Chapter Three
Tuesday, 12:00 o'clock PM, 1st of
January
Mmm, it was good to be back.
No where else in the world were
people more wealthy and corrupt.
Aspiration was my home away from
home.
It was a city in a perpetual state of
chaos, and without chaos, how could an honest thief make a living?
After directing
First stop; the
bank. Call me
greedy, but I always took great delight in looking at all those zeroes.
Pausing, I stopped at a street
corner, looking out for signs to make sure I was heading in the right
direction.
"Hey you! Learn how to drive!"
"Shut the fuck up!"
"Come over here and say
that, you little wimp!"
The language of the Islanders was as
colourful as ever. A crowd of people charged down the street, sweeping me off
with them.
It was the perfect opportunity to
give my extraordinary expertise some work. With fingers as nimble as mine,
there was no chance in hell that I'd get caught.
"Hey
mister!" Said a pudgy little boy, tugging on the
sleeve of the tall business man who'd been my latest victim, "She just
took your wallet!"
My jaw dropped open, "YOU
LITTLE...." But before I could strangle the brat till he was
black and blue, he cried; "Aah! She's gonna hurt me! Mommy!" and ran behind an overweight
lady in a sun-dress. He peeked out from behind her legs, a triumphant grin
planted on his chubby face.
"He's right!" The business
man declared, "My wallet's missing!"
A gasp ran through the crowd.
"Oh come on people," I
pleaded, as twenty or so enraged faces cornered me into, yes, you got it, a
corner. "This is Aspiration, it's not like you've never been
robbed before!"
"Get her!”
"Aaaah!" I bolted.
I flew down the street, a stampede of
raging lunatics hot on my heels.
Zoom!
Hah! I laughed maniacally. I was
unstoppable! A
Whoomph!
"NOOOO!" I tripped, and fell flat on my face.
What a way to ruin a grand escape.
I dug out my lucky starmie scale, kissing it fervently, “Come on lady luck, don’t bail on me today!”
Shadows loomed above me, as I lay on
the ground. Lips puckered, I froze, “Uh, hi.”
"There she is."
"Well duh." I mumbled.
"What do we do with her?"
"Nothing that
hurts." I
suggested.
They yanked me to my feet, "Give
me back my wallet." The business man demanded.
Grudgingly, I handed him my prize and
replied lamely, "There was nothing interesting in there anyway."
Death stare.
I grinned weakly.
"Get the hell out of here."
I was pushed out of the crowd and hurled to the street. Brushing myself off
snootily, I shouted, "Well fine! If that's the
way you wanna be! The tourism industry is goin' down if you people are gonna
be this rude." And with a gesture of arrogance, defiance and
superiority, I wheeled on my heel, chin up, and marched down the street, my
pockets filled with their jewellery, watches and keys. As soon as I turned the
corner, I bolted.
I wouldn’t be so lucky next time.
* *
*
I punched in my pin number and waited
for the ATM machine to receive it. Numbers appeared on the green screen.
Please enter the amount you wish to
transact.
I pushed in the numbers, 2, 0, 0.
Two hundred bucks. Mmmm, money.
Do you want a receipt?
Yes of course I did. I waited for the
machine to think before it spluttered out a pair of crisp green hundred dollar
notes. A little white piece of paper popped out of the tiny slit just above the
screen.
Sliding the notes delicately into my
wallet so as not to crease them, I studied the receipt.
My eyes narrowed.
What the?
Seven thousand dollars was missing.
Howling in frustration, I scattered
the pigdeys clambered on the street that an old lady
was feeding. She looked up startled.
I took no notice, literally seeing
red. There was only one gang who had access to my account details, and that was
because they practically owned the bank.
The Poppinjenellos
bandits!
And furthermore, how could they
expect me not to find out?!
“Those idiots!” I clenched my jaw, stamped my feet
and glared furiously at the ATM machine. Counting to ten, I took several deep
breathes, calming down considerably. In my minds eyes, I gleefully envisioned
what I could do to them. If they wanted to act like bastards, two could play at
that game.
"Eeek! There's no need to be hostile!" I yelped.
The blue haired big-bosomed girl
fixed me with an infuriating glare. "Get out of my face."
I held up my hands in surrender,
"No problemo!"
Turning, I headed towards the front
of the brightly lit arcade. Games and machines of all types lay clustered
around the room.
While Tempest was out bragging about
her deeds, I’d decided to take up the opportunity and socialise.
"Hey
there!" I
winked at a pretty little blonde girl sitting at a round table by the window.
She glowered at me.
Sheesh! What was wrong with these people?
Didn't they know the hottest guy to ever walk into their lives had just arrived
in the big city?
I shook my head, "It must be the
smog."
Oooh!! Now that's something you don't see
very often!
She was beautiful. Her hair was an auburn red, glinting beneath the arcades lights. More
importantly however, she was alone, leaning against the drinks and food bar.
I trotted over to her, flashing a
devastating grin, "Hey there, heaven must be missing an angel."
She gave me an amused smile, what a
pretty little thing. "Hi, you're the new guy. A breaker of hearts, or say
they say."
I winked, "I can’t please
everyone."
"You’re kinda cute, and you’re
so little!"
I stopped, mouth hanging open. Now
that couldn't be right. "Uh well.... I’m in town for a few days, how’s
about you and me hook up sometime?”
She thought about it, "Oh I dunno,
I've got a reputation to uphold."
"C'mon!" I wheedled,
"What do you think?"
"I think many things." She
replied obscurely, smoothing back her lustrous scarlet hair.
"Please?"
"Um…"
"Pretty
please?"
“I donno…
You’re kinda small.”
"O.K that's
IT!!!"
WHAM!
The door of the arcade flung open!
And guess who charged through like a
rampaging Tauros?
Tempest, who else?
She stood in the doorway, outlined
against the outside. Her fists clenched, steam practically rose from her ears,
"I have had enough of this place!"
I cringed, for such a small person
she had strong lungs. Please don't come near me,
please don't come near me...
She stormed towards me.
Ah crap!
"You have NO idea how
annoying these people are!" She exclaimed, infuriated.
"Uh.... Tempest?"
"If there weren't a law around
this place, I'd fry, sizzle, and freeze everyone!"
"Um..."
"NOBODY knows who I am!"
I gulped, "Tempest?"
"WHAT!?"
"If you don't keep it down,
we'll get kicked out."
"Oh
yeah!!!??"
I winced, "Yeah."
She screamed and poked me painfully
in the chest, "That's it! I've had enough of you too!"
What? What did I do? I cast a fearful
glance at the red head, whose eyes had grown wide with astonishment.
"We're taking this outside you
bloody Banana Bender!"
Oh man!
It loomed against the smog filled
sky. Tall and dirty. It was a structure that had been
renovated more than a zillion times. On the second floor was the Poppinjenellos hideout. It was surprising they hadn't been
found out yet, the entire building reeked with dirty
deeds and secret morally corrupt meetings.
Anger boiled up inside me. I'll show
the bastards what happens when someone steals from
Deciding to make a grand entrance, I
kicked open the door.
It stubbornly remained shut.
Swearing, I dragged my huge weapon
behind me, opting for the more stealthier
approach.
I turned the handle and let myself
in. Unable to contain my rage however, I slammed the door shut. Customers and
waiters looked up in surprise.
"What are you looking at?” I
challenged as I barraged through them.
I located the red carpeted staircase
in the corner of the expensive restaurant, and stormed up there like a one man
army. My weapon of mass destruction clunked as it hit each stair.
"Excuse me miss! But you can't
go up there!" Protested a tubby woman in a dirty apron.
“Just watch me, bi-atch!"
I made my way to the first door on
landing. Pausing, I took a deep breath, and; CRASH!!!!
Totally obliterated the door with my
giant sledgehammer!
Which I had funnily enough, found on
the side of the road outside just waiting to be used as a weapon. I guess lady
luck wasn’t really ignoring me after all!
Five unshaven men playing poker
around a round wooden, jumped up startled.
"Oh fuck! It's
I grinned.
"Look, we can explain!"
“I’m listening.” I dropped the
sledgehammer and stampeded in, I charged towards the table, and, in the midst
of my tantrum, kicked it over angrily. It crashed against one of the bare
walls. Cards and coloured chips spilled across the floor.
“Did you really expect me not to
notice seven thousand bucks gone?”
A bald man scrambled for the door, I
nimbly stepped in front of him and rammed my fist into his ugly head. He
collapsed to the ground, moaning, blood pouring from his busted lip.
Whoomph!
Down went a guy in suspenders! I
turned, and a right hook connected with an audible crack into the side
of a someone’s head!
“Please
I cornered a tanned, wrinkled guy
against a wall, his hair slicked back with gel.
“Oh really? And when were planning on giving it
back? Never?”
WHACK!!!
I head butted him, breaking his nose,
and drove my fist into his bulging gut with an uppercut, the whole force of my
hips and legs behind it and watched in satisfaction as he slumped, unconscious
against the wall.
I spat on his crumpled form, “Tell
your boss he can shove his Jacuzzis where the sun don’t shine.”
"Uh, uh,
uh."
Whimpering sounded from across the room. I whirled around, eyes flaring.
A short stocky man, unclean and
messy, his beer gut pouting from the bottom of his chequered shirt, flattened
himself against the single window in the bare cream coloured room.
"I want my money back." I
demanded, advancing on him like a growlithe advancing
on a potential meal.
"Uh..."
"Tell mister Poppinjinellos
that if all of it is not back in my account, I’m going to return to this
stinking restaurant with dynamite. Then I’m going to mosey on over to
his condo and I’ll be bringing so much explosives I’ll be making sure he
holidays on the moon." I threatened, my voice low
and dangerous.
"EEEK!" Frightened like a captured mouse he shoved
open the window.