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Midnight was approaching, and the city was as quiet as a big city could be at this hour. The skies were clear and dark, the perfect night for a heist. Maybe that is why the coven chose it. Though they probably wouldn’t have known what conditions they would find today when they had decided on a date for the heist. One week ago the coven had sent a card to the local police station telling them that they would steal the bloodstone jewellery from the museum at midnight on this very night. That’s why even the hero organisation sent in extra assistance to stop them so that this time the coven wouldn’t get away. They would have to get through the museum’s security, a sizeable amount of the police force and the incredible hero duo of detective and hunter for this heist to succeed. And the heroes were personally going to make sure that that wouldn’t happen.
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A few blocks away from the museum, the Beast, Pyroscythe and Lord Goldsmith were waiting on a rooftop for the right time to initiate their heist.
"Why are we even doing this? Don't you own enough jewellery by now, Goldy?" the beast had asked; heists were his least favourite of the crimes they committed, as he didn't get to fight as many people while doing them. And at the moment he was extra not interested in doing one, as he had personal matters he wanted to attend to.
"Don’t say that. First of all, you can never have too much jewellery. Secondly, trust me, this is important,” Goldsmith said with his usual smug tone.
"I agree this heist is definitely important," Pyro confidently added.
"Whatever, let's just get it over with." Beast grumbled as he stood up from where he was previously mopping on the ground.
"It seems it’s about time to go," Goldsmith said while looking down at his wrist, checking the time on a nonexistent clock.
“What about witchy? She isn’t here yet," the Beast seemed to point out.
"They have their own mission to focus on; don’t you worry your pretty little head. It's just us three for this one; you guys remember the plan, right?" Goldsmith said as he seemed to stretch to get ready.
"Yes!" Pyro enthusiastically answered.
"Whatever," the Beast added, with a roll of his eyes.
"Then let's go," Goldsmith seemed to try and encourage the Beast, as all of them moved forward. The heist had begun.
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The jewellery was kept in an especially secure tempered glass casing in the middle of a room that was filled with all kinds of electronic gizmos to stop any item from getting stolen, and in front of the glass, Hunter and Detective were standing guard along with some other members of the security. The security system also contained a state-of-the-art alarm that could be found all over the building.
"Who do you think from the coven wants to steal these things?" the detective had asked her crime-fighting partner.
"Probably Lord Goldsmith; he’d look really handsome with this jewellery, and it’s totally his colour," the hunter seemed to sigh; his crush on the villain was no news to his partner. But as long as it didn’t stop him from doing his job, the detective didn’t mind who her partner liked. She was concerned and confused for him, sure, but wouldn’t say that out loud, in public at least. She would probably berate him later, in a loving way, once they got home.
"Jewellery is kind of his thing," the detective agreed.
"It sure is,“ her partner sighed. Probably daydreaming about the villain.
"And it's midnight,“ the detective said as she checked her clock. "And the jewellery is still here.“
"That's weird. I wonder why they're late? They're usually never late," the hunter wondered aloud.
Suddenly, as if the heroes had jinxed it, the lights, security protocols and any other electronic devices that were connected to the building went out. Leaving the guards in darkness and confusion.
"Power outage,“ the hunter remarked as he and his partner turned on a set of night vision lenses. "What do you think are the chances that the coven is behind this one?“
"Considering the time, a Hundert Prozent," the detective confirmed. "I'll go to the generator room to get the power back; you keep the jewellery safe."
The hunter nodded as the detective started sprinting towards the generator. After arriving, the plan had been simple: turn the power back on. Sadly, the detective quickly realised it wouldn’t be so easy because the generator wasn’t turned off; it was melted. In front of the device stood Pyroscythe, grinning at the hero once they entered.
"So sorry to inform you, but it seems that these power outages will be permanent," Pyro mocked the hero.
"I hope you enjoyed burning that, because it will be the last thing you burn,“ the detective said as she took on a fighting stance.
"We'll see about that now, won't we?" the villain continued mocking as he lit his fists aflame before attacking.
And with that, Pyro had executed the first part of the plan perfectly. He had gotten rid of the security protocols by turning off the power and was keeping one of the heroes busy. For now that was all he had to do. So it was the next person's turn to continue the plan.
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Back at the exhibition hall, the hunter was on full alarm. Any of the villains could strike at any time. And one of them did; with an enormous crash, the stained, tempered glass window at the side of the room was completely shattered by the beast seemingly just jumping right through it like it was nothing. The man didn't even look as though he was hurt by the action in any way.
The villain stood amongst the glass shards on the floor as he looked up to face the hunter. Before speaking up with clear disappointment and frustration, "Great, now I have to deal with you too."
"Were you expecting someone else?" the hunter curiously questioned.
The beast just let out a threatening growl before leaping at the hero, who just barely managed to dodge in time, allowing the villain to hit his actual target, the glass casing that the jewellery was in. After which he immediately turned to try and hit the hunter for real this time. The hunter kept evading while seemingly leading the beast out of the building, away from the other people inside. Once they were outside the building, the hunter started fighting back.
And with that the second phase of the plan was done; the beast had managed to create an entrance to the normally secure room and gotten rid of the glass casing before distracting the second hero as well. Now Goldsmith just had to do the rest.
The lord had been waiting on the museum’s roof right above the window, and once the hunter was being kept busy outside, he jumped down and landed perfectly in the room, while stylishly moving back his hair. He loved putting on a show.
“Good evening, ladies, gentlemen and any who might fall in between. This is the part where I would like all of you to surrender and maybe just stand in that corner over there if it isn’t too much of an inconvenience for you all,” the villain had announced himself to the guards that were still in the room.
"You're completely outnumbered, you know that, right?" one of the police officers with an extra shiny badge, probably the highest rank in the room, scoffed.
"I see the hard way it is," Lord Goldsmith just shrugged as he threw a little red cube in front of the officer that had just talked to him. Once the cube hit the ground, it seemed to open, shooting a net out towards the officer, trapping him and anyone in his immediate perimeter against the closest wall.
"Now I have enough cubs for everyone, but if you don’t really want to be involved, this is the moment where you should just stand down," Goldsmith once again encouraged the guards, and this time around a lot of them just gave up or even left. The few remaining ones that didn’t were quickly trapped by the villain. He didn't even have to break a sweat.
Once that was done, Lord Goldsmith lazily strolled over to the exposed jewellery and took out the bag he had brought along to steal it. The bag even matched the rest of his outfit, as it was the same red tone as the shirt he was currently wearing. He quickly pulled out his phone and took a selfie of him with the bag in front of the jewellery; he would post it on his socials later to commemorate the heist. After he put his phone back in his pocket, he put the jewellery in the bag before heading over to the window to join in fighting the hunter.
The third part of the plan was done as well; he had gotten the jewellery and made sure that the security had a lot fewer numbers than before. Now all that was left to do was mess with some heroes and reunite with Pyro and the Beast before leaving all together. And the rest would all be handled by the witch.
When Goldsmith arrived on the scene of the beast and hunters' fight, both seemed slightly out of breath but otherwise mostly unharmed and not seriously injured. Their powers were evenly matched, so it was about time someone tipped the odds.
“Hey, cutie~” Goldsmith fake flirted with the hero, as he swiftly used his advantage of the other not knowing that he was there to kick the hunter to the ground in front of him.
The hero let out a small yelp upon impact before swiftly moving to be standing and ready to parry another attack. "Lovely of you finally to join, Goldy. And here I almost thought I wouldn’t get to see your pretty face today.“
"What can I say? A man doesn’t simply arrive at the function without the right accessories, now does he?" the villain remarked with a smirk.
"Great, you got the jewellery; can we leave now?" the beast said, sounding annoyed and as if this whole thing was just a big inconvenience to him, which it probably was.
"Pyro isn't here yet," Goldsmith tutted, causing the other to let out a sigh.
The hero tried to use their distraction to land a hit that the beast immediately countered. The hunter was thrown back, and Goldsmith threw a red cube in front of him with a wink. Before the hero had any time to react, he found himself trapped in the net trap that the cube contained.
"You look great tied up like that, right at my mercy~," Goldsmith cooed at the hero, much to the beast's annoyance. The other villain knew that his friend had no actual feelings in his heart for the hero, but he still hated the flirty villain persona he put on. It was really annoying and nothing like he actually was.
"Not half as good as I imagine you in handcuffs looking," the hero retorted with a stupid, almost love-struck smile. Another reason why the beast hated the man was that he actually liked the persona that his friend was putting on. And acted like an absolute idiot whenever Goldsmith was around.
"Let’s go; I trapped the detective in the generator room for now, but I'm not sure how long that will stick," Pyro said as he arrived on the scene. Finally relieving the beast of the misery that was his current situation.
"Great, we're leaving,“ the beast declared.
"So sorry, but I guess your fantasies will have to wait, hunter. But hey, it seems you’ve got a front-row seat to watching us get away with yet another glorious heist." Goldsmith said with a flirty little wave before reuniting with his teammates and leaving the scene and a really flustered hero behind. Due to his restraints, the hunter could do nothing but watch as all three villains got away, once again.
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When the three villains arrived at their secret lair after taking the extra long way there at Goldsmith's suggestion, just in case someone was following, of course. The beast was more than done with his friends for the day.
„Great, now that we're finally here, I can change and leave,“ Owen said tiredly after taking off his concealment charm.
"Not so fast, mister." Scott stopped him by standing in his way after also removing his charm. "We still have to look over our heist loot."
Owen sighed before continuing in a tired and sad manner, "Look, Scott, I know you’re excited about this fancy stuff, but I'm not, and I still have to call the museum director that we just robbed to… I don’t even know what anymore."
"That's exactly why this is so important. Shelby has something that you definitely will want to see." Scott reassuringly said as he took Owen’s right hand in reassurance while Jack walked over to the left to take Owen’s other hand while leading him to the meeting room.
"Fine, but I swear if this is a waste of time." Owen gave up. There was no way out of this anyway.
"Is everything ready, Shelby?" Jack asked when they got to the door of the meeting room before entering it.
"Yep, everything’s perfect; please come in." Shelby sounded extremely excited from inside the room. Almost like she was about to unveil a surprise birthday party.
Scott and Jack encouraged Owen to open the door, seemingly sharing a bit of Shelby's excitement. Once Owen stepped into the room, he saw it. On the meeting table there lay a painting of a castle in the woods. A painting that Owen immediately recognised, Louis’s painting.
Before his lover’s tragic death, Louis had been a painter and an amazing one at that. He had gifted this piece that he was very proud of to the museum, telling Owen that he always wanted to inspire people with his art. It had proudly hung on the museum’s walls for multiple years now, as the previous owner was a friend of Louis and wanted to honour his memory. Owen had gone to the museum almost every week to see it, as it made him feel close to the love he had lost.
About a month ago, though, when he had gone to see the painting, it was gone. The museum had recently changed directors, as the previous one retired, and the new one was not as appreciative of the art of local artists as the old one had been. He closed the whole exhibit, and when Owen had enquired about the whereabouts of the painting, he was told that that trash that had been occupying the museum’s space had probably been disposed of. He had believed the painting was destroyed after that.
Owen, along with a lot of the other artists or their closest people whose pieces had been in the exhibition, had tried to do something, but as the pieces were donated to the museum and the new director turned out to be a really influential guy, the authorities did nothing. He had been trying for weeks to find something he could do, losing sleep over the matter even, and now the painting was in front of him in one perfect piece.
Owen hadn’t even noticed the tears that had started running down his cheeks when he breathed out, "How?"
"That was the actual reason for our heist today,“ Jack said.
"Yeah, it was Scott’s idea," Shelby added.
"Well, when you told me about the whole thing, I knew that the guy was lying about having gotten rid of the art; in case he would be put in legal trouble, he still needed it for now to have a security to fall back on. So I asked Jack to do some digging on where they kept it," Scott explained.
"I reported back that information, and we came up with a plan to steal the art back, but Shelby was the one to actually do it," Jack continued the explanation.
"It wasn’t only me. All I did was sneak into the building as a security guard. You guys turned off the security system that locked the storage where the art was kept and created enough of a distraction so that I could load it all into a truck to get it back to the hideout; it’s currently in the garage filled with all of the other artists' artworks," Shelby finished the explanation.
"You guys did all of that for…“ Owen cut himself up with a sub.
"Of course we did; it wasn’t fair to all of those great artists to begin with,“ Shelby said.
"Plus, it was important to you, which makes it important to us,“ Scott added.
"And no rich nobody disrespects Louis like that!" Jack added.
"We might not have had the chance to properly meet him, but he still is one of us, and if you mess with one of us, you mess with us all," Scott told Owen as he placed a hand on his shoulder to try and comfort him.
"Thank you. Thank all of you. You’re the best friends I could have ever wished for.” Owen cried a few more happy tears with the biggest smile on his face while pulling his friends into a big hug. That was immediately returned by Shelby, closely followed by the others as well. They all stayed like that for a while before pulling apart.
"You want us to help bring this masterpiece back to your apartment?" Jack offered up his assistance.
Owen looked at all of his friends for a moment before answering, "No. Louis wanted his art to be seen by people, especially those that were important." He turned to Scott before continuing, "Do you think there might be a good place for it somewhere in the hideout?“
Scott seemed stunned for a second, probably because he wasn’t used to Owen showing any kind of affection, especially not this openly. "Yeah… absolutely, I think I know just the place. How about we put it at the end of the hallway where you can see it every time you enter the hideout?“
"Wait, didn't you say that the room's layout would make that the perfect spot for a special painting, like a main piece?" Jack hesitantly asked.
"It is. So are you guys going to help hang this up or what?" Scott asked with a smile.
"You're going to make this take ages because you want it in a super specific position, aren't you?“ Owen asked in a joking manner.
"Of course he is. He is Scott the perfectionist, after all." Shelby giggled before seeming to remember something and asking, "Ohh, by the way, you know who the rightful owners of each piece are, right? Because we still have, like, a truck full of amazing art to return tomorrow."
"I have a list," Owen said with a fond smile. As he and Jack started moving Louis’s painting to the hallway.
The next few hours of the evening were filled with Scott meticulously correcting the painting's placement, while Owen and Jack were complaining that it was perfectly fine already, with Shelby cheering them on from the side. Once they were done, Shelby convinced the others to have a sleepover at the hideout, which obviously included a pillow fight and snacks, and they even convinced everyone to do each other's nails. Even Owen joined this time, secretly even liking the black nails Shelby had painted him. And when Owen finally went to sleep at the edge of the cuddle pile that had somehow happened, he felt at home. He loved his teammates, his friends, his coven.