In the briefest flash, Mir's mind conjured several analyses of the situation, each with different reasoning and outcome. For him, the optimal choice at the moment would be to ignore Murray and walk past them like a stranger, and then contact the nearest law enforcement officers.
But this choice was optimal only for himself. Murray might end up in a bigger danger if the law enforcers got involved. Mir wasn't delusional enough to think that a recently released criminal like Murray would be assessed fairly if the officers caught him. If the officers did not manage to catch him and the men who were possibly holding him hostage to a situation, Murray might fare even worse in the hands of these strangers later. At that time, Mir wouldn't have any way to help him... unlike now.
So Mir chose a less optimal option and walked over to the trio with long, purposeful strides.
"Oi, Murray! You got released from jail?!"
He put a significant amount of shock in his tone; the kind of shock that a person might have upon seeing his rival get lucky. Mir's eyes at that moment carried a deep-seated disgust and disdain as he looked Murray up and down.
Murray was as dumbfounded as the two men sitting beside him were. But he recovered immediately and replied, "Benny? Long time no see!"
Both brothers had reached the same wavelength in the first round of the exchange. No preparation was needed.
"Oh yeah, a long time alright. What are you up to here? Begging on the sidewalk?" Mir asked in a nasal tone. His eyes rapidly scanned the two men from a closer distance like a hawk, still dripping the same contempt.
"Are these two your fellow beggars? Their clothes sure look stolen, heh!"
"...." Both men simultaneously looked down at their clothes, a fitting response for someone in disguise.
"...Just relaxing. The street isn't your property, is it? Stop bothering me and fuck off," Murray answered. He put quite a bit of emphasis on the last sentence, probably signalling to Mir to not mess around here. Mir had no idea how Murray planned to get out of this situation, but he didn't want to take the risk in case Murray had no decent plans.
"True, I can't treat the street as my property," he muttered. "But there are some things that I can own. For example, your younger brother's backpack. He carried some interesting things into College today. Some of us saw him and felt like teaching that uppity kid a small lesson. Guess what we did?"
Murray's eyes widened. "You didn't take his research materials, did you?"
"Sure we did. He had that coming for being such an annoying brat, and of course, for being the brother of a lowlife like you," Mir said, his smirk cartoonishly evil.
"There was a red diary in his backpack," Murray said with a shaking voice, sounding outraged and fearful at the same time. "Is it with you right now?"
The eyes of the two men next to Murray lit up. Mir nearly jumped in triumph, satisfied internally that his suspicion had hit the mark accurately. This dangerous situation really had been brought about by that sacred artifact!
"A red diary?" Mir pretended to be dazed, eyes distant. "Right, there was one. Arkenson took it, SHIT! Was that red diary special? No wonder Arkie chose it over everything else! Cunning bastard!"
Mir and Murray's eyes met in tandem, a flicker of understanding passing by. At the same time, the two men sitting beside Murray exchanged an excited look.
"Oi, what's so special about that diary? Speak up," Mir hissed as he jumped to his feet and tried to grab Murray by the collar, appearing agitated for losing such a precious opportunity.
Murray 'struggled' to get himself loose from his grip. "Fuck off, Benny. Arkenson was the one who took it, huh? What's his address?"
Mir chuckled. "What? You sound like you want to go pay him a visit there. Gonna rob him? Hahaha! Keep dreaming!"
"Tell me the damn address," Murray shook him like a ragdoll. One of his hands slipped inside Mir's waistpocket as they wrestled. The two men got up as well and tried to separate them.
Suddenly, the sound of a gun being cocked reached Mir's ears. He looked down and saw a silver barrel popping out of one man's jacket, pointed at his stomach.
The man placed his other hand on Mir's shoulder and whispered hoarsely, "Tell us the address or this gun goes off."
After a second of frozen silence, Mir merely sneered. "A gun? In a busy street like this? Why don't you look around? See how many eyes are on us right now. Do you have the guts to shoot? Do you think you can get away? Hmph! Scums like you really think everyone fears a weapon. Do you know how many my father owns?"
The other men grabbed Mir's neck lightly, and his palm felt incredibly hot around his skin.
"That gun might attract a lot of eyes and ears. But a heating ray inside your body won't be discovered that easily. Want to learn what it feels like to be cooked from the inside?"
Finally, Mir's bravado disappeared. In a cowed, weak tone, he said, "Okay, okay, you wanted to know where Arkenson is, right? He's not home. He has a date in Blueflower Valley. He headed there half an hour ago."
"Blueflower Valley?" the men glanced at Murray uncertainly, as if they had never heard of the famous entertainment zone of Enet City. Most denizens of this district visited that part of the city once or twice every month, either to enjoy themselves in theatres and bars, or to buy luxury items, or just to walk around the massive, urbanized valley and enjoy the good scenery.
"Which part of the valley?" Murray asked gloomily.
"Blackstone Theater," Mir muttered, his eyes flickering between the two 'armed' men focused on him.
"I know that place. The Arkneson Kid is also an acquaintance," Murray said to them as he let go of Mir's collar and stepped back suddenly, creating enough gap between them for the curious onlookers in the street to get a good view of what the two men were doing.
Immediately, both men released Mir. One of them retracted his gun back inside his jacket, and the other took his hand off Mir's neck, leaving a red imprint there.
"Should we do something about this kid?" the gunman said to the other guy. "He might warn off the kid once we leave."
"I won't!" Mir quickly responded, his gaze stuck on the man who had threatened to torture him with a supernatural ability. His response was not unwarranted. No ordinary humans, regardless of their wealth and influence, had the guts to challenge a Mutant, certainly not one capable of emitting heat-rays from his hands, a very well known mutant ability that could score more than 40 points on the Standard Destruction Scale!
"We know your face now. If we don't manage to find that kid, you won't be able to avoid us even if you hide in your home."
With that threat hanging in the air, the men pushed Murray to lead them to the Blueflower Valley. Mir cursed loudly as the distance between them increased substantially, his old bravado back.
"Bastards! Even thugs and beggars these days have mutant abilities! But my parents won't let me have one!"
Both men glared at him, but deemed it better not to waste any more time here. With that insult, Mir managed to assure them of one important thing– he hadn't realized that the two men were more than just random thugs.