"Damien, we need your help! We're trying to get in this guys home to steal a necklace, but we can't find a way in, got any ideas?" asked a tall boy.
Damien had been with the Street Urchins maybe half a year now, and just like he thought it had always been fun. Running from guards, stealing from jerks, and having an all-around good time, there was barely ever a dull moment.
"Jimmy, Duncan what can you guys tell me about the mark?" replied Damien.
The tall boy with tanned skin, dark hair with a green streak, and horribly dirty teeth was Jimmy, 10 years old. The pale skinned boy, a little taller than Damien, with long black hair and a long, black scarf was Duncan, 9 years old.
"Everybody around just calls him the Baron, he's an old dude known for working with the local mafia, and selling drugs to kids," Jimmy explained, "He recently spent a fortune on a necklace that we want to steal."
Duncan began to move his hands around.
"Right forgot about that, thanks Dunc," Jimmy said, "The Baron lives by himself, but he has a real big guard dog, probably even bigger than me."
Duncan was mute, so he communicated through Jimmy with his hands. Over time, Damien had learned a few of the signs he made, but Jimmy was always the most reliable for this kind of thing. The best Damien could make out was by himself… big dog.
"We've tried sneaking in, but dog keeps finding us, and we've tried going in when we know he's out with his dog, but he locks that place up tighter than the royal vault," finished Jimmy.
Damien already had an idea that might just work. "Have you guys tried asking for drugs?"
They both looked at Damien like he was an idiot, "I thought you were a smart kid, listen drugs are really bad for you. Even we don't do any dealings with them because we know what they can do to a person. See, even Duncan thinks it's a bad idea, and he said yes when Darius said that we should start a fight club."
"Are these two idiots?" Thought Damien, "You both misunderstood me; you just act like a kid hooked on his drugs. He's known to sell them to kids, right? It wouldn't be strange if a child came looking to buy, and he's never seen me, so I'll be perfect for the job."
Jimmy still wasn't fully convinced, "I'm still not sure this is a good idea. You've only been around for like six months, so you don't know just how bad some of these guys are. Even those three over there technically have more experience than you."
Jimmy was referring to Ben, Lil, and Anthony. The babies of the group at three, three, and four respectively. It looked like they were playing hide and seek where Ben and Anthony both tried their best to successfully find Lil. Anthony looked all but ready to just give up while Ben looked ready to cry and complained about how she was cheating.
"Look one of two things will happen. Either he'll invite me in and I'll distract him and his dog while you two sneak in and steal the necklace, or he slams the door in my face. No harm done. We'll just have to be quick with it."
"I still think we should probably go get at least one of the others," argued Jimmy.
"Darius is currently negotiating with the other runt gangs over territory, Ashley is with him to make sure he doesn't ruin the negotiations, and Jared is still cleaning up the rubble that was his 'lab' from his last experiment. You could always ask Shell, though, that is if you don't mind missing some teeth."
Duncan made hand signs, and Jimmy interpreted, "Yeah, what about Yoko?"
"And risk…" Damien didn't really have an excuse for why they couldn't bring along Yoko, "No, if we take her, she'll act like she's the lead and ruin my plan!'" He just didn't like her.
"She's the best at sneaking about out of all of us," Jimmy contested aware of the bad blood between the two, "I promise that you're the lead on this job. She'll just be there to make the job easier."
Out of all the other Street Urchin members, Yoko was the only one who still doubted Damien's place in the gang. Citing how Damien's plans often went haywire, she felt that he was more of a detriment than anything.
The worst part was the fact that Yoko was probably the person he most wanted to become friends with. Damien was fascinated by her sneaking abilities and wanted her to teach him. Not that he'd ever say that to her face.
Damien hated the idea of asking her for help but was willing to go along with it under these conditions, if only to prove that he was a useful member of the Street Urchins, "Fine, as long as we know who the leader is, this will be a quick job."
"Yous three are some of them Urchins aren't ya?"
Well, Damien's plan didn't go exactly as intended. The three boys currently found themselves bound to rotting wood chairs with no hope for escape in sight. Along with the fact that Yoko had refused to go along with them, so long as they had Damien as their lead, even if they did manage to untie the rope, they'd still have to deal with the huge bulldog encircling them.
To be fair, this was mostly not Damien's fault. He successfully distracted the Baron and his dog, with a disguise he made with Ashley's make up supplies and a black eye lovingly given to him by Duncan in order to perfect the whole druggie look. Damien did, however, fail to consider what Jimmy and Duncan considered to be 'sneaking in.'
For some reason, they thought breaking the glass covering the necklaces was a sneaky tactic, "It's the Street Urchins, ya rust bucket!" Jimmy spat after saying that.
Damien didn't know why Jimmy thought antagonizing their kidnapper would do them any good right now, but he wasn't willing to join in to find out, "What my compatriot here means to say is that yes, we are a part of the gang known as the Street Urchins, so I do believe it to be in both of our best interest if you were to let us go. Should you do so, we'll leave you to your business, and we continue to go about our day."
Jimmy and Duncan kicked at their chairs at the same time, both refusing to stop harassing the horrid man that sold drugs to kids, and probably much worse. Obviously, Damien felt the same way they did, but the Baron didn't have to know that.
"Ya know, you say a lot of big words for a small kid, but no, I got something better planned for you three," said the Baron as he downed a bottle of vodka.
He got in real close to Damien, enough so that Damien could smell the pack of cigarettes the Baron smoked an hour ago. Damien nearly hurled from the smell, lurching to the side, but as he did, Damien noticed the Baron's door slowly shut.
Whether that was a good sign or not, Damien couldn't tell, he could at least keep the Baron talking until he found out, "Not much could be worse than being dog food."
"How 'bout slavery?" responded the Baron.
"Okay, that might be worse," thought Damien.
"Yous three tried to steal my necklace… my prized necklace." He said as he pulled it out of his pocket, "Now why would you do that?" He spoke as if he was their nanny, his voice laced with a type of sick care like a parent pushing their children to admit what they did wrong.
Duncan began to move his head violently, in a way that mimicked the motions he made with his hands.
Confused, the Baron asked, "What's wrong with that one?"
Jimmy spoke up for his friend, "He's mute you idiot. That means he doesn't speak, though it's not like he'd have anything to tell you, except take a bath."
Honestly, they're some to speak, there was no running water in the church, so we'd have to wash in the river. Only Jimmy tends to be "busy" those days and skipped out, taking Duncan along with him.
The Baron turned away and mutters to himself and groans, "Then he's defective, that's going to cut some of my profits. Oh well, it's not like it's going to cost me much to sell you guys anyway. I'll just feed you less to make up for the loss."
Damien could sense more trouble in their future if he let Jimmy speak, "Jimmy before you say anything-"
"How DARE you call him defective you miserable pile of shit!" Too late, "When I get out of here, I'm going to-"
The Baron slapped him hard, and he fell to the floor chair and all. I'm sure I could see the corners of his mouth bleed. "Shut up boy! You need to learn to watch your tongue!"
Jimmy was raging on the floor, and Duncan was trying to rip out his restraints, leaving Damien as the only sane character in this house. In Damien's moment of realization, he saw that the dog had stopped circling them and was chewing on a piece of meat.
"Wall, Wall where'd you get that meat?" The Baron moved to where Wall was, and Damien could feel his restraints loosen.
"When I say to, the three of you run as fast as you can."
"Yoko!" Damien thought, " Why couldn't it have been anyone else?"
"Wall no stop, where'd that meat come from, whose in here?!" The Baron was looking Yoko who had another little meat present for Wall, which she tossed at the Baron, who was promptly jumped on.
"Now!" yelled Yoko and the three boys complied.
"Stop, Wall get them!" countered the Baron, but Wall was far too focused on his snack. Furious, the Baron lurched forward and managed to grab Yoko's arm, "Gotchaaaaaah!" He cried as Damien's leg came up squarely between his thighs.
Yoko didn't thank him, just nodded and ran off. Damien was going to immediately follow her out, but not without a souvenir. One that he so graciously picked from the Baron's pocket as he clutched himself on the ground.
The four children ran all the way back to their safehouse at the church, where Yoko promptly berated them as their superior, "You idiots, if I wasn't there to get your butts out of trouble, you would've been slaves in Powercene by the end of the week!"
"You should've come with us if you just gonna show up anyway," Jimmy shot back.
He immediately regretted doing so when Yoko stared daggers at him, "I'm your boss, I can't just go along with you every time you need help. I need to deretate."
"Delegate," corrected Damien.
"And you!" Yoko yelled, attention completely focused on him, "Just how many plans gone wrong does this make? 10, 12, I've lost count!"
"It wasn't my fault," Damien argued, "It's almost never my fault! Something completely out of my control always ruins my plans. This time it was these two knuckleheads!"
Duncan signed with his head, this time Damien recognized what he said, Guilty.
Yoko let out a heavy sigh, "I know, I was watching."
That actually surprised Damien, "You were?"
"From the beginning," she responded, "and you're right. I've been unfairly tough on you."
"Imposter!" Damien yelled, "Where's the real Yoko?"
"Is it really so strange for me to apologize?" asked Yoko.
"Yes," the three boys replied in unison.
"Yoko, you actually said sorry, I'm proud of ya!" a voice called from a short distance away, Darius.
"You're back!" said Yoko with more elation than she would have given for anyone else.
"Yep, things went great!" he said resolutely as he approached the group alongside Ashley.
"Negotiations broke down," she interjected dejectedly, "this one could simply not hold himself back. Now we're at war with the Wolves and the Serpents." The two largest runt gangs in the area.
"It's all according to my plans, we just need to do some fundraising," Darius explained, "Jimmy, Duncan, you two were on that necklace, have you gotten it yet?" Jimmy began to whistle and Duncan pointed to his mouth and shrugged, both not wanting to give Darius excuses as to why they failed. "Right, well we can still always-"
"Right here boss," said Damien as he produced the necklace.
Ashley snatched it away, "This should sell for a pretty penny, I could even buy Ben those pair of shoes he was staring at," Ashley, always the dotting sister.
Yoko patted him on the back, "Well aren't you the sly one."
"Damien, my man!" Darius shouted as he got Damien into bear hug, "I knew it wasn't a mistake to have you join the Urchins! This should do nicely for out first step towards my plans for world domination!"