Thief in the Night
Ch. 1
Rousing Chaos
Eight o'clock. It was closing time for a small jewelry store. The manager came out of the back room, letting out a loud sigh of irritation. There had been barely any customers all day, mostly due to people being scared of going outside due to attacks going on lately. People assumed that since this was a jewelry store, it would happen to them at one point soon.
"Closing time." the manager simply said as the three other workers that were there locked jewelry boxes. "Less customers than yesterday."
"If people think they're gonna blow up the first step they take in here, they're stupid." one of the employees muttered under his breath as he locked the last case. He turned, seeing the lights being turned off and keys being grabbed. Everyone was eager to go home, especially with such a slow day.
"Heard that." a female worker answered as she grabbed her jacket off the coat rack in the corner. She zipped it up, looking towards the male employee who had muttered. "People can be dumb, huh?"
"Let's just go home." another employee grumbled as he turned off the last set of lights. "I have more important things waiting than an empty shop and stupid New Yorkers."
"Downers." the manager sighed, walking past the female. He was about to grab his own coat when he saw a group of guys standing outside the door. There were about ten of them, each of them earring white, plain masks that you'd find at a party store. Black or brown jackets were zipped up to their necks and hoods were over their heads and he could see gloves over their hands. Their whole appearance was hidden. Interesting.
"Sorry, guys." he said, grabbing his jacket. "Store's closed. We'll be open again at seven."
The men continued to stand there, not saying or doing anything. The manager of the store grew nervous. Something told him these weren't just normal citizens, that they were much worse than that. The group stepped forward into the store, causing the manager to take a few steps back out of their way to avoid them.
"Look, I said come back tomorrow." he said, adding firmness to his voice. Maybe this would get them to go away. He saw one of the guys shake his head and the nervous feeling inside him grew larger and larger till he knew something was definitely up. He slowly moved his hand to his pocket to grab his cell phone, but, before he could grasp it, he heard a click and a gasp from one of his employees. A gun was pointed straight at his head, the man's finger on the trigger, threatening to pull it at any given moment.
"Give us all your money and jewels!" he said. His voice was deep, almost like he was using a voice disguiser. He saw the workers hesitate and he pressed his gun to the manager's forehead, making the manager cringe at the cold feeling of the barrel. "Do it now! You have sixty seconds!"
The employees scattered about, dumping the necklaces and earrings and bracelets into a bag one of the masked men held. Another ran to the cash register, dumping all the money in, though, there wasn't much since people mostly paid with credit cards. By the end of the sixty seconds, all the jewelry and cash was inside the bag. The man tied it closed, nodding his head towards one of the other guys.
"Good." the man said, letting out a soft chuckle as he slowly lowered the handgun off of the manager's forehead. "Now, if you'll excuse us, we'll be on our way now. Do not call the cops, you hear me?" He then ran out the back, the other nine men following close behind.
Everyone stared in shock at the backdoor, still surprised by what had just happened.
"What...what just…" the female whispered, staring wide eyed at the door she'd just seen the group of men run out of. Everything had happened so quickly. In just a matter of almost two minutes, all their money was gone, all their jewels were gone and criminals had made a getaway. She then turned her head quickly when she heard one of the male employees gasp.
"Hear that ticking?" he said, keeping his voice low as he looking from side to side, trying to find the source of the noise. The manager then looked over too, wondering the same thing. Pretty soon, everyone was searching.
"David!" the female shouted, looking over at the manager. "The ticking! It's a bomb! The men planted a bomb!"
And she was correct. Everyone stared in horror at the small, black box near the front door, now reading thirty seconds and counting. "Run!" the manager- or David- shouted, pointing to the front door urgently. "We need to get out! This place is going to blow!"
Everyone rushed out near the front door, getting about twenty feet from the building. When they came out, they noticed that there were multiple news reporters, since someone was interviewing a restaurant owner until someone else reported hearing shouting at the jewelry store. The reporters ran towards them, wanting to throw all kinds of questions at them. That was until a loud boom sounded.
Gasps of horror filled the air as the building exploded. A few ducked down, avoiding flying rubble from the explosion. The ground shook slightly, and people let out screams of shock. The workers of the store stood, surprise and shock and horror written in their faces as they saw their bosses' most favorite place, his store, burning with the bright, orange flames.
"Go, go!" Mikey shouted, pumping his fist in the air with excitement. "Beat him!" The silly cartoon played on the screen for the third time that week, making Leo and Raph avoid watching it, even though they could see the television clearly from where they sat. The man, also known as Crognard, was about to defeat an alien of some kind. Crognard raised his sword, and, with a yell, he brought it down on the alien's head and then turned to the "camera", giving a grin of triumph.
"Yeah!" Mikey cheered, pumping both fists now. "Go Crognard!" He laid on his plastron, kicking his feet in the air behind him like a kid. "Time to go beat more aliens!"
"How many times have you watched that?" Leo asked, crossing one leg over the other.
"Says the one who hogs the TV with Space Heros!" Mikey retorted, glancing back over his shoulder briefly as he stuck out his tongue in a teasing way.
Leo glared as he heard Mikey laugh and glanced over at Raph, who was on a beanbag, covering his face with his magazine to hide the fact that he was snickering as well. Leo sighed, looking back at the television, despite his little interest in the show since he'd already seen it. Crognard was about to run into a battle when he heard Donnie run out of his lab.
"Guys!" Donnie shouted urgently, holding his T-phone tightly in his hand as he ran. "Guys! Turn on the news right now!"
"Aw, but why?" Mikey whined, throwing his head back in protest. "Crognard was about to-"
"There's another robbery going on!" Donnie interrupted as he quickly sat down. "It could be those guys again! Hurry, change it!"
"Okay, okay, geez!" Mikey muttered as he fumbled the remote in his hands, clumsily clicking the channel button with his large thumb. "Chill out, bro." But, secretly, he was some-what panicky, especially since he found out that these guys have been roaming around the past two days, blowing up stores of higher value. If this was another attack, they'd have to do something for sure. As soon as he changed the station, a news reporter was in the middle of speaking.
"...say that they heard shouts in this jewelry store." the lady said calmly. "They have said they saw a group of guys walk into this store. However, they didn't get to see their appearance."
A few gasps then filled the air when it was seen through the glass door of the shop that one of the guys put a handgun to the owner's head.
"It appears that they are using force to-" But she then stopped as she saw the employees scattering about, dumping contents from the shop into a large bag one of the guys held. "Could these be the men who've shown up in these past few days? For those of you who don't know, these guys, who people call the "Swift Terrorists", they-" She then stopped again when she saw the guys run out the back, leaving the employees and the manager or owner to stand there.
The reporter stayed silent, watching the people turn their heads around as if they were looking for something. She then saw everyone run out the front, surprised how quickly they got out of there. She saw other reporters racing towards them, microphones out, desperate to know what exactly happened in there. This reporter knew exactly what was up, so she stayed and looked at everyone in the crowd of reporters and shouted, "It's another attack!". But they didn't listen.
Suddenly, gasps and screams filled the air as an explosion came from the building and the turtles let out gasps of their own. They saw the building in flames, flaming rubble falling frequently, and the reporter couldn't help but have a shocked expression plastered on her face.
"This appears to be yet another attack by the "Swift Terrorists"!" she shouted over the roar of the mighty flames. "Whatever you do, do not go outside! Stay in your homes, I repeat, stay in your-"
Mikey then shut off the television, tired of hearing about so much doom and gloom. The four brothers stared at the television as if trying to decipher what has just happened. Raph looked over to the leader, who was still staring ahead. It is almost as if he could see the wheels turning in his mind, trying to figure out what to do about the chaos topside.
"Well, what should we do?" he asked, crossing his arms. "It's been three days! These guys can NOT cause anymore trouble!"
Leo snapped out of his thoughts, turning to his brothers slowly. "We go out." he replied. "But not tonight. The deed's already been done."
"So, when?" Raph asked, raising an eyebrow. "Tomorrow?"
"That's exactly when." Leo answered with a nod of his head. "Donnie, you said there was a pattern of when they go out, right?"
"There sure is." Donnie nodded. "They seem to be going to the shops at about eight o'clock every night, which is every twenty four hours."
Leo nodded his head, knowing that they'd most likely be in another store at eight. "Where have the already attacked?"
"The first store they bombed was a video game store." Donnie replied. "They stole all the video games and the consoles and then took the money and blew up the place so there wouldn't be evidence. It was in a shopping strip, so the two buildings on either side of it got partial damage. No injuries, though, thank goodness."
"The second one?"
"The second one was a technology shop full of computers and hard drives...oh those poor computers." Donnie then cleared his throat in an awkward manner when he saw his brothers staring at him. "Anyway, they managed to steal about three fourths of the stuff before they heard police sirens about a mile away. So, they placed a bomb and ran out without being spotted."
"And today was the jewelry store…" Leo sighed, glancing towards the television again. "These guys seem pretty stealthy for gang members…no wonder they're called the "Swift Terrorists". They get in and get out."
Donnie nodded his head at Leo's thinking and then waited for Leo to say something else.
"Where do you think they'll go next?" Leo asked him. He was worried, especially for the safety of their human friends, April and Casey. If they were at a location just in time for the robbery...
"Well, they seem to be going to shops of higher value each time." Donnie concluded. "If you think like them, they may go to a bridal shop and steal all the expensive dresses and tuxes. Or, knowing their thinking so far, they'd probably jump right ahead to the bank."
Leo paused. The bank? Now things were getting serious. If they robbed the bank, all hell would break loose in New York, and, even worse, millions of dollars would be lost. They couldn't let that happen. He let out a soft sigh, standing to his feet slowly. "Okay," he said. "We NEED to head out tonight, or else bad things will definitely happen."
"So we're going out tomorrow night, right?" Raph asked him.
Leo nodded his head, glancing at all of his brothers and the television before he spoke again. "Sounds like a plan." he answered. "We'll get out an hour before they rob, catch them and then leave them for the cops."
His brothers all nodded their heads, looking at each other. Raph smirked, glad to beat up some scum again.
"Alright," he chuckled. "Let's do it."
The group of ten men walked through the halls of a building, trying to find a very specific location to tell of what happened and the success they'd made. The men walked onward for several minutes, talking amongst themselves about what would happen next. But, their chit chat slowly dwindled down when they came across a large door. Two of the guys pushed the heavy door open and everyone else walked inside, the two that opened the door following seconds later.
The men walked into the spacious room, kneeling down on one knee when they were halfway across. They kept their heads down, not wanting to look up, for they may get shouted at by the person sitting above them. They remained silent, waiting for the person to speak.
"I assume you have succeeded or else you would not have come back." the deep voiced man commented, softly drumming his fingers on the large seat he sat in. He smiled from under his helmet he wore upon his head, letting out a low chuckle. "Foot ninjas."
At this, seven of the men looked up at the person, waiting for orders.
"Get out of those street clothes and back into your uniforms."
The ninjas nodded, standing to their feet and bowing in a respectful way before exiting the room. The man on the throne-like chair looked down at the other three men, who still hadn't looked up.
"Take off your masks." the man on the throne commanded.
The three guys nodded, taking off their white masks and setting them by their feet. One of them, known as Fong, let out a chuckle, a smile on his face. "One step closer to getting paid my ten grand, right, Shredder?" the hoodlum asked, glancing at his partners in crime, Tsoi and Sid.
"Correct." Shredder answered, sending a glare down at him from where he sat. "And I suggest you call me "Master" unless you wish to never speak again."
"Uh, y-yes Master Shredder." Fong shuddered, bowing his head in apology.
Shredder nodded his head slowly, leaning back against the backrest of his seat. "Your third mission is complete." he said after a moment of silence. "Tomorrow at the same time you will go to the bank located a few miles from here. You are to steal as much money as you can take and blow up the building afterwards. Do you understand me?"
"Very clear, Master." Fong nodded, flashing a grin. "I bet those stupid turtles are sure to come out soon, huh? Especially since they've probably seen what we've been doin'. They'll soon realize all this bombing is just a distraction..."
"I believe they will." Shredder replied. "If they do not come out tomorrow, we will have to move to heavier measures." He leaned forward. "You and my Foot ninjas will do whatever it costs to make the rat suffer. You made a truce to work with them, did you not?"
"Not saying I'm disagreeing." Fong answered with a shrug of his shoulders. "I'm in it all the way if it means getting rid of those pests that keep ruining our crime getaways."
"Then tomorrow night you will go to where I have said." Shredder leaned back again. "And if that does not work we will move to blowing up larger complexes with more people inside."
"Sounds like a good time." Fong snickered. "And if those turtles come out tomorrow?"
"Then you will capture one. Only one. We will capture them one at a time each day, giving their other brothers feeling of hopeless and despair. They will be so distracted finding the first brother that they won't see attacking the second coming."
"Is this a birth order thing, boss?" Sid asked.
"Exactly." Shredder answered before Fong could. "I assume the blue one is the oldest of the four since he is the leader. Take him first."
"Yes, Master." the three gang members replied in unison, bowing their heads.
"Now go. You head out tomorrow at the same time as today."
The gang members nodded, standing to their feet and heading out the door as Shredder watched them leave, smiling to himself. The fun was about to start.