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Prologue
I'm sorry to say that this is the final part
of Thief... True, Viper has succeeded in parting the Rainbow Swirly Thing from
the museum, but he still has to get it to Constrictor in hopes that me and Raven
haven't suffocated yet... And to make it worse, he's in the furnace system right
now... that can't get him on Constrictor's good side...
Not willing to risk the bars clashing and banging,
the mutant decided to melt them away with the laser rather than remove them
by hand. It worked rather well for a bit, but suddenly a small drop of melted
metal fell off the side of the vent pipe, and dripped right onto Constrictor's
forehead. The Shoyru yelped and slapped his forehead with his long tail, not
so much from pain but from shock. Viper tried to get out of the way as Constrictor
looked upwards, but it was no good: he was stuck. When he spotted him, Constrictor's
jaw dropped. He was stunned and that was good enough for Viper. He began to
flail madly and at last, came loose, and tumbled through the hole. His forepaws
hit Constrictor's chest and knocked the chair backwards. The laser fell to the
ground, exploding into a billion pieces, but the screwdriver caught in between
two of the untouched bars and the Rainbow Swirly Thing now hung, slowly spinning
by its chain on the screwdriver's arrowhead-like tip.
For a few seconds, Viper stood squarely, holding
Constrictor down, when all of a sudden, the Serpent Thieves' leader did something
like a backwards roll and flung Viper off with his feet. The Shoyru flipped
up to his feet, while Viper did several flips in mid-air before slamming into
the back wall. The Lupe slid down the wall and landed on his back with a dull
thunk. Slowly he stirred and opened his eyes.
Quickly, the leader pulled out a seven-inch
blade and held it to his betrayer's throat with his tail. "Did you think that
you could truly outfox me?"
"Yep," Viper smirked. "And I still can!" he
yelled, kicking at Constrictor's feet. His Lupe Shin-kick hit its target and
the Shoyru was knocked off his feet. The dagger bit into Viper's neck slightly,
but no serious damage was done. Without delay, Viper grabbed him by the front
of his suit and knocked him against the table. He fell to the ground, senseless.
Convinced that he was unconscious, Viper climbed onto the table and pulled down
the artefact from the screwdriver. Viper placed it around his neck, got down
from the table, and padded over to a nearby table.
Someone heard all the comotion and ordered several
police be sent to the Sand Bottling Inc. building, no questions asked. He then
saw that Einstein and Raven were still out-cold on the floor, but this time
he noticed something different. In the corner of the table there was a small
map. According to the map, it seemed that the closet or room or whatever Raven
and Einstein were in, was just next door to the office. Viper gulped, eyeing
the door a bit fearfully. He was ready to bet the amulet around his neck that
the moment he left the room, he would be bowled over by a guard or something
like that.
Nevertheless, he stepped up to the door, his
broken shoulder numb with pain from the fall, and nudged it open a crack. The
hall was well lit, lined with many a door, but it was empty of Neopets and people.
Relieved, Viper opened the door completely, crept out of the office, and shut
it again. On the map, it showed that the room was to his right, and sure enough,
on his right side was a large steel door with more locks than the Rainbow Swirly
Thing's case. Fortunately, they were all but one key locks. The other was a
finger (or paw) print activated lock. Viper gave a vexed growl. He was getting
seriously frustrated with all these locks.
Like at the museum, he unlocked each of the
six key locks with his super-sharp claw and unlatched them. Now only one lock
remained. Viper flexed the talons on his right paw for a few seconds before
slashing them at the fingerprint pad. He dug them in and then tore the lock
away. Without warning, the bright lights began flashing red and an ear-splitting
alarm sounded. From either side of the hall came about ten agents. They were
about to draw their specialised Frost Cannons when a new alarm filled the air.
Police sirens. Through a window on the far wall, Viper could see red and blue
light flashing in.
The Serpent Thieves stopped dead in their tracks
as a team of cops, armoured with bulletproof material, ran in, each one carrying
a Zaptwig. The officers were in the process of arresting the agents when what
looked to be the police in charge stepped through the crowd. It was Officer
Cooper.
"You!" he snarled threateningly as he walked
up to Viper who was standing innocently by the steel door. "What kind of stunt
is this?" He pointed at the Rainbow Swirly Thing that was hanging around his
neck. "So it was you who stole that! Oooo... this is not looking good for your
record, nosiree, it ain't!" taunted the officer. "First you're arrested for
stealing the Darkness Scarab, then you do a runner, and now we catch you after
you stole the Rainbow Swirly Thing and-"
"Look! You don't understand! You-" Viper was
interrupted by the Buzz.
"We understand perfectly well!" he grinned.
"You destroyed the career of the most notorious thief on Neopia and for that,
we are sorry, and we'd also like to thank you!"
Viper cocked his head. "How do you know?"
"Your plan went on without a hitch... except
for one minor flaw," explained the cop. "One of the guards saw and recognised
the mark on the wall of the museum. Long and squiggly and just like a snake,
he'd seen it once before in a museum that he'd previously worked at, just after
a robbery. So he contacted us immediately, and when we got there, we found your
captors lying unconscious round back of the museum. Soon they regained consciousness
and, after threatening them with a bit of jail time, they told us everything."
He stepped up closer to Viper. "Allegron, we'd like to give you your job back
with the NSA."
Once again, Viper cocked his head. "Wha-"
"I'm actually not with the NCPD, but really
with the NSA. I-I was the one who fired you thirteen years ago."
The Lupe shook his head, remembering what Constrictor
had said earlier. "I'm happy as a family pet, not a secret agent."
To Viper's surprise, Cooper turned to a Zafara
officer and pointed mockingly at him. "Ha! Who called it!"
"What?" asked Viper.
Cooper turned to him. "Heh, heh... I knew you
were gonna refuse-they all do-but Marrot thought otherwise. So we made a little
bet and uh, I won! Where did it land him? One thousand Neopoints poorer! Ha,
ha, ha!"
"So you didn't actually mean it when you asked
me?"
Cooper nodded. "Pretty much. You may have caught
some thief master, but you still stole the Rainbow Swirly Thing, and that's
certainly not going to get you your job back! It may get you a few years behind
bars, though!" The moment he said that, a Tuskaninny officer came out of the
office with the unconscious ex-leader of the Serpent Thieves in his hands, er,
flippers. Then, suddenly Viper heard a slamming on the metal door. Everyone
turned to see what was happening. For several seconds the banging ceased, but
then without warning, there was a loud crash and Einstein and Raven tumbled
out.
Puzzled, they looked around at the lights flashing,
the police carrying away agents, and Viper and Cooper just standing there.
"Uh..." started Raven, standing up. "What happened?"
Viper laughed. "Later, Raven. Later."
Epilogue
So now you know about Viper's forgotten identity you must swear that you
will never reveal this information to anyone else! ... I am sorry to announce
that my files will be down for a while, but rest assured, I would never leave
you with a cliff-hanger such as this without a sequel!
The End
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