The Criminals' Wealth

8 - The Retreat

"Oh yeah?" shouted Ruby as she jumped up to kick Miguel in the face. He blocked her with his wrist. "Did you really think that would do anything?" he asked without expecting an answer. While Miguel was interacting with Ruby, Jenzi had gone to the trap door.

"C'mon guys, we can leave through the back door" he said quietly to the three tenagers. They quietly exited the building. Miguel noticed, but he didn't care. He knew that there was nothing that they could do. Ruby saw them leave. She looked at the back exit, then narrowed her eyes at Miguel. "I'll be coming back for you." she said before she hopped after Jenzi.

The five of them got in the blue truck and drove away from the warehouse. Jenzi turned in the back seat and looked out the back window of the truck at the warehouse that was now behind them. "Y'know... I never really cared for stealing things..." he said, turning back around, facing forward now. Ruby was next to him.

"But... when I first met you, you seemed really excited about stealing that money." she said. Jenzi stared out the front window at the road ahead. "I was only acting," he said. "I wasn't actually excited about it. I was kinda forcing myself to enjoy stealing." Roy, who was in the front passenger seat, looked in the rearview mirror to look at Jenzi. "So... you're not a criminal?" he asked.

"...I don't want to be one," Jenzi replies. "but my father was one, so I feel obliged to follow in his footsteps..." There was silence for a while, until Ruby said, "So what about Miguel? You can't just let him take those feathers! Who knows what he'll do with them!"

"Are you saying we should try to stop him?" Maddie asked, from the driver's seat. "I definitely am!" Ruby replied. "But I'm practically useless without my stars... we should go to my hideout to get more."

Maddie made a face. "First of all," she started. "I don't know where your hideout is. Second, Lenny, Roy and I should be getting to our homes. Our parents will be worried if we're gone too long. And third, I don't want to get arrested! I know working with criminals is against the law! Also, I'm not the adventure type. No big, too-exciting things for me!" Lenny, who was behind her, kicked the back of her seat. Maddie let out a small yelp of surprise. "Maddie, you've always been wayyyy too cautious. Live a little!" said her brother. Maddie stared at the open road in front of her. "The only way to live a successful life is to be cautious. Even a little overly-cautious." she said.

"But- you came with us to the warehouse!" interjected Roy.

"You forced me to go with you! And my parents did, too. They wanted me to make sure that you two didn't do anything stupid. And now we're talking about taking something from the most infamous person alive!!"

Roy thought for a moment. "Well now that you put it that way... you're right. Besides, they're just feathers, there's nothing terrible about those, right?"

Ruby waved her paws in the air. "Those feathers are priceless!" she exclaimed. "They're worth a fortune! He could sell them to someone and.. Umm... do something bad with them." As she spoke, she realised that she might've been overreacting. Even if they were rare feathers, they weren't that special. Jenzi mistook them for regular chicken feathers, and so would most other people. Not many were bird experts like she was.

Lenny wanted to say something. "Well if we're not going to do that, we should at least take Ruby back to her hideout!" Maddie tapped one finger on the steering wheel. "Fine, we can do that. But then we'll go right back home!"

And so they took Ruby to her hideout, and Jenzi decided that he would stay there, too. He and Ruby decided to no longer be criminals, and started their own company that teaches people about weapons. Maddie, Lenny, and Roy went back to their homes. Their parents never knew what had happened that day. No one exactly knows what Miguel Lancer did with those rare Wild Albino Parrot feathers. There are rumors that he suddenly disappeared, and a new female character took over the position as the Most Infamous Person In The World.