignore the hurt. He had to run as far as he could and not look back. He heard his father calling for guards to come get him, but he simply kept going.
It didn't matter where he ended up, as long as it was far from here.
He ran into the nearby forest he recalled visiting often in his youth, eventually running out of breath and passing out next to a small pond.
The world went dark