Treacherous Trip

When getting the message from Coco, Doug recognized the place she was talking about as an unreasonably classy boutique of some kind, but had never gone into. He was fairly certain that the Malachites got their skimpy and frivolous outfits there, or from some close competitor of it with similar color and advertising schemes. He cared too little to think much further on the subject.

Doug already had a strong feeling that he knew what she'd requested him here for, and by the time she –and not surprisingly, Velvet –arrived fashionably late, he asked Coco about it before she was even done approaching. "Did you get me to come here to be your pack mule?"

"Expecting better?" She looked slightly less empowered when he took out a cigarette and lit it, which obviously prevented him from entering the establishment yet. They watched as the Janitor powered back his smoke like it was an asthma puffer, which wasn't even remotely charming, and flick the butt into the parking lot. He blew the aftermath aside before he continued. "Just a little surprised. Is your titan of a teammate hard to fit through the door or something?"

"It's not fitting through, it's fitting in. The looks he gets in any girl's clothing store make him uncomfortable, even if he's sticking close... Well, we think so. He can be hard to read." Velvet explained, Coco already strutting past the front doors with a push of her sunglasses. He was half-expecting the employees to bow down as she browsed.

Doug offered one of his mints to Velvet as he used another to fight the scent of tobacco he was now carrying, and she politely refused as they both dawdled behind Coco. The girl ahead of them seemed to be having a hard time committing to any of the articles of clothing she came across; for a store she must have liked, the contents were still hard to meet her standards by the look on her face.

"Why're you doing this?"

"Doing what?"

"We're in the dude section." Velvet hadn't even really noticed, being between the men and women's areas of the store; she'd just been glancing over the female clothing on her other side. Coco spoke as she decided to hold up a shirt in front of Doug, gauging how it would look if he wore it.

"You know the saying; 'a diamond in the rough'? I may not be one for diamonds, but I'm going to polish it up if I just-so-happen across one. It would be a shame not to." He gave her a skeptical look as she picked out another shirt, this time pinning it to his shoulders after it passed this test from a distance. He regarded her with this same look until she gave him one that suggested he ought to stop. "If you've got a problem with that, don't just stare. Open your mouth."

Doug wasn't on board with this. Charity for charity's sake shouldn't come to someone who earned his keep; there were much better places for her money and taste in getups to go than on him, even if she thought he made a good canvas for that. He worked hard, and if he thought he needed to improve his appearance that was for him to put effort toward. Still, he didn't say anything to her as she continued to find more clothes for someone she hardly knew, mainly because he didn't want to offend her after what he'd seen her do before, but also because it sounded like he'd gotten half of her reasoning while the other sat waiting to be said.

Besides, his attention had been drawn entirely elsewhere, lost even to the two he was with.

"That tall guy in the jeans section is hiding a gun, I think." Doug said, with a hint of fascination. Coco was so taken from left field by the statement that she didn't bother to push up her sunglasses as they slid down her nose –just looked at him incredulously, and then turned to see where he was looking. An unremarkable man standing a few inches taller than Doug stood sliding the many wears over on their hooks, and if she had to guess, her first would be father of two.

Velvet also gave the person a peripheral flicker, and found herself thinking the same. "He seems harmless enough."

Doug started to wander, and soon he was shaking his head. "Nah, he's in on it. So's that dude in the line-up; he's gonna draw on the cashiers and cover the entrance at the same time." Doug wasn't making any gestures, so it was hard to tell who exactly in the line he was talking about. "Buddy in the wife-beater is loitering next to the bathroom like he's waiting for someone to come out, but he's on the emergency door a few feet away. There's another one or two guys around here waiting to pounce on anybody who tries to split, too, I'd say... Soon as waiting-line guy is behind the manager on till eight, leaving with his 'purchase', they're gonna make their move."

The girls, after looking at the men he described without pointing, thought that his claims held a bit more water than they first seemed to, if only because the first he'd brought up and the one by the washrooms were occasionally glancing at each other... but now the last male waiting in line had checked out, and was soon to pass behind the manager. The bearded man wearing a white and green oriented outfit took a six-shooter out of his waistband and pushed it into the back of the manager's head. "Nobody move!"

"Get on the floor! Hands behind your head!"

"Stop right there! Turn around, on the floor!"

Each of the men Doug had pointed at revealed their own weapons, as well as another that he hadn't but alluded to. Pandemonium exploded onto the scene as the many shoppers and employees were surprised, and that was quelled quickly by the threats made... but Doug was next to two girls who weren't going down, no doubt about it. The fatherly-looking fellow got closer to the trio, pointing the barrel of a shotgun at Coco. "I said 'on the floor'."

Coco unleashed the gatling gun from her bag, aiming it back. "Maybe you should."

Velvet stood with her back against her leader's, Doug hitting the tiled floor since he was a civilian himself. Since the standoff had begun, three of the four would have to surround them in order to tip the scales in their favor, but two of them were covering the entrance/exit and fire escape... As expected, the one standing by this back door was the one to yield his position; their mistake was coming just a bit too close in the heat of the moment.

If one were to ask how quickly two huntresses could strike down and disarm four criminals, the estimate most would give had nothing on the real thing. Coco threw her enormous gun into the one to her left as her foot lashed out in a roundhouse to her right, and Velvet knocked the handgun out of the third man's hand during a spin that gave her other arm enough force to throw her bag across the room, straight into the man holding the manager at gunpoint. He was nailed square in the face during his attempts at getting all of the cashiers to round up their collective tills' finances as well as talking the manager into the safe code. Both tasks had blinded him to the unusual projectile.

The manager hit an under-desk button for security, and soon, the four were apprehended. Even through the waves of gratitude from the people fearing for their lives, Coco and Velvet could see the Janitor beeline for the door.

Outside the building, Doug shakily took out a cigarette and lit it, huffing it back as he smacked his own forehead. 'Why did I bring that up? There was no damn point! Whether I said anything or not, that would have gone the same way, and now...'

"How did you know what they were up to, Mr. Brightsnap?" He'd gone and done something that made him stand out. He was having a difficult time following the Henchman's first rule since taking this espionage variant of his previous line of work... the only reason the two of them hadn't seen it coming even before Doug was because aura allowed hunters to sense bloodlust, or direct hostility; the four burglars had been hostile with an end in mind to everyone in the store, and following greed rather than murderous intent, and thus unable to set off that sixth sense. He turned while making sure to keep away from Velvet with his cancer stick, lest it upset her possibly higher sense of smell.

"Call it a hunch." That was a lie; Doug knew exactly what he'd seen and searched out thereafter because he had been a part of such plans numerous times, robbed numerous locations, held more innocents at gunpoint than likely any of those four had combined. What they had just thwarted was once the bread and butter of his everyday life, so anyone about to do the same was easily discernible to his eye. He just wasn't about to say that, of course.

Coco gave him a flash of her eyes from above her glasses, not buying it. "You had four hunches about the same thing?"

Pausing, it was obvious he was looking for the right words. Then, he shrugged. "I knew because it's what I would have done, if I wanted to rob a big fashion outlet. Hypothetically, anyhow... and that doesn't sound very good when it's the only answer I've got. Makes me sound like I fold my hands and sit in an evil lair on my days off."

The image he painted caused Velvet to laugh, and even Coco to crack a bit of a smile. "You're way too harmless for something like that."

"Should I be relieved or offended?"

"Maybe some of both." Coco concluded. "So, these are yours."

Doug caught three bags that she tossed his way, all full of some several thousand dollars worth of duds. He caught sight of an Arnami suit in there somewhere. "You going to fake a sick day on one of your boys to take me clubbing next? Because that's crossing the line."

"My job here is done, Mr. Brightsnap. See you at school tomorrow." She nodded to Velvet, and took her leave much the way she always arrived. Doug fought to keep his gaze focused elsewhere, which was only easy once he took interest in his new belongings.

Two of the three bags would find themselves in the hands of a hobo and a local charity drive, but the last was tucked away into his apartment's closet, where Senpai wouldn't get fur all over the contents.