So, here's the epic finale I promised! This is actually Version 2 of this chapter, with all-new action, excitement, and drama. If you've already read this chapter before February 18, 2013, then you'll want to read this again. As for full details to why I changed this, please read my notes in the epilogue.
Chapter Nine
"…and that about does it!" said Jirokichi happily.
"How does this work?" asked Nakamori, eyeing the strange contraption.
"It's actually pretty simple," said Jirokichi. "The square on the floor is roped off, just like it was at the Ryoma exhibit. However, I've taken the, uh, liberty of adding a few extra traps. First, I've added a weight sensor. If anything goes beyond that rope, I'll know about it. Secondly, high speed cameras are mounted all over the walls to track any and all movement within this room. The best trick of all is that I've installed bars over all the doors and windows that can be closed at the touch of a button. Of course, they're made of solid titanium. Kid can come in, but he can't get out!"
"What about Dark Kid?" asked Sonoko. "He might be ruthless enough to take a hostage or something."
'Oi, oi,' thought Conan as he listened to Jirokichi's boasting. 'Rich men and their money…'
"Agasa-hakase!" Ran exclaimed, her attention caught by the elderly inventor weaving his way through the crowd. "What are you doing here?"
"Oh, uh, Ai-kun wanted to see Kid first-hand. She said something about getting a DNA sample. Right, Ai-kun?"
"That was you, Hakase," Haibara corrected at once. "Now, if you don't mind, it's a bit crowded. I think I'll go outside for some fresh air."
"She's a bit bossy, isn't she?" Nakamori asked. "Oh well, whatever. Old man, I'll need to check to see if you're Kid or not."
"Hakase, how old are you?" Conan piped up. "You look like an old man!"
"How rude! I may look like an old man, but I'm only 53 you know!"
"It's him," said Conan. "Nobody else would say that."
"Whatever," Nakamori shrugged, wandering off.
Once the others had moved away, Agasa said, "Oi, Shinichi, what's up with Ai-kun? She's been acting weird."
"You ought to know, Kaitou Kid-san," said Conan smoothly. "You couldn't have picked a more obvious disguise. You'd need a large frame to carry all those stolen police files around and Haibara has to work on the roof. Even Hakase would know something was up if she suddenly decided to go to a Kid heist and then didn't attend. You don't care, so that means you're Kid."
"Fine; you got me. I've got a plan to get my evil self up on the roof. Just go along with it, OK?"
'Whatever,' Conan thought. He seriously hated working with Kid instead of trying to catch him.
"Oh, it's almost ten," said Kaito, checking his watch. "I'd better call my assistant to kill the lights."
"I thought all three of them were up on the roof," said Conan.
"I mean my real assistant," said Kaito cryptically, winking at Conan, which looked awkward on Agasa's face. He took advantage of Agasa's large bulk to push his way through the crowd of spectators, pulling out a phone as he went.
"It's almost time!" Nakamori yelled at his officers over the clamor. "Get everybody out of the doorway!"
Ran and Sonoko migrated next to Conan in preparation. The crowd started counting down. At 0, the lights went out and there was a puff of smoke, along with the blaring of alarms. A second later, the lights popped back on, revealing stacks of police files in the designated space, all labeled '1412'.
"Calm down; he's still in here somewhere!" Nakamori yelled loudly. "Pinch everyone's face if you have to!"
"Aren't there a bit too few?" Jirokichi asked.
"You're right!" Ran exclaimed. "Kid must still have them!"
"Search everybody who is carrying either a bag or has a large frame!" Nakamori yelled over the clamor.
Suddenly there was a flash of black smoke and Dark Kid stood in the enclosed area, holding a Jirokichi mask in one hand and a trash bag in the other. He began to systematically fill it, keeping the room at bay with a grenade.
If people had been panicking before, it was nothing compared to what they did now. There was practically a stampede as the crowd ran up to the titanium bars to force their way out, but of course they didn't give way until Jii manually opened them from the control room. "Who…are you?" Nakamori asked, keeping his distance but not fleeing, his gaze fixed on Dark Kid. The only others who hadn't fled were the police officers and Conan.
"I'm him," said Dark Kid, pointing at a police officer with wavy hair. "Where are the rest of the files?" he asked. "This isn't what I was promised. Do you want to be responsible for me killing all these people?" He held the grenade up higher, his thumb prepared to rip out the pin.
Kid dropped another smoke bomb before reappearing at the door in full Kid costume. Leaning against the doorframe, he said, "If you want the rest, then why don't you catch me?" He laughed as he ran out, closely pursued by Dark Kid, who looked livid. The cops stayed clear until both thieves had disappeared.
"What now, Nakamori-keibu?" asked a cop.
"We take them both down," Nakamori growled. As he led the way out of the room, the sound of Kid's laughing and Dark Kid's yelling gave them a clear path to follow.
XXX
"Aren't you done yet?" Haibara asked Akako irritably.
"Oh, sure, never mind that Kuroba-kun's silly heist earlier made me bone-tired," Akako retorted, drawing on the roof with red chalk. "Have you two gotten the trap laid yet?"
"Of course. Why do you think we're waiting?" asked Haibara.
"Why don't you just chill out?" Akako asked fiercely. "Go do a science experiment or something."
"You're the one defying the laws of science," Haibara retorted.
"Will you two please just drop it?" Hakuba asked.
"I will if she will," both girls said unanimously.
'I can't believe I'm thinking this, but Kuroba, please hurry up,' Hakuba thought to himself.
"Done!" Akako announced. Hakuba immediately rushed forward and placed the two other bags of police files in the middle of the circle. The bags had been placed on a skateboard, which was tied to a fishing line. Hakuba took the line and ran off across the roof, hiding behind an air vent for the time to spring it. Haibara hid behind a closer vent with a clipboard, interested to observe the coming spectacle. Akako crouched on the other side, ready to perform the necessary spell. They all turned off their flashlights and waited.
The door downstairs suddenly burst open and Kid ran out, closely pursued by Dark Kid. Kid ran past the circle and stopped at the far side, taking care not to tread on Hakuba's line. "As promised, I brought the files." He said, gesturing at the bags before him. Dark Kid stopped running and his eyes narrowed.
"Why didn't you put them all downstairs?" he asked. You wouldn't have had to lead this chase.
"If I'd given them all to you before, you would've run a greater risk of getting caught by the police. Up here, we can have a silent trade-off. Just do it quick before the police catch up with us or else we'll both be in trouble.
"This…is too easy," said Dark Kid. "We both know that. How do I know this isn't a trap?"
"Fine, I'll leave," said Kid. He dropped a smoke bomb and Dark Kid watched as Kid flew away on his hang glider. Dark Kid took another step forward, then stopped. He peered around, almost as if he could see the trap.
'Come on,' Hakuba thought; the hand holding the line was beginning to sweat.
Dark Kid then took a handkerchief out of his pocket and held it in front of him. He watched it blow in the wind for a minute, and then smirked. With absolutely no warning, he suddenly pulled the grenade back out of his cloak and waved it about. "I'm not an idiot, you know. If you don't come out, I'm dropping this off the roof and into the street. The hang glider wasn't going into the wind, which means it's just a dummy. Now…" he was cut off in his rants by the stairwell door bursting open again, revealing Inspector Nakamori, who was red in the face and had a look of pure loathing on his face.
"Freeze!" Nakamori commanded, drawing his gun. Several helicopters lit up the roof with their spotlights, making Dark Kid cover his face from the bright light. Seeing that he probably shouldn't stick around, Dark Kid decided to do a grab and run, forgetting about his suspicions in his haste. The moment he entered the magic circle, Hakuba pulled the files out of the way and the night lit up in red light, outshining the helicopters, the streetlights, and the stars. The only thing that could be seen was the moon, which had turned red.
Kid bounded out from his hiding spot and stood defiantly in front of Dark Kid, who was trying with all his might to escape his prison. "You really are a fool, aren't you?" Kid began. "To think that we'd just roll over for an intruder like you."
"You're the arrogant one," said Dark Kid. Then he pulled his grapple out of his coat, shot it out, and wrapped the rope around Kid. Before Kid could free himself, Dark Kid yanked on it and Kid fell into the circle partway. Dark Kid then grabbed Kid by the wrists and raised him up to eye level. This was more easily achieved since the circle's magic had made Dark Kid rise off the ground. "Don't you see? I never wanted to take your place. I wanted you to join me in a better conquest of the world. We could have all the jewels you could ever want! It would be that much easier to find Pandora! That's one jewel we both want, you know."
There was a silence as everyone stood watching the exchange take place. They were so fixated that nobody noticed Conan come out of the building to join them. Kid broke the silence with something that nobody expected, "As tempted as I am by that offer, I'm doing just fine on my own, thank you very much. Maybe you should just go home and sell out your propaganda there." He shoved Dark Kid away, fell down on the ground, and yelled, "Do it!"
The trap wasn't for him, so he made to leap out of the way, but just as Akako opened the rift, Dark Kid suddenly grabbed Kid's cape and began dragging him in. A look of terror came over Kid's face as he slowly began rising upwards. In an unprecedented move, Nakamori suddenly ran forward and jumped on Kid, grabbing him by the legs. Then his real motives came to light as he yelled to the other cops. "Give me a hand here! We can't let the bxstxard escape!" Instantly, all the other cops ran forward and dogpiled them, but even that wasn't enough. It slowed down the ascent almost completely, but they were still moving upwards and Dark Kid wasn't letting go.
Conan, utilizing his split second judgment yet again, whipped out his stretchy suspenders, looped one end around a jutting pipe and the other around himself. Then he leaped right into the pileup, hitting the button once he had a firm grip. The force of the suspenders was the extra edge they needed. The ascent stopped completely. Dark Kid, finally losing his grip, sailed upwards through the dimensional rift, yelling, "NOOOO!" until his voice faded.
After Dark Kid was gone, everyone fell to the ground, exhausted. Kid, as per his normal style, slipped out of the pileup and flew away, prompting the helicopters to give chase and Nakamori to race off back down the stairs in hot pursuit, with several cops lugging the bags of files behind them.
The four people left gathered at the remains of the circle. Akako began, "We might be at odds with each other, but despite them, we worked together and put Dark Kid in his place. However, we were forced to share secrets with each other that all of us probably didn't want to. Therefore…" She pulled something out of her pocket, dropped it on the ground, and the world went black.
XXX
'Where am I?' Conan thought to himself, opening his eyes and looking around. In the light of the crescent moon, he could see he was still on the museum's roof. Then he noticed someone lying next to him. "Haibara!" he exclaimed, shaking her awake.
"Kudo-kun?" she asked dreamily. "What happened?" Then her usual air of suspicion came back. "You didn't do pervy stuff did you?"
"No!" said Conan at once, shuffling backwards. Then they were both distracted by a figure across the roof. "Kid!" Conan exclaimed again.
Although he didn't know it, it wasn't Kid, but Akako, flying away on her broomstick with Hakuba. She thought to herself, 'For Kuroba-kun to finally become captivated by me, I can't have a pint-sized detective remembering who he is. This one though,' she looked back at Hakuba, 'this one doesn't need any assistance.'
I hope that was epic enough for you guys. It also prevents the canon from getting disrupted. If anybody wants to draw Dark Kid, then go right ahead. Just be sure to credit me since I created the character.
Next chapter will be the last. It'll be the wrap-up stuff. It'll be sort of humorous, but it's main purpose is to tie up a final loose end and to explain why this chapter is a V2.
