Sinful

"Hiccup's father is chief of police but Hiccup finds himself enamored into a life of crime."

Rated T

5,449 Words

Mentioned Stalka

Hiccup, Stoick, Thuggory, Viggo, Dagur, Eret, Ryker

Criminal + Modern AU, Language, Violence, Death

August 1st, 2020

If Hiccup's father wasn't a cop, he probably wouldn't have ended up being a criminal.

Every move he made, every bad thing he did, was just to spite the man that made him loathe his entire life. From when they left town—his mother's town with all his friends and the only father figure he felt he had: Gobber—to when Stoick forced his son into self-defense training because he didn't believe in him, Hiccup felt like his father was ruining his life.

Murderous was a much dirtier place than Berk and, as the name implied, it was heavy in violence. The town always seemed to have some thick smog in the air coming from the factory nearby. The buildings—tall blocks placed closely together in rows—were colorless and looked devoid of life. There was no greenery or plant life and, if you wanted to live, you never went outside anyways.

Hiccup despised Murderous when they first moved there. Stoick claimed that it would be better; he was leaving to work a better job. He'd make more money and would be able to provide Hiccup with more, but he never provided Hiccup with the things that were really important. Time. Attention. Respect. Love.

Stoick was a regular old police officer in Berk but a damned good one at that. He was stubborn and arrogant at times, but his persistence led to the solving of many cases that everyone else had deemed a lost cause. He was not afraid to stand up for and help people and he could take a tussle here and there. People respected him, including his higher-ups. In fact, it was his boss that recommended him to become chief of police in Murderous after their previous one was out of commission.

They moved when Hiccup was at that awkward age with people either telling him that he's too young to know what's good for him or that he's too old to be acting like a child and he needs to grow up. Stoick told him both when Hiccup complained about moving. He was too young to understand that it would actually be a good thing for him and too old to be throwing a fit over it. He needed to grow up, so he did.

Hiccup's dad was gone most of the day. Sometimes, when working on cases that required special attention, he was gone most of the night too. Hiccup could easily go a week without ever actually seeing or talking to his dad. There was always food in the house that Hiccup learned how to cook and, if he ever needed it, his dad would drop what he was doing immediately to help Hiccup. Hiccup just had to ask and he never did.

His first time wasn't that bad. His dad would actually be home that afternoon and Hiccup was stalling. He never liked being in the same room with his dad anymore. It usually ended with both of them yelling, Hiccup slamming the door as he locked himself in his room, and Stoick cursing himself and his son. Hiccup was walking home from school and he was stalling and he was getting bored.

On a whim, he entered this little gas station that was only populated by the one employee.

"Hey," the cashier called to him from behind the register. "You need to be twenty-one to buy those." He pointed to the small box in Hiccup's hand. Cigarettes. Hiccup had yet to start smoking or drinking or anything but all this yelling from his dad made the idea really tempting.

Even if Hiccup had a fake ID, he wouldn't have been able to fool the cashier. He was this short, scraggly little kid. Everyone at school scoffed at him when he tried to talk to them. No one wanted to be around some kid. Hiccup put the box down and began looking at some other things like chips and soda.

His phone rang. Hiccup walked to the back corner of the store and answered as the cashier kept his eye on him, waiting for the boy to do something else he could scold him for. Well, he didn't look to be twenty-one either.

"Hiccup? Where are you? It's been an hour since school ended!" Hiccup hated the sound of his father's voice. It was thick and a little hoarse and just drove him nuts for reasons he couldn't quite name.

He sighed heavily. "I'm sorry, dad," he lied through his teeth; he was most certainly not sorry. "I was at the library working on something. I told you this morning but you must've not heard me." Another lie, not that his father would be able to argue it. There were only two witnesses and it was his word against his son's. "I just left. I'll be home in, like, thirty minutes."

"Alright, son. Don't be late. We have that event to go to tonight." With that, Stoick hung up and Hiccup was left alone in the store. The cashier, no longer interested in the boy's phone call, had gone to restock one of the shelves.

As previously stated, Hiccup would not have become a criminal if his dad weren't a cop; everything he did was to spite his father. If Hiccup hadn't been agitated by his father's phone call, he wouldn't have felt the need to do something stupid. He swiped the cigarettes while the cashier was distracted and walked out of the store. No one came after him.

Hiccup never smoked that particular pack of cigarettes, though he would smoke many more. He never smoked that pack because he had no desire to. He took them to steal. To do something bad. To spit on his father's good name. That was just crime number one.

After that incident, Hiccup had become an amateur kleptomaniac. He never went after anything big and his plans weren't ever anything extravagant because he knew that everyone else knew he was a thief. They just didn't care. He never stole anything valuable. Petty thievery was far from the worst thing someone could do in Murderous.

He hadn't been stealing for long before someone approached him about it. However, it was not his father or the police that did. Some kids at school, self-proclaimed outcasts, had asked him if he wanted in on something bigger.

There's a jewelry store near the edge of the downtown area. It's a father and son place, though the son recently had an accident that's placed him in the hospital for the last few weeks. He's still there. Unfortunately for the outcasts, one of their own was in the hospital and he had been for the last few weeks. They needed a temporary replacement. It would be his trial run so they could see if they wanted to keep him or not. He agreed.

Hiccup almost felt bad. The man was old and, as he was told, had dementia. His wife had passed a few years ago but he still asked to see her. His son had mostly taken over the business by then, but the old man still helped out.

They assured Hiccup that, if everything went to plan, no one would get hurt. Everyone—including the old man—would walk out of there alive. They told him to dress nicely, but to pick clothes he wasn't afraid to get a little dirty. He put on black pants, black shoes, and a maroon button-up. They skipped class on a Friday.

They were well aware that Hiccup was the chief of police's son.

The plan was for Viggo, their leader, to walk in and converse with the old man. Eret would wander around the store using a device from their buyer to disable the alarm system. It was simple enough. He would place the device on the case, close to the sensor, and it would send signals to jam the system. It took about three seconds. To keep things inconspicuous, Eret would not be the one stealing the goods. Ryker would also wander around the store, picking up jewelry from the cases Eret disarmed when he knew the old man wasn't looking. Dagur was the getaway driver; he was the only confident and skilled at the wheel. Hiccup was drafted as a techie. The security system was rudimentary and easily hackable, but everyone was already busy with their jobs. Hiccup would hack the security and put the feed on a loop so that, when the police inevitably went back to look at it, they wouldn't see the criminals' faces. Dagur would be in the van with Hiccup, across the street, helping him. However, he also had to watch and make sure no one took interest in the vehicle or swiped their license plate number. It was a simple plan.

"Okay, so, all I do is watch the security feed and, if I see anything suspicious, I text you guys?" Hiccup's setup was laughable. He was sitting criss-cross on the floor of the van with just a laptop and his phone. Why did they even tell him to dress nicely if they were the only people that were going to see him.

"I know it seems unnecessary and like quite the boring job but, I assure you, everybody's position is essential." Viggo patted the boy on the back before slipping a knife into his pocket. "Gods forbid that something were to happen to any of my men because I didn't take the proper precautions."

Hiccup rolled his eyes internally. Sure, the crime was bigger, but he felt like he had taken a step back with his play part in the theft. There was a thrill with walking out of the store, having to calm yourself so that no one could read your guilt, and then running as soon as you were out of sight so that they wouldn't be able to catch you. Hiccup really only stole for the thrill and for the fact that his extracurricular activities would absolutely piss his dad off.

"Don't worry, brother-" Dagur was perhaps the most enthusiastic of the group, at least visibly and audibly. Maybe he was even too enthusiastic. "You and I get to have some bonding time."

Another boy, black-haired, patted Hiccup on the dead. "Don't worry. If you run now, I wouldn't hold it against you." The boy, Eret, also slipped a knife into his back pocket. "I would not be able to survive five minutes alone with Dagur."

Dagur glared daggers at Eret but Eret only shrugged in response.

"All right, men." Viggo handed Eret the device as Ryker picked up an empty bag. "It's time to go." The field team put on their hats and hoods and sunglasses to conceal their identities. Dagur checked the sides of the van with his mirrors to see if there were any witnesses and, when he was sure there weren't any, he gave the trio the all-clear.

A few minutes later, Hiccup was both bored and very annoyed that Dagur wouldn't shut up. He kept jabbering on and on about his life and how he came to Murderous and how he became a criminal. Hiccup just nodded and occasionally said 'yeah' or agreed to whatever else Dagur was saying.

"So, how does the son of the chief of police become a criminal?" Dagur looked at the rearview mirror so that he could see Hiccup without turning around. "I mean, you'd think that you'd be quite the opposite."

Hiccup scoffed. He knew the answer easily and he knew it very well. "Well, when your dad is never around to raise you right, you come out wrong."

Dagur turned his head a little so that Hiccup was looking at the side of his face. "But what about you? Like, okay, your dad didn't raise you to be super righteous. That doesn't make everybody thieves or muggers or conmen."

"As you said, my dad wants me to be super righteous." Hiccup huffed and clicked through the various security feeds. "I want to make his life as much of a living Hel as he has made mine."

Dagur rolled his eyes. "What's in it for you, though?" Hiccup was getting really, really annoyed. He had already given Dagur his answer. Couldn't he shut up? "You've only told me about how it affects your dad." Dagur paused and turned back to face the windshield of the van. "Viggo's not gonna like that answer. It's shallow. You don't sound like you want to be here. And, if you don't want to be here, then you're not gonna be willing to do all the stuff we ask you to."

"Well, what's in it for all of you guys, then?"

"We're hungry, Hiccup." To emphasize, Dagur snarled into the rearview mirror. "We want things that we can't have unless we take them. We have drive. Motivation. Goals that we're willing to do anything to reach." Dagur looked down at something Hiccup couldn't see. "If you don't have that, then you don't belong here."

"So you're telling me that I don't belong here?" Hiccup sighed, though he wasn't disappointed. The idea of companionship was nice but this heist was far from enjoyable.

"No, Hiccup." Dagur glanced at his side mirror and saw that Ryker had just left the store. The others would follow soon. "I'm telling you what you need to say. You seem like a cool kid. We've watched you in class. You're smart. And we've tracked your record. Most people wouldn't take as many risks as you have. They'd think that they were just lucky after their first steal and they'd wait days, sometimes months, to strike again. You were quick to keep going and you haven't been stopped. Viggo's gonna ask you some questions and, if you wanna stay on, you're gonna have to answer them correctly."

The door opened and Dagur greeted Ryker with a tone of much less seriousness than the one he had used with Hiccup moments ago. Hiccup closed the laptop now that they were safe and sighed. Maybe he would stay and give them a trial run too. Hopefully, things would get better once he's proven himself.

Besides the outcasts, Hiccup's only other companions were his cat, Toothless, and his friend, Thuggory. Now, Thuggory was a "perfect example of what a fine young man should be" according to his father. Hiccup really only kept him as his friend because of his father's insistence. The boy was nice but Hiccup wasn't one to get close to anybody. He had left all his friendships behind with his friends in Berk.

Thuggory was a good man, unlike the outcasts. He wasn't very popular in school but he did have friends. Real friends and not just people with common interests like Hiccup had. He was extra charitable compared to the people of Murderous; he was always willing to let people vent to him and tried to give them useful advice, he helped old ladies cross the street, he always had extra candy to share with the little kids, he volunteered at the orphanage, and so on and so forth. Hiccup hated Thuggory because he was all that he wasn't but everything he should be.

Hiccup liked Thuggory because he was a genuine pleasure to hang out with. They played games, told jokes, and helped each other out with classwork. Thuggory had a suspicion about what Hiccup did when no one was looking but he never ratted him out. Thuggory himself did things that would make people look at him in shame. In Murderous, you kept to yourself to avoid trouble. Thuggory did not. He punched thieves and rapists. Sometimes people teased him for being a "little detective" and told him that he shouldn't go looking for answers he won't like. He was the one who exposed the local elementary school principal as having aided a little girl's murderers.

Thuggory did other things too that were technically illegal. He "vandalized" buildings with posters that pleaded for information on various unsolved cases. He skipped far too many classes to stand in protest against the closing and bulldozing of several small businesses. He broke into guys' houses and deleted girls' nude pics off of their phones before destroying their phones. He got into fights protecting people.

Hiccup knew that this was who his father wanted him to be: a hero. Hiccup just couldn't bring himself to be it. He was… He didn't know why. Not yet.

Hiccup hated Thuggory as much as he loved him. He wanted to keep him around but he knew he couldn't with their stark contrasts in lifestyle, so he came up with a plan.

Something Thuggory had confided in him was that he used to be a doormat and a people pleaser and a pushover. He still was, to some extent. He never wanted to hurt people so he did whatever to avoid it. He had a little record when he was younger and Hiccup studied him closely.

He had a plan.

"Hey, Thuggs." Class had just ended and Thuggory was still gathering his things. "I'm headed to the grocery store across the street. Meet me there."

Thuggory didn't question this command because it was somewhat routine to them. Thuggs usually had to clean up after class, being an attentive student who waited until the bell stopped working. Hiccup, instead of waiting, would head to the grocery store or the gas station down the street. He liked to watch the people and sometimes he bought a snack. Thuggory would catch up soon enough.

When Thuggory walked into the store, Hiccup pulled him to the side so that they were hidden in the hallway with the restrooms. "Okay, look." Hiccup placed his hand over Thuggory's mouth so he couldn't respond until Hiccup wanted him to. "I got into a little shit and I need your help. You in?"

Hiccup removed his hand Thuggory wiped his mouth before responding. "What kinda shit did you get into? Do you need me to call the police? Can your dad not help you?"

Hiccup wanted to laugh at that last question, but he remained serious and stoned-faced. "I can't tell you anything until you say that you're in." Thuggory narrowed his eyes at Hiccup but the latter knew that he would say 'yes' anyway. "So, are you in?"

Thuggory slowly nodded.

"Great." Hiccup pulled Thuggory out of the hallway and out of the store. "I'll be back in ten- er, fifteen minutes." He slapped one hand onto Thuggory's shoulder and smiled. "I hope you're not planning on doing anything later today… or tomorrow morning."

Thuggory stood outside the grocery store, confused but trusting his friend. Sometimes people don't like talking about things and he understood that. He'd help them anyways.

Hiccup didn't return on foot. A white van rolled up and stopped in front of Thuggory. The back door opened and all of Thuggory's instincts told him not to get in, but he did nevertheless.

Inside the van sat the rest of the gang: Dagur at the wheel, Viggo riding shotgun, and everybody else in the back. Thuggory gulped. Just what exactly had Hiccup gotten himself into to be hanging out with the outcasts?

Hiccup pulled Thuggory aside as everyone else was busy trying to tune out whatever Dagur was saying.

"I know you have a lot of questions but I can't give you a lot of answers. I just need you to trust me." Hiccup stuck his hand out for Thuggory to shake. "I would never do anything to hurt you. I just need you to help me this once so nothing bad happens."

Thuggory took Hiccup's hand. "I better not regret this, Hiccup."

Out loud, he said, "You won't," but internally, he knew Thuggory would.

The drive was long as they drove out of the city and to the richest part of town. Viggo gave everybody the game plan.

"The woman that lives here is alone and vulnerable." Thuggory winced at this. He would try to do whatever Hiccup asked but he couldn't just let some innocent get hurt. "However, her house isn't." Viggo motioned to Thuggory and Hiccup. "Murderous' golden boy and the son of the chief of police will lure her out. She wouldn't suspect two good kids of having malicious intentions. Thuggory will distract her with some meaningless rambling as Hiccup connects to the house's security system and disables the alarms. That's all I need you for."

Thuggory frowned. He didn't like the way this sounded and, though he was afraid to anger the others, he spoke. "What are you gonna do after? And why do you need me of all people? What if we get caught? I-" He looked at Hiccup and it felt like his heart stopped. His friend was teary-eyed as he refused to look up at the ground. "I'll do it but only if you don't hurt the woman."

Viggo scoffed. "Of course, we won't hurt the women… unless we have to." Dagur and the others laughed. "We wouldn't want to create more problems than we need to, but I do what I must to protect my people."

With that, Ryker and Eret shoved Thuggory and Hiccup out of the van.

"Hiccup-"

"I know, but I promise, they won't hurt her if we do what we're told." Hiccup was fidgeting with something—the device to disable the alarms, Thuggory presumed—as the two walked up to the house. "You're gonna have to do most of the talking. It's why Viggo asked me to bring you in. I may be the son of the chief of police but I don't have the friendliest reputation. This woman has a problem with… men. You've dealt with this before. She'll trust you. Tell her that we were driving through the area because it looks nice and my cat jumped out of the car so now we're looking for him."

"Right," Thuggory groaned, "Because that doesn't sound suspicious at all."

The two boys walked up to the door of the mansion. The van was out of sight but Hiccup knew that the others were close behind them. Thuggory knocked on the door.

"Hello?" A young woman clad in a long flowy dress answered the door. She didn't open it fully and the boys knew they needed to lure her out.

"Um, excuse me, miss. I was wondering if you could answer a couple of questions." Thuggory smiled at the woman. "We're here about a case involving domestic abuse in the neighborhood. Everything would be off-book but your assistance would be greatly appreciated."

Now, this caught Hiccup a little off guard. Thuggory had lied so quickly and so smoothly and Hiccup wasn't entirely sure of what his intentions were.

"Oh, uh…" The woman fumbled with her long hair, letting go of the door and it nudged open a little bit more. "Are you sure I'd be of any use? I mean, I don't really know my neighbors-"

"Look, I'm gonna be blunt. You know who I am, right?" The woman nodded. "And you can see that he and I are just kids. Our words don't mean much, but yours could mean everything. You could really help this family out." Thuggory got closer to the door and to the woman. "You know how it feels, right? We've heard about your history from sources I shall not name. Even if you can't give us evidence to use in this investigation, any advice or personal experiences of yours that we could reference would be very helpful." Thuggory stuck out his hand and the woman took it. He led her out of the house and onto the bench on her porch. "I promise that if you feel uncomfortable at any moment, you can leave."

Thuggory gave Hiccup the thumbs up to do his thing. He coerced the woman into recounting her past, softly consoling her until Hiccup tapped him on the back.

"Thank you, ma'am, for your compliance." Hiccup feigned a grin. "But it's getting late and we really should be going."

"Thank you for listening to me." She gave Thuggory a hug as they both got up. "I haven't had anyone I felt like I could really talk to for a long time."

Having eavesdropped on the conversation, Hiccup almost felt bad about what was going to happen next to the woman. Almost. She was still some rich bitch with more than she needed and more than she deserved.

Dagur opened the van doors for the boys to get in. The others were nowhere to be seen.

"I'm taking you two home now. The others won't be ready until after I get back and we didn't want to keep your friend here longer than he needed to be."

Both boys remained silent for the rest of the ride home while Dagur rambled on and on. However, as they left, Hiccup muttered something that chilled Thuggory to the bone.

"You're almost as good a liar as me."

As Thuggory would later come to find out, Hiccup and Viggo had lied to him. The woman was found dead a few days later when a neighbor became concerned that they hadn't seen her in a while and the light to her room was always on. Her throat was slit and she had a knife in her hand. It would've made sense to everyone else. A woman so troubled with her past traumas took her own life.

Thuggory knew better than that.

Hiccup approached him later, crying. He pleaded innocent and said that he didn't know Viggo would do that and he was scared of the outcasts and of what his father would do if they found out. Thuggory brushed off the slight twitch of Hiccup's mouth when the latter asked him what would happen if people found out about his involvement in the murder. It was a threat disguised as concern and Thuggory was helpless against it.

The outcasts pulled Thuggory in a few more times, now a lot more hostile. They reminded him that they could ruin him if people found out about his actions. They could kill him too. They had already killed others. Hiccup told Thuggory that he was being blackmailed too and that neither could report the outcasts. He couldn't live with the thought of his father finding out the truth.

Thuggory obliged.

Hiccup liked Thuggory a lot better now. Hiccup liked how easily he could ruin and corrupt the "perfect example of what a fine young man should be".

This would be their biggest heist yet. It would be an operation in broad daylight. There would be multiple people, better security systems, and trained guards just waiting for something like this. But the opportunity was one that could not be missed.

The school was taking a trip to the local bank. However, this bank was used for more than just the city of Murderous. Murderous was positioned near a really big city; it was only an hour or two away. Years back, that big city decided that they shouldn't keep all of their valuables in the city where people were always nearby and ready to strike. It was within hand's reach. They moved a decent amount of their reserves to Murderous so it'd be safer. They were wrong.

Thuggory was nervous and Hiccup was a little anxious too. This plan could go very wrong at any moment. The kids were gonna go in. One of them would claim to have left something important behind—Hiccup had allergies that he carried an epi-pen for and the kids were going to eat lunch on-site in the beautiful building. A chaperone would go with him and Hiccup would knock him out. It'd be best to get the creepy old guy with the bald spot that looks like Antarctica, Thuggory said. He had a bit of a record that was swept under the rug so the school let him chaperone his daughter and her friends. They were gonna pin this on the chaperone.

Hiccup would put on his disguise that he packed in his lunchbox and sneak to the back entrance. His hacking skills had gotten better over time and, once again, the boys' buyer filled in the gaps. He would disable the security and the lights, giving the rest of the gang cover to put on their disguises. They'd have a mask that would distort their voices and hide their faces. They'd have guns.

The security would make the students the priority. They wouldn't want that blood on their hands and tarnishing their career. Thuggory, Hiccup, Dagur, and Eret would keep the guards' attention on them while Viggo and Ryker would steal the goods. They'd take hostages and walk out. They'd drive away, threatening to shoot the kids if anyone followed. They'd drop the kids off, of course. They'd drop them off at a gas station really far away before leaving town.

Hiccup was going to leave town, as was everyone else. Even Thuggory, who didn't want to go but knew that he'd get caught if he stayed.

It wasn't supposed to go this wrong.

Hiccup had spent a long time as a criminal—a thief, a murderer—without his father knowing. Then he just had to show up. He should've known. His father was following this case. What exactly Stoick knew, Hiccup was unsure. He didn't want to find out.

Hiccup and Thuggory crouched behind the desk as Stoick bellowed, "Your friends already left. My people are following them and I assure you that they will not get away this time." They were surrounded. "Make this easy. Come out with your hands up."

Thuggory was having an anxiety attack. Hiccup could hear him choking on his breath. He was crying. "Hic, what are we gonna do?"

Hiccup never thought about killing his dad before. No matter how much he hated his dad, he never thought of himself as a killer. Viggo and the others were killers. He was only ever an accessory.

"I'm not going down without a fight." Thuggory coughed and took Hiccup's hand. He was shaking. "Everything will be alright," Hiccup assured him.

Hiccup pulled Thuggory up with him as he held his hand up, palms out. Their masks were still on. Hiccup was about to pull the gun out of Thuggory's pocket but he was too late. There was a bang and Hiccup watched Thuggory crumple to the floor. His mask cracked and he could see the blood dripping out of the corner of his mouth.

Fuck.

Hiccup was looking behind him and he didn't notice the police officer charging at him, diving through the broken barriers that separated outsides from the bank tellers and shoving him to the ground. His mask broke upon collision.

"Hiccup?"

Of course, his father had to be here. He cursed himself. Fuck. Thuggory was a good kid and he never should've dragged him into this mess.

"Hiccup."

Gods. He shouldn't have been in this mess either. He didn't have the drive. Dagur was right. He didn't fit in with the outcasts. That's probably why they left him. He never should've trusted them.

"Hiccup!"

Shit. What was he gonna do now? His friend is dead, his allies have abandoned him, and his father is about ready to kill and disown him too. He had to think of something.

"NOOO!" It's all he could say, but then the lie started flowing like it had through Thuggory some time ago. Whatever it was that made Hiccup steal—that compulsion—started flowing through him stronger than ever. "I- I'm sorry. I didn't- I- I didn't want to!" Hiccup's face was being half pushed into the ground as he felt the cool metal against his wrist. "They told me I had to do it or else they'd hurt someone else!" He looked straight at Stoick with big, watery eyes. "They said they'd hurt you."

"Oh cut the bullshit, boy!" Stoick's face was red and he had squeezed his eyes shut, but Hiccup could see that he was crying too. "I know what you've been doin' and I've been denyin' it for too long." The police officer hoisted Hiccup off the ground, keeping his head facing out. Hiccup couldn't see Thuggory anymore.

"But dad-"

"No." He didn't scream this time and just rubbed his forehead. "You are not innocent and you are not my son." As Hiccup was escorted to the cop car, he heard his father mumble, "I never shoulda taken him away from Berk."

That was the last he heard from his father as now he spent all his time locked in his cell with a life sentence and a guilty conscience that made it all the worse. He could no longer redeem himself. Thuggory was perfect. His father was right.

I'm not basing Murderous after Murderous from the books as much as I'm just using the name and it kinda fits the theme.

According to the internet, the legal age to buy cigarettes in the US changed from 18 to 21 a few months or a few years ago.

I never read the books so I'm using the internet to characterize Thuggory and he is OOC.

I also don't know anything about thievery and these scenes are based on whatever heists I have seen on TV or in movies.

I was gonna write this so differently but, as it went along, I made changes. Note that I imagined "the buyer" I mentioned who supplied gadgets to the outcasts as Grimmel. Oh well. You can only fit so much into one one-shot.