Raymond Farid:
"What was that sound," I ask, hearing something as soon as my wife and I return with more Blaschka flowers. "Did you hear that?"
Running through the museum's hallway, back to the Glass Flower exhibit, I scream when I see the display case empty.
"Raymond," my wife yells, running over to me. "What---Oh no."
Turning her head, my wife sees the same thing I see. A completely empty display case with a large circular opening on it.
"The Blaschka flowers," Quinn shouts. "Where are they? What happened to them?"
Before I can even think of a possible explanation, I hear that strange sound again.
"Follow me," I say. I look around for a safe spot. Looking at the empty glass display, I reach through the hole in the case and place the flowers down.
"Come on! Put the flowers down and then follow me."
My wife places the flowers down and follows me. Following the strange sound, we rush through the hallway. Entering the Nests and Eggs exhibit, I stop when I see someone holding up the whole Egg display case.
"The Green Emerald Ninja," I shout, not believing my eyes. I rub them to make sure I'm not seeing things but no, what I'm seeing right now is what I'm seeing right now.
"Why are you here? And what have you done?"
For some strange reasons that I can't even begin to understand, the famous Boston Green Emerald Ninja is trapped underneath the display case. He's struggling to keep it from crashing onto the floor. Wanting to keep the eggs safe, I rush to help the Green Ninja.
"I got it," I say, helping to hold one side up. With my help, the Green Ninja and I can start to lower the display case gently.
"Easy," I say, looking at the eggs as they move around. They're rolling all over the glass but thankfully, none of them have cracked yet.
"Easy. Easy!"
Gently setting the whole case down, the Green Ninja and I stand back up. As I stand straight up and catch my breath, I hear my wife's voice.
"Over here," Quinn yells. "Guards! Over here! In the Nests and Eggs Exhibit!"
A few seconds later, Quinn runs back into the exhibit with three security guards behind her. The guards freeze when they see the Green Ninja.
"It's the Green Emerald Ninja," one of the guards whispers.
"No way," another one says. "My son is not going to believe this!"
"Wait, what is he even doing here? The museum isn't open yet."
"Raymond," my wife says. She runs up and hugs me. As she hugs me, I waste no time and hug her back. We stay like this for a few minutes before pulling back.
"Don't worry," I say with a smile. "Not a single egg is cracked."
"I'm glad," my wife answers with a smile. However, her smile disappears a second later.
"While looking for the security guards," Quinn starts, "I checked the surveillance cameras. All of today's footage was deleted."
"What about the guard on duty at the time?"
"We found him tapped up. He said a girl with orange hair duck-tapped him before stealing his ID badge. She then crawled into the air vents and disappeared."
"So it might have been the girl who stole the glass flowers," I say. "Still."
"Still," Quinn repeats.
Turning away from my wife, I walk over to the Green Ninja.
"Mr...Green Ninja," I say. "One of our exhibits was robbed. A guard said that a young girl with orange hair did it, but nevertheless, I still find it suspicious that you're here."
Nemo Farid:
"Suspicious," Akio repeats.
"Suspicious," I repeat. "Oh no. Dad, come on. Don't jump to that conclusion. Please, please, please don't do it."
"Mr. Green Ninja," my dad says again. "Until we either find this girl with orange hair or the Blaschka glass flowers, I need you to stay here and wait for the police."
"The police," I scream.
"Guards," my dad says, turning to the security guards standing nearby. "Please escort Mr. Green Ninja to the security office."
Hearing this, the guards, clearly confused and hesitant, still approach Akio.
"Akio," I shout, grabbing his shoulders. "Run."
"What," Akio whispers.
"Just run. Now!"
Confused and hesitant, Akio nods and turns around.
"He's running," my dad yells, pointing at Akio. "Stop him!"
The guards lunge for Akio but Akio jumps into the air, dodging them and running down one of the museum's hallways.
"After him," my dad yells. The guards push themselves up and chase after us. While running down the hallway, Akio turns to me.
"Nemo. Please explain to me why I started running away from your dad and his guards."
"Easy," I say, flying beside Akio as he runs. "My dad said police."
"Police?"
"Yes, the police! You know. These people who asked questions like 'Who are you'! Akio, the Green Ninjas is famous but Nemo Farid isn't, and honestly, I really want to keep it like that. Besides, if anyone finds out who I am, or worse, what I have, who knows what could happen? People could try and take away the emerald dragon. They could break it in order to learn about the magic, destroying you! And without you, my family and I will be defenseless when Don Yokuna Yokubo attacks. Along with all of Boston! We can't let the police interview us."
Akio nods his head after I finish my explanation. As Akio nods, he looks ahead and stops, his feet skidding against the carpeted floor.
Standing in front of us are four security guards, blocking the hallway. Akio turns around but the three security guards from before catch up to us, surrounding us.
Slowly but surely, they approach us with their hands out.
"Akio," I say, looking at the approaching guards. "Please don't hurt them. They're just innocent people."
"Yeah," Akio says, holding out his hands. He gets into a fighting stance, spreading out his legs.
"I'll try not to hurt them too much."
Only a few feet from us now, one of the guards throws himself at Akio. Akio seeing this, jumps into the air. The guard misses Akio and falls to the floor. The second Akio lands back on his feet, two more guards lunge for him.
"Akio, watch out!"
"I see them!"
Twisting his body, Akio then jumps into the air. As he jumps, he pushes his hands and legs together and spins in the air. The two guards that lunge for Akio miss and hit each other instead. They fall back while holding their noses.
This time, landing on one hand and a knee, Akio looks up.
"Behind you!"
Akio looks behind him but it's too late. A guard rushes from behind Akio and grabs him. The guard grabs Akio's shoulder and lifts him up.
"Akio!"
"Don't worry," Akio says. "I got this!"
Swinging his legs up, Akio throws the guard off balance. He stumbles back, tripping on his own feet and falling. As the guard falls, Akio rolls back, landing on his feet.
"This is useless," Akio says, watching as all the guards that fell push themselves up and surround us.
"I know," I say, "But still. I don't want to hurt any of them."
"Neither do I but how am I supposed to escape if I cannot fight?"
I look at Akio as he reaches for his bokken swords. He grabs the handle but doesn't pull his wooden sword out. As I watch the guards approaching Akio, getting closer and closer, I look up and see some pipes.
"The pipes," I say, slapping myself on my ghostly head. "Akio! Look up!"
Pointing up, Akio sees the pipes and smiles.
"Remember the smoke cloud," I say with a smile.
Akio nods and lets go of his sword handle. He looks around and sees another display case, this one being tall. Bending his knees, Akio runs toward one of the security guards. The guard has his arms wide open. When he sees Akio running toward him, he closes them to try and catch Akio but Akio jumps. He jumps onto the guard's shoulder and onto the display case. Pushing himself up, Akio then jumps from the top of the display case to the pipes. Going from pipe to pipe like a kid on the monkey bars, Akio escapes the guards.
Jumping and swinging from one pipe, Akio throws himself into the air before landing on a pipe. Now, running on top of them, we look down and see the guards still chasing us.
"This way," I say, flying ahead. Pointing to the right, Akio takes the turn. "Now drop to the floor!"
Akio jumps off the pipe and lands on the floor.
"Now go through this door. It's an exit!"
Akio bursts through the red metal door. However, the second he bursts through it, the fire alarm goes off.
"Nemo," Akio shouts.
"It was the emergency escape door," I answer. "Forget it. Just run."