January, Thursday 21th. 32XX
Cyber City College Campus, Cyber City
Lunchtime
Earlier on the way to his class, Akira was informed through a phone call by Little John that the black acoustic guitar has finally been sold off and making a really good profit on it. The hedgehog asking the wolf to come meet him later at Rockwell's where the rest of the Persona users will be at.
The wolf was on his break when Migu approached him in the halls. He'd hear the other students whispering and gossiping to each other whenever they saw Migu, someone who's become enrolled in the rumour-mill following yesterday's incident with her older brother.
"Morning Migu, how's things?" Akira greeted her. Having lost most of his distain towards her in light of her situation at home and seeing how vicious the rumours against her are at the campus, almost to the point of them being the students' epithets to her.
"Fine, I guess..." The female lizard replied with a sigh. "Hasn't been easy dealing with what happened yesterday but I appreciate the concern."
"Heard what happened. What will your family do now?" He'd ask, seeing as Anton had been the breadwinner of the house.
"What will they do? Hmph, mother will probably still keep her job as would my dad if she's lucky. She only denounced him in public to save face after the scandal broke out. Hud and Mad will probably be under investigation for their own crimes. Tod will be attending some therapy. Me? I'll be bearing the consequences of my rumourmongering." The pink lizard then added; "Make no mistake. I didn't help you out of the goodness of my heart. I helped you out of spite for her and Anton. Nothing more."
"Fine by me." Akira replied. Migu nodded in understanding and walked off, the gossiping students going quiet til she was gone where they spoke up again.
"Ugh. I wouldn't be surprised if her and mother had blackmailed the board to keep their spots. Probably bribed them even..." Akira heard one of the female students say to her friend before he left to go back to class.
Brewster's Boxing Gym, Geno City
Afternoon
A young male squirrel was boxing away at a punch bag with a dark-maned lion holding it for him. In-between his gloves smacking against the bag's fabric, they could hear a few of the local gym-goers chatting away.
"...I think Anton felt fear because these Phantom Thieves knew of what he's done and made him confess..."
"...Is it possible they're back for good?..."
"...If they can take down the head of the Hooligans, then I hope that Mayor's next on the list and Captain Krouch too..."
The boxing squirrel stops to listen to the conversations going on with the lion peeking out from behind the bag. "What's up?"
"Since that prick Anton went down, I'm hearing more about the Phantom Thieves around here. How they brought down the biggest street gang in town." The squirrel glances around the gym. "How they got him to confess to his crimes."
"Heard a few students talking about it but only those from this side. Everyone else assumes he was having a mental breakdown."
"A breakdown that exposed both a shady housing scheme and the truth behind Farrell's murder. They must have had something they were threatening him with to make him squeal."
"We'll not know until later."
"Or the wankers in charge will be covering it up as usual." The squirrel tutted, focusing back on the bag to start punching it up again. "You know that Captain Krouch will be furiously looking for these vigilantes because they upstaged him. Maybe even sleeping with his ex. I'll believe these folks when they actually make him confess to his crimes..."
Rockwell's, Geno City
Afternoon
Akira, Manic, Johnny, Cortez and Little John met up at Rockwell's for a post-confession victory celebration following yesterday's news. The girls couldn't make it as Monica and Patty were off to resupply their wardrobes in Cyber City after leaving Anton's gang while Tatiana has been called up by Detective Keilee to be interviewed as she's considered a key witness in the Anton Veruca Case.
The brown hedgehog told them that through his network and noting how the takedown of Anton has gotten him more folks to do business with, the guitar had been sold off in a private auction to an interested collector who paid around 20 Million Mobiums to their astonishment. And they were selling off other items from Anton's Palace as well.
Unfortunately; the person he helped set up the auction with had taken a bigger cut of the profits as an auction fee than originally agreed on and left him with 10 Million for the guitar plus some change from the other items sold which he can either take it or leave it, making Little John swear that he'll never do business with him again after that.
Akira, Johnny and Cortez got 1,250,000 each in an envelope each for their cut while Manic and Little John took the rest. Planning to put their lot towards paying off the medical expenses, treating Jean as well as helping her overcome her addictions, getting a new place and donating towards the neighbourhood of Soucie Street.
"...Glad that Anton's down." Little John said to the group, looking over to Jeck and Karmen. "Neither of you will be bothered by his guys ever again."
"I'm glad too." Jeck replied with a nod, smiling. "Business here has been picking up as a result. I've been making way more now that I don't have to pay protection money. Because of that, I might be able to save up to get a new pinball machine put in here."
"That's great to hear." Akira said with a smile. "You won't be seeing Francis and Grant come here any time soon lest they're asking for a death wish."
"Especially after I got this thing." Jeck said with a grin, pulling a nickel-plated Colt Anaconda .44 magnum revolver with an 8-inch long barrel from under the counter. "Figure if any of them try something, they'll be staring down the barrel of this thing."
"C'mon…" Karmen said with a groan. "Quit showing that thing off. You're flexing."
"Ah, sorry sweetie." Jeck replied, putting the revolver back. "Wait… 'Flexing?' is that a word you kids use nowadays."
"Ugggghhh… You're so uncool…" Karmen groaned, getting her phone back out and checking her social media on it.
"Show your granddad some credit here." Akira said sternly and firmly to Karmen, feeling particularly ticked off by her comment. "He endured having to deal with those thugs by himself for a while and he did all of that for you, even under threat of violence from them. Their leader Anton as you're aware had murdered a father in cold blood and spent the rest of those years up to yesterday a free man who got away it while stepping on others along the way."
He then points to Karmen that looked up from her phone. "Wanna know what's really uncool? That same person planned to have you abducted and sold off to a brothel because he didn't like the fact that an 'uncool dude' told his debt collectors to screw a cactus. The piece he's got there? He brought it after learning about that his granddaughter who passed the geometry state exam was going to have her life destroyed by a far-gone piece of shit in his greed. When they came here a few days back, he didn't pull it out when they shake him down for money. He pulled it out when you came up in the exchange and they high-tailed it out of here..."
The wolf told her of what was going on behind the scenes while all fired up. "That fire they caused? That could have easily happened to this shop if their leader was feeling especially petty about that act he did. There's nothing uncool about someone risking their lives for their children or grandchildren in your case. At least you still have your granddad here to talk to and not in the dirt inside a wooden coffin... At least he'll get to live to see you make it up in the world out of the slums... There's people out there who graduates and they'll have that one empty seat in the audience for someone they wished were sitting on it..."
With his loaded words finally smacking some perspective into her and putting down the phone; Karmen then looked at Jeck, frowning a bit and sighed; "…Dad, I... I guess I've kinda been ungrateful lately and… I guess… I guess I'm ready to earn my keep by working here."
"Kiddo…" Jeck said with a smile. "That's what I've been waiting to here."
Karmen smiled a bit too, then hugged Jeck. Grateful that he's still around to speak to her and love her.
"Man, you were really riled up over that." Cortez looks to Akira as the wolf sat back down.
"Wouldn't you be yourself?" The wolf answered back. "Some people just don't know how fortunate they are with what they have til they lose it one day and lament over the what-could-have-beens. I guess I felt the need to tell her that for her to understand what she's got so that she won't end up regretting it later. It really bothered me that she was acting like that in spite of what was going on. I had to make her really see what he was doing for her."
"Yeah…" Manic said but soon smiled and said to them; "Still, we did good. We did very good in fact, didn't we?"
"We did." Akira nodded. "We brought down someone would have continued to get away with his crimes for many more years and ruin several more lives. Not only that, we've given Geno City the courage to speak against him and his people."
"Not only that, we helped avenge the lives he either took or caused the demise of." Johnny added with a smike. "Who knows what else we've thrown a wrench into because of what we did."
"I suppose only time will tell…" Manic said with an approving nod, then leaned back in his seat casually and added; "Welp, nothing left to do but live up our victory like this."
The five boys then took a toast to their recent victory while Karmen and Jeck were talking in the cafe's kitchen.
"So, what now?" Little John spoke up. "We took out our enemy and we've got the rest of Northamer taking notice of what's going on in Cyber City beneath the surface. Got a public confession for Farrell's murder too."
"I went into this originally to help you and Manic with your Anton problem." Akira said as he thought about it. "Figured it'd be a one and done affair. Go back to my life but..."
"But what?"
"Maybe it's the excitement or me experiencing firsthand on how corrupt a person can really be but I'm not sure if I can return to my normal life anymore..." The wolf answered. "Hmph. Normal life... A life where I spent the last three years as an indifferent zombie before I got myself tied up in business that wasn't mine to get involved in. I don't want to go back to it now when I've felt more alive in this one month than three years' worth of acedia. Not after knowing evil like him thrives on inaction."
"I think I've achieved more with what we've done than what I was doing up to that point." Johnny interjected. "Bringing down a criminal like Anton? That's helped a lot of people have the courage to speak up and that is something I want to keep doing. I feel like I've really found my purpose."
"Me? I enjoy the experience of traversing the Metaverse and making a difference in the real world." Cortez added. "Helps that we can make profits from it too with the loot."
"Yeah, like..." Manic straightens up. "I just avenged the death of my dad and basically saved my entire neighborhood from a shady land development scheme. I feel nothing but absolute catharsis right now. And after all that, would I really want to stop? Fuck no. I wanna keep going."
As the green hedgehog spoke, he thought about his late father for a moment. Remembering a special memory of them together one night...
"...Ain't that a beautiful star there?" Farrell points up to the skies with him and a young Manic atop the roof of their home. The pair doing stargazing together. The insect having recently completed a job that left him available to spend time with his son.
The young Manic stared up at the shining stars in awe. Fascinated the diamonds of the dark skies encrusting the heavens. Beautiful and ever so infinite in the summits of his youthful imagination.
"It is..." He says, staring at one of the brighter stars in the skies. "Dad. If you could grab any star up there, what would you take?"
"Hmm... If I could grab any star, I'd grab Sadalsuud from Aquarius because I would be lucky forevermore with it in my pocket and be blessed with good fortunes beyond material fortunes. If stars were magic, Geno City would strike gold and be a healthy metropolis again." Farrell smiles as he answers the question. "Any stars full of life and joy I would not mind having. Long ago in our distant yesterdays, man yearned to reach for those stars and behold their majesty but could never touch because they're always too far away for them. In our current today and distant tomorrows, we will still yearn to touch a star."
The insect mobian sights a shooting star in the sky, pointing to it. "Quick, make a wish!"
Manic shuts his eyes and says a wish in his head before the moving light disappears from their sights.
"A stór, have you made your wish there?" The master thief asks his young charge with a smile, ruffling his hair and getting a thumbs up from Manic in response. "May your wish come true."
The young Manic knew what his wish is. To be the man his father is to him and be worthy of his legacy. He always knew what he wanted to be and nothing else then or now compares to that for him. Someday, he'll grow up to be the Nicolas of Myra to his own people just as Farrell had been for them and doing his own father proud.
Manic knows Farrell would be congratulating him for a successful job well done. Probably commend his new friends for their efforts to stick it to people like Fumfer and Krouch.
"Even if you four wanted to out of this, people on the streets are singing your praises. Me and Manic while we were handling the guitar heard people talking about how this group of unknowns has brought down the biggest street gang in Geno City by going for the head." Little John says to the four. "I've even heard some say you, the Phantom Thieves are the real heroes of Cyber City."
"The Phantom Thieves?" Johnny questioned. "Is that what they're calling us?"
"That's what we called ourselves on the calling card to Anton." Akira interjected. "Named after the legendary outlaw group the Phantom Thieves of Hearts."
"They heard of how Anton got a calling card and how he was so intimidated by it that he wasn't seen or heard from for a few days til his confession." Little John told the other three. "Remarking that the Phantom Thieves has finally returned to bring their brand of justice onto a man thought untouchable by the law. How his kind's days are numbered with them back in action."
"Phantom Thieves huh?" Cortez smiled at that. "I like the sound of that."
"They did what we're doing now. Exposing the corrupt and bringing them to justice within their society." Akira noted, looking at his team. "I think the time's now for a new incarnation of the team to born to carry on their mission of giving justice to the people that the law can't or won't do for them. We have the power to make a great difference in the world for everybody else. If we're going to go after more criminals like Anton, we'll need to go by a name."
"All in favour of the Phantom Thieves of Hearts?" O.V.I spoke, speaking on their behalf. Comfortably placed on the center of the table.
"Aye!" Akira, Manic, Johnny and Cortez all said at once.
"Any objections?" With the four's silence, Little John knew their answer. "Then from this day forward, the new Phantom Thieves of Hearts has officially been formed after passing the trial by fire. Founders: Akira Amamiya, Johnny Lightfoot, Paulie Manić Hedgehog and Inigo Cortez."
"You're as much apart of the team as we are." Akira said to the stout hedgehog.
"Maybe so but only Persona users can be considered as full members of the set. I'm just an associate." Little John smiled back at him. "Can't be a Phantom Thief without one."
"In any case, here's a toast to a new foundation that will make history just like the Knothole Freedom Fighters." Cortez said as five boys took another toast to mark this significant occasion. "Whatever the future may hold for us; we will prevail above all else."
"All for justice..." Akira said while thinking of his parents. "Justice for all..."
Jeck and Karmen would come back out of the kitchen, not having heard the five's declaration as the older Mobian asks on if they needed any top-ups. The five all said yes and they took to celebrating what the owners thought was about Anton's arrest rather than something much greater that took place in his malt shop. They celebrated on and hung out as a group of unlikely friends that came together by circumstances which all began with someone spreading rumours about two people at the campus.
Plans were set to put together a fun day out to help them get some much-needed relief from the high-tensions of the Anton Saga weeks prior. Ideas and some funny stories were passed around the table like Little John's attempt to break into the pro wrestling business.
With everything that's happened, they deserved such a break to enjoy themselves a bit but they're not forgetting who their next target is: Captain Krouch of the Cyber City Police Department. If Anton's confession doesn't bring him down, they'll do the job themselves... The same way they brought down his associate...
Cyber City Police Department, Cyber City
Evening
Down at the holding cells and in protective custody with a guard assigned to him, there sat a downtrodden Anton Veruca. Having been taken in yesterday to be questioned by Detective Keilee for a lot of the crimes he's committing and only pausing the long interrogation sessions for now due to having take a look at the volume of claims against the lizard from several of his victims whom were coming forwards to the police before he can get back to him tonight.
A hooligan who came into Geno City then with nothing. Nothing except his own belongings, old memories of home and his family.
He had the money, the power and the influence over the slums of Geno City with many goons at his disposal that he all gained by killing Manic's father Farrell while it slowly distorted how he treated his own family. One he executed out of fear for what would have happened to him while being in police custody for a store robbery went wrong when the offer was made to him and for fear of falling back into irrelevance again that plagued his existence for so long.
Now, he's lost just about everything after his confession including his wealth and himself coming out of his reign of terror a diminished person worse off than where he began.
"Hello Anton."
Anton looks up to see his own rival Manic the Hedgehog standing at the other side of the cell. The green hedgehog looking in from the outside with hands in the jean pockets and here to see him. "It's been a while, hasn't it?"
"...You here to gloat about me falling from grace?" Anton growls weakly. "Tell me this is sweet karma for everything I've done to you?"
"No. I'm here to see how you're doing." Manic said calmly, looking over his rival and seeing the weight loss on him. "I saw your confession. You admitted to some serious crimes. For all of your talk of being a big shot gangster, you broke the rule of the streets by snitching on your own rivals to the police and your band of Hooligans are paying the price for it with them getting clapped by other gangs you tried to take the turfs of. It's quite a drop from where you were before."
"I had the money, the power, the influence... I destroyed your life, took your girl and murdered your father. Yet you're standing there acting like the bigger man here."
"What's there to gloat about with you? You went and destroyed yourself publicly." The green hedgehog spoke evenly. "There's no point on me kicking you while you're down."
"Damn you Manic!" Anton yelled in frustration, shooting up from his seat and rushing over to grip the bars of his cell. "I have ruined you! I have taken so much from you! You should be savouring this moment! Have nothing but hatred for me for everything I've done!"
"So? That's all in the past now." Manic crosses his arms, unfazed by the green reptile's outburst. "Tell me something, why me? Why me of all people to dedicate half of your life towards? It didn't start from nothing."
"...I remember that a week into my move to here, I got mugged in an alley at knifepoint one day for over thirty-five mobiums I was going to use to buy Migu a big teddybear from a toy store for her birthday and how afraid I felt for my life. I remember the sneering grimace on your face and the shadows over your eyes... How scary you looked with the way you held the knife. Ordering me to hand you the money in a very threatening voice..." Anton recounted in a subdued tone, remembering that traumatic scene from memory. "Then once I handed over the money, you laughed in my face, called me a loser and told me to get out of your sight..."
The derisive laugh of Manic rang in his thoughts as Anton explains the root of their rivalry. "When I ran back home and Mama asked why I came home empty, I told her what happened. Rather than show concern about her son being a victim of a mugging, she got mad that I brought shame to the Veruca name by letting myself get mugged by some two-bit thug instead of being a man and making him eat the tarmac... I felt utterly humiliated because of you and what's worse is you don't even remember it..."
"...And that started your mission to see me in ruin. I know now I wasn't a good dude then. I've had more than enough time to think it over." Manic nodded slowly, offering him a sympathetic gaze. "I did plenty of things I've regretted doing since and mugging you at knifepoint is one of them. I don't know why I did it or what exactly made me target you but that wasn't cool of me and I deeply apologise for it. I understand that I'm as much at fault for starting this war between us."
"...Another reason I dedicated myself to destroying you is because I envy the life you and your father have. When I see how much respect your old man gets compared to mine, the fact you have a bombshell like Tatiana and how many friends you have; I feel nothing but complete jealously for your success. I wanted what you have but I knew I was too much of an unpopular loser to earn any of it and when I had the opportunity to turn my luck around by getting even with you, I took it without hesitation..." The green lizard said sombrely. "I wasted your pa to get what I wanted yet I never felt happy even with the luxury I brought in blood... I could have actually moved on with my life but I chose to keep dwelling on trying to win a competition that you already won before it even started and took me until recently to realise that..."
"I won't ever forgive you for the years of hell you gave me, how you tried to bring me to ruin out of sheer pettiness and the fact you murdered my father in cold blood. I could relish this one and cheer for you getting to experience what you put me through including you being bars..." Manic admitted to him; knowing he once dreamt of the shoe being on the other foot for Anton. "But that won't bring him back or the other lives you took in your spite. What I can say is that because of you; I have learned to start taking steps on bettering myself as a person."
"...Is it so that you can feel morally superior to me?" Anton asks.
"I'm doing it because if I don't change my own ways now, I'll end up in the same place as you." The adopted son of Farrell shakes his head. "Who you are to me is what I might and could become. What you put me through, that's a real humbling experience I desperately needed because I was getting too big for my own bridges and too set in my ways. I learned to treasure the people I have in my life rather than take them for granted like I used to and acknowledging my own faults instead of blaming it on others around me. I'll still make mistakes but I won't let myself fall fully into those self-destructive habits and I know my friends won't allow it either."
The hedgehog turns his back to his rival; his dark mirror. "You have helped me more than what you were harming me. For that, I thank you. You've been a real education for me. Goodbye Anton."
On that note, Manic walks off with his head held high. Laying a piece of his old life to rest and moving on with his new life. Feeling nothing but pity for the Number One Hooligan who now lives to wallow in his regrets. Letting go of his hatred for Anton now that he knows he is only one symptom of the problem plaguing Cyber City. He is simply a pawn who thinks he's a king on the board...
To Be Continued...