Someone throughout history had once said that a plan with more than four steps was not a plan, it was wishful thinking. The reason for that statement had been evident to most of its readers; any slight deviation to the plan would interrupt any steps further along the line, and the chain reaction would render it almost entirely useless. The hybrid hadn’t truly counted the steps in his plan, but he had tried to keep it simple so that if anything did go wrong, his crew would not be caught entirely without an idea of what they should be doing to rectify the situation. He had thought of escape routes throughout the city that would avoid a majority of the populace. He had ensured that there were no Black Guard nearby for when the crime had been committed. Precautions of all shapes and sizes had been run through his tactical mind, and though he had prepared for what he considered to be every potential eventuality, he had not at all expected for Parren to miraculously set loose a mob after them, nor for them to be so persistent as to hound the group throughout the city.
The twilight hybrid found himself quickly scaling a building using an outdoor ladder to give himself a better view of the situation. The arising calls and yells of the vigilant protectors of Parren’s wealth revealed them far before he could see them with his eye, and he vaguely caught notice of their fluttering tunics and assorted faces from behind a structure opposite of him. Crimson eyes scanned the partially obscured street, attempting to locate their target, and they quickly settled upon a flash of brilliant red hair: Oxy.
Noth quickly slid down the building’s roof, sprinting down the street parallel to that of the mob, and rapidly sending himself down a set of alleyways that would hopefully intercept with the Aukari’s path. His question of whether he would catch the giant of a man in time was answered when the person in question nearly barreled into him, his head glinting with sweat, and his breath hitched in his chest as he tried to regain his composure. There was a slight jingle to him, though the reason for it was rather clearly the pair of bags hidden away behind his clothes.
“They… know.” He huffed out between breaths, casting a worried glance backwards as though he expected the crowd to suddenly materialize at their mere mention.
“That they do. Give me one of those.” He ordered, retrieving one of the bags from the Aukari and hiding it within his own cloth. It was a liability to have a condemned asset be responsible for holding the loot, especially since if he were caught, it would mean that they would not be paid properly for their troublesome efforts.
There were calls emitting outwards from the street which connected to the small alleyway of ‘Where’d he go?’ and ‘He went that way!’, and though the crowd seemed to have lost sight of the Aukari, they were bound to catch him at some point. Noth’s vile mind went to work, attempting to process the stimuli into some figment of reason. Why had the crowd suddenly decided to work with Parren? It was true that he possessed many fanciful prizes, but it seemed rather uncharacteristic of him to somehow make the crowd actually support him.
The other option was that the hustler had used one of his own artifacts to somehow sway the opinions of the crowd, but how would they even test that? The time that the hybrid had for thinking was cut brutally short when a cry of ‘There he is!’ erupted from the street, and the Aukari before him gave a curt nod before taking off into a dead-sprint once more. The hybrid leaned back into the dark of the alley, observing as the crowd mindlessly chased after him.
It was there that he observed the evidence he needed. Oxy had somehow managed to tear a small hole in his remaining pouch when he had robbed Parren, and it now leaked the occasional gold coin upon the ground. Rather spectacularly, every time one of the golden nels fell, the entire crowd seemed to come to a hold in order to properly retrieve it before returning to their chase. For all of the savagery inherent in their organizational type, the mob was one of the most careful groups he had ever seen.
Mind-control then.
If the crowd was more focused upon gathering up the coins than on catching the Aukari, that meant their priorities had likely been set towards simply retrieving the stolen coin. That was good, because it meant that Oxy had a fair chance of simply getting away from the entire ordeal. The hybrid simply had to inform him of the new plan.
There was some difficulty in that given that the Aukari had already bolted from the scene, and there was a mob of nearly fifty haranguing him around every corner, but it was not completely out of the realm of possibility. The hybrid had designed the escape routes himself, and a quick mental recall of the plans laid out where Oxy would be going for the duration of the getaway. The hybrid would need to skip a few of the roads if he wanted a chance of getting there on time, however, and that led to an entirely new dilemma.
At least, it might have if he didn’t have a lone black wing jutting out of his back.
The hybrid allowed the wing to unclasp itself from his back, and with a running jump, he pushed it downwards, propelling himself upwards to the nearest building, and hauling himself up the remainder of the way once his hands had taken hold. The next building was across a rather busy street, and the hybrid knew that needing to run through it would drastically slow him. He took a running jump, flapping his twilight wing once more and sending himself hurtling across the street with surprising force.
Admittedly, it was not enough force to clear the entire street, and he rather unceremoniously smashed into the wall on the opposite side, but at the very least he had managed to cross the street without terribly wounding himself or breaking anything. Rather frustratingly, he had been noticed by several of the passerby, and though they observed him with distrusting eyes, they seemed rather content with letting him continue whatever stunts he was performing.
“Oxy!” The twilight hybrid shouted as the red-haired fellow ran into view, his eyes diverting from the street ahead of him towards his new boss.
He was utterly breathless, and he held the appearance of someone who was on the verge of collapse. Oxy had been built for strength, not endurance, and though his mighty muscles allowed him to haul stone, he was not well-equipped for hauling himself.
“They’re being controlled. Give me the pouch.”
The Aukari nodded wearily, handing it over without complaint as the first of the crowd came into view. Admittedly, they looked rather dreadfully ill-equipped for the chase as well, and Noth felt certain that he could hear several of those near the front breaking into awful wheezing and coughing fits as they attempted to regain their composure.
“Look! I have all of the money the Aukari took from Parren!” He shouted, holding up the pouch to show them the object of their chase.
They eyed it with a strange intensity, like wolves drawn to lambs, or moths to a flame. The crowd, rather surprisingly came to a halt as they stared at him, waiting for him to either run away or else return the money to their possession.
Noth; unsurprisingly, chose a third option. He opened the top of the pouch, revealing the coins within, and promptly hurled the entirety of the bag over the nearest building, directly into the street where he had just been. The same street crowded with greedy vendors, and swamped with people milling about doing business.
That same street very quickly became the site of a rather nasty riot, or at least it would have appeared to be one to anyone not caught up in the trance of Parren. The brainwashed people fought with those who had scooped up loose nel from the street, yanking it from their possession with forceful roughness, and the presence of so many clearly violent individuals gathered into such a small space was almost certainly going to alert the Black Guard to their presence, which meant that they would be far too busy dealing with the sudden riot then dealing with the Aukari and Avriel who were busy slipping away down dark alleys, heading towards the Underground so that they could make their way back home.
And the best part about the whole thing?
Noth still had a bag of coins, and Slip still had a bag of coins, and Thane still had a bag of coins.
They were definitely going drinking when they were done.
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