And Everything Nice
2.
"So how was your first day of middle school?" Dr. O'Shay asked.
"GREAT!" Uran yelled. "I made friends with a real nice girl who's in an upper class."
"What's her name?" Astro asked.
"Bubbles." Uran answered.
"Does she have these real blue eyes and blond hair tied up in two pigtails?" Astro asked.
"Yes, that's her." Uran said, "Why?"
"Oh she's in my homeroom class." Astro answered. "She hangs out with two other girls, one of which is in my P.E. class. Buttercup is one heck of a soccer player, but there's something weird about her though. Tamao was sure that she was a robot the way she played against me. She's definitely not a robot, but is sure a great athlete."
"Yeah, I bumped into her on the way to my homeroom." Uran responded. "She gave me a ride on her skateboard. She's a real tomboy for sure."
Professor Utonium and his son Ken lived in a laboratory complex not too far from the New Townsville district middle school. Ken was a boy genius who had gotten his P.H.D. at the age of nine after being home schooled by his father. Ken built his own robot dog named Poochi that has ESP abilities. School had just let out for the day when father and son were busy working on their latest invention. Suddenly the laboratory door slammed open and three teenage girls barged into the room.
"Hi Blossom, Hello Bubbles, Yo Buttercup!" Ken said without looking up.
"How'd you know it was us?" Bubbles asked chewing a wad of bubble gum.
"You always come over here at this hour after school to steal some of my candy." Ken said.
"Yeah well that's cheap payment for saving the day so often!" Buttercup said, grabbing a handful of Peanut Butter cups from Ken's stash.
"Well at least it's been quiet in the district this week," the Professor said, "the PPG's haven't had to save the day for several weeks in fact."
"Yeah, it's almost a bit spooky isn't it?" Blossom said. "I hope you haven't jinxed us saying that!"
"Well, we got to get going!" Buttercup yelled running for the door.
"See Ya!" Bubbles and Blossom added together as they headed outside.
Ken looked up at his dad and said, "You know Dad, I've run into something on the 'web."
"What is it son?" Professor Utonium asked.
"I've hacked into the school database to see what teachers the girls might be having this year and found the school student registry." Ken said. "You know who is now attending New Townsville district Middle school?"
"I guess you're going to tell me."
"Astro Boy and his sister Uran. Looks like the Power Puff's may be having a little help if the bad guys try anything!"
Skunk Kusai sat in his hideout in the basement of a dilapidated townhouse in a low rent neighborhood of the New Townsville district. His partner Acetylene Lamp was snoring on a cot in the back of the room. "I tell you Lamp," Skunk said, knowing the other man was asleep, "We've got to figure out how to make a score and grab us some spending capital to restart our operation. Maybe with any luck that stupid robot kid won't find us clear across town in this district."
Lamp coughed and rolled over. "I'd be able to grab some needed shuteye if you'd keep your G-D mouth shut!"
"You've been snoring for hours!" Skunk replied back, "and keeping me awake. 'Bout time you got up anyhow!"
Lamp fidgeted in his pocket and pulled out a pack of cigarettes. He pulled out a lighter from his pocket and tried striking it several times. All he got was sparks, the Bic was out of gas. Skunk grabbed the fag out of Lamp's mouth and lit it from the candle flame atop his partner's head, blowing smoke back at him.
"Gimme that!" Lamp yelled grabbing the cancer stick back from Skunk and stuffing it back into his mouth. He picked up a newspaper that he'd been reading a few hours ago and quickly thumbed through the pages. "Here, take a look at this!" he said.
Skunk read quickly scanned the news article that had caught the attention of his partner. "New Townsville auction house to handle the sale of Mrs. Morebuck's Jewelry. Over 5000 carats of diamonds to be auctioned off, proceeds to go to charity. The auction house will open early on Tuesday to allow potential bidders to view the items up for sale." He read.
"I bet they've already got the goods locked up in their safe in the basement." Lamp said. "We can break in late tonight and help ourselves."
"I haven't cracked a safe in years." Skunk replied.
"Well I didn't get the nickname 'Acetylene' for nothing!" Lamp laughed, pointing to the welding torch sitting behind him. "I should be able to cut my way into that thing quite easily with my equipment!"
Very early the next morning an old rusty van with bald tires made its way into the downtown New Townsville district. One headlamp on the vehicle was improperly aimed off to the side, the other headlamp glowed dimly because of bad wiring. A thin veil of blue smoke trailed behind the van which was burning oil due to bad rings in its tired engine. Lamp babied the clutch which was badly worn, carefully shifting from first to third gear, as the transmission refused to lock into second. He missed the sync point while shifting causing the gear box to grind past second with a moaning sound.
"Why are you still driving this POS?" Skunk moaned.
"It's better than walking." Lamp sniped back. "I don't have the yen to replace this vehicle."
"Hopefully that will change after tonight." Skunk replied.
Lamp found the address they were looking for and parked the van in an alley behind the building. He turned the key in the ignition to shut down the engine, which continued to diesel for a few seconds before finally wheezing to a stop with a loud sigh, and a huge cloud of black smoke.
"You check the rear door for any alarms and I'll get my torch out of the back." Lamp told Skunk.
"Right, I'm on it." Kusai said, making his way towards the back door of the auction house. He surveyed the area around him. The rear of the building fronted on an alley situated between the it and a vacant lot that once held a gas station. The lot was now fenced in, and several warning signs had been erected as the property was dug up. There was a large hole in the ground and several dump trucks and a backhoe were parked there. A strong smell of gasoline wafted from the excavation. It seemed that there must have been a fuel leak sometime in the past and a cleanup operation was now in progress before the property could be put to another use.
Skunk removed a flashlight from his pocket and shined it on the door. He carefully examined the door frame, and the wall around it. Smiling, he pulled a pair of wire cutters from his pocket and carefully stripped an alarm cable, then shorted two wires together. Satisfied with his handiwork he then went to work on the door lock with a set of picks. It took him nearly ten minutes to unlock the door, which he slowly pulled open. Nothing happened.
"You're getting old." Lamp laughed. "Ten years ago you'd have had that door unlocked in only a minute or two."
"Yeah, and the alarm would have gone off." Skunk sneered. "I might not be as fast as I used to be, but I'm nowhere as careless as I was either."
Lamp pulled the hand truck to which was attached two gas cylinders behind him. He carried the torch head and its attached hoses around his neck like a doctor carried a stethoscope. They found the staircase leading down towards the basement, the wheels of Lamp's welding cart bouncing on each step. Skunk waved his flashlight around in the dark looking for the vault room. The basement stank from dampness and a vague petrol odor which Skunk figured came in with them from the old gas station behind the alley. At the end of a hallway he found a door leading into the front section of the building. Skunk carefully checked the door for an alarm, and found none. It took him longer to work on the lock on this door, he guessed it hadn't been opened in a long time and the tumblers in the lock were stiff. Yet the door opened easily once he'd unlocked it, and they moved inside. It was obvious that they were now in the auction house proper, the floor was nicely tiled and the walls plastered and painted as opposed to the rear of the basement that had bare concrete floors and cinder block walls.
"Smells richer in here." Lamp said, "now where is the safe?"
They walked past an elevator and turned a corner. Yet another locked door lay in front of them. Once again Skunk looked carefully for signs of an alarm trip, and found one. He removed an electrical panel cover from the wall and stared at a maze of telephone and Ethernet cables. It took him several minutes to trace out the maze of wires and to insert a pair of alligator jumper clips to short out the alarm. He then worked on the lock with his burglary tools. Skunk pushed the door open, and smiled.
"Now that's a nice safe!" he grinned. "Think you can cut your way in?"
Lamp grabbed the torch from Skunk and examined the steel monster. "It looks impressive, but it has an Achilles heel," Lamp said. "This model has extra thick walls, but the hinge attachments are not up to the usual standards. I can cut though the metal there in less than twenty minutes and the door will just fall off."
Lamp adjusted the valves on the oxygen and acetylene tanks for the right mixture and fired up his torch. He adjusted the cutting head for a long thin blue flame and began to work on the safe. The torch cut through the metal making a roaring sound like a jet engine spooling up for takeoff. Skunk stepped back to give his partner room to work. He patted his shirt pocket and smiling, pulled a nearly new cigar from where he'd placed it almost a day ago. Kusai lit the stogie and pulled in a long drag. He then heard a loud metallic clang as the door fell off the safe.
"Good work!" Skunk said.
"I told you I knew how to open this thing up." Lamp said.
The two thieves ransacked the safes contents searching for the diamonds. They quickly found several strong boxes filled with diamond-paper envelopes containing the unmounted gems. They divided the boxes between them and made their exit the way they had come in.
They reentered the dank rear of the basement, and Skunk started to cough from the fumes. He threw his still burning cigar into the corner of the room, Lamp left his equipment in the corner of the room. "Leaving your tools behind?" Skunk asked.
"I'll buy myself a better torch with the profits from this heist." Lamp laughed. "Besides I just about used up the last of the gas, and those cylinders were starting to leak anyway."
They both ran up the stairs carrying the strong boxes full of gems. "Hopefully we'll get a good price for this stuff from the fence." Skunk said.
"Well Hamegg owes me one," Lamp said, "We'll go to him first."
Lamp struggled to get his old van started, and then ground gears again getting the old transmission into first. They slowly drove off leaving a huge blue smoke cloud in their wake.
The corner of the rear basement glistened where the concrete had been softened by the underground seepage. The old gas station a hundred or so meters away and been leaking high grade petro into the ground for nearly a decade. While the excavation crews had removed a large amount of the gasoline and diesel saturated soil, a large yet undiscovered tongue of it extended under the alley and into the basement of the auction building. Only two of the four underground fuel tanks had been removed from the station property so far, the cleanup crew still had more digging to do before the cleanup would be finished. Skunk's smoldering cigar lay only inches from the petrol soaked corner of the basement...