Chương 86: Interlude: The Escape

When big sis Leah had crashed into the exhibit room, Meiko had done what would have been the logical thing—admittedly out of several logical things—and dived behind her cart, putting the bulk of its mass between herself and big sis Leah. Then she'd popped her head up and looked around, because she'd lost her hat again, and she really needed to remember to keep it on her head when she was rolling.

Fortunately, it had rolled nearby, so she had put it back on before diving back behind her cart and pulling out Oscar in in his default e-laser gun form. Her gun hand peeking over her cart but finger off the trigger, Meiko had a perfect excuse for her buddy to scan the room. Classes on trigger discipline kept her finger off the trigger, and if it took her a few seconds to remember have the gun reconfigure to stun baton form, that was absolutely intentional. After all, she was supposed to be caught by surprise.

She and Oscar locked onto their target—or rather, where their target was supposed to be—and waited. It took a while, because there were a lot of big sisters going after big sis Leah. After the first time big sis used a flashbang in the room, Meiko decided to keep her head down, and plug her ears with vennfluid, because it had been a lot louder and brighter than she had thought it would be. Then realized she might miss the moment, and reluctantly poked her head back up.

This was her plan, she couldn't be the one who didn't do her part! Meiko almost missed the moment when big sis Leah slammed into the display case with their target, having dodged to try to avoid attempts to shoot at her. She heard the crash of heavy wood falling over and breaking glass, and Meiko couldn't help but wince. She'd helped one of her crèche-sisters with glasswork a few months ago, and it had been hard, even with them using vennplate to handle the molten glass. Meiko?

She shook pushed away the feeling at Oscar's reminder, focusing on their target. The little sensor on her buddy's chassis had managed to keep track of it, and she sent a small spell of vennplate after it. The spell was low to the ground, and the same profile that let it fit under the sofa also let it go unnoticed amidst all of the excitement, especially with her concentrating on not letting her venn glow purple. Her spell wrapped around the targets, pulling themback towards her. Theft, successful.

Her instincts told her she needed to let people know what she had, to put them back where they were supposed to be. Instead, she wrapped them in her handkerchief and slipped the bundle into the inner pocket of her coat where she kept her flashlight, pocket tools, and emergency knife. It was the safest place for it to go. Then she dove back under her cart for cover until big sis Leah final left the room.

Leah was surrounded, mostly because she'd spent the last ten minutes of being chased luring as many people as possibly into the room she'd chosen to take her stand. At this end of the Old Earth Museum, the top floor was dedicated to Earth-centric astronomy, and was looking… not its best at the moment. Displays had been shoved in attempts to get at her, doors had been wrenched open, and everything was a mess.

When she'd begun making her way upstairs again, people had gotten ahead of her and filled the cafeteria she'd originally broken in through, trying to block her way out, and she had been forced to the other end of the building to this room.

She was feeling guilty about the mess, but it was just another thing to put into the pile of things she was guilty about The past hour had been very demanding, and while Leah regarded herself as decently physically fit, she was hard a regular at competitive Sakura obstacle coruses.

At the moment, she really, really wanted to pant with her mouth open, guzzle up a big bottle of water, take a shower and pass out on her bed—preferably in that order, but any would also do as long as the whole list was there—but she still needed to get out of here without being caught or identified. The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation. They had a plan for that last, but it still looked like pulling it off was going to be dicey.

And in this instance, the dice were cursed to roll ones and critically fail.

"Well, this has been fun heroes, but some of us have other things they need to do," Leah taunted as she languidly turned in place under the skylight, making a show of tucking a little mass of vennplate into bag at her waist. Unfortunately, several people had had the good sense to slap vennplate barriers over it. And the rest of the ceiling as well. And over all the walls, too. No one seemed to have thought to cover up the floor yet, but she needed to get the ball rolling before they though to do that as well.

"And let's all face it, it's the middle of the night and you all probably want to sleeeeeeep." She drew out that last word, and watched as some girl's eyelids actually did flutter down tiredly before snapping open again in a burst of outrage and adrenaline.

"Flattery will get you nowhere! We won't rest until you've been brought justice, you… criminal!" someone cried, and there was a general outraged cry of agreement.

"This is a second offense at best!" Leah said primly, mildly offended on Meiko's behalf.

"That talented singer who was outrageously jailed for singing in a public place did not get unfairly branded a criminal until at least her fifteenth!"

"You're a Phantom Thief!" someone else cried.

"No one calls themselves a Phantom Thief unless they plan to do crimes!"

"Hey, don't go there, violent vigilantism is a crime too!" Leah shot back. She pointed in the general direction of the Crashpoint breach.

"Apologize to biggest sister!" That girl actually paused to think about, looked guilty and turned and bowed in the general direction of the breach.

"Sorry, biggest sister," she said.

"But what you're doing is still wrong!"

"As wrong as neglecting Nikaede-neesama's statue?" Several people flinched at that. It felt very strange to be the Phantom Thief who was actually making a good point in the middle of a crime. Leah stretched languidly, moving slowly so people wouldn't get jumpy, but making no effort to hide the fact that she was wrapping one forearm in vennplate, another drill-tip forming around it. Her cape hung straight and still on her back.

Around her, people raised weapons, swords being set to stun as vennplate glowed over the actual cutting edge and points of the metal. They're still hurt a lot¸ but at least they wouldn't actually dice her to itty-bitty pieces. As Leah pulls back her drill fist, everyone in the rooms leaps at her at once… only for her cape to explode into vennplate confetti, dispersing all across the room.

Those nearest her flinched vennplate slamming up in front of their faces and ears to protect them from what should have been a flashbang. Their protections retracted once their buddies realized it hadn't been a flashbang… in time for them to catch the real flashbang face first as a third of the confetti exploded into light and sound… and kept on exploding as the other two thirds went off in staggered explosions soon after.

Girls who'd been expecting a single burst because that's what she'd been doing all evening found themselves blinded and deafened all over again at the surprise triple tap. Leah took full advantage of it as she punched her drill-spike arm straight down into the unblocked floor, dropping down into the very empty room underneath. She knew that wouldn't last, but at the moment, there was nothing in front of her.

Vennplasma erupted from the region of her shoulder blades and the soles of her feet, granting her addition thrust even as she made the field of vennfluid she'd wrapped around her body accelerate her. A pair of doors hung open, and she took them, accelerating more in the straightaway, even as she heard girls coming down through the hole she'd made and those upstairs trying to turn around to find alternate paths to cut her off.

Everyone's overeagerness to chase after her had left the floor below empty, the little sisters huddled out of sight and staying out of the way. Even as she heard others giving chase, the way in front of her was clear since everyone had gone upstairs to try and block what they'd thought would be her way out.

That left no real opposition as she mentally diverted as much magic as she could to her propulsion and raised the drill spike in front of her, even as more vennplate wrapped around her arms and shoulders as she aimed at a window A now unprotected window. A window that broke as Leah slammed into and through it like a rocket and into the night. The hour of the distraction was up. Either Meiko had managed to get everything done or she hadn't, but Leah was out of there!