Alter-Native

Chapter two

Jared and Jensen arrived at Chase's office, Chase Brody was different, he had been the only one who didn't fall under Anti's control. Same with Jensen and Jared, their egos were hidden away. If brought out, then Anti would find ways that could help take control. Time and time again Jared and Jensen were able to stop Anti in his tracks, he always assigned a person that he thought would do good in stealing, unless the person was Ethan. Jensen thought back to that day he and his friend recovered a stolen painting. In hindsight, maybe it was never a good idea to assign a mission to Ethan. The two friends leaned against the wall as Chase finished up what he needed to and pulled up a security camera.

"As you two know, we've been tracking Anti and his troop for months now, recently something's come up, a security camera picked up Ethan and Mark leaving their headquarters," Chase explained. "They're going after something in this museum." A video of the museum of ancient artifacts appeared.

"Seriously? What are they trying to steal now?" Jensen asked, his brows furrowed with curiosity.

"The Staff of Sameness." Chase answered. Jared's eyes grew wide, the staff of Sameness was bad. Despite its name sounding funny this staff was created out of pure darkness before the war, by a man who became so desperate to end the suffering around him that he sold his soul to create it. Unfortunately the staff proved to only cause more trouble as once it was created it started making anyone who touched it, the complete opposite of themselves. The man tried to destroy it but the staff was said to have destroyed him, ever since it had been locked away with no other artifacts with it. Chase had decided that the staff should be kept away from all the other artifacts, as museums were a common target for thieves. So if Anti was after this staff, then he could change whoever he wanted to be his puppet.

"We have to stop him," Jared said. "Those two could literally cause another war." He had a family and he didn't want them to live through the harsh conditions that he went through as a kid. Jared also knew that his best friend felt the same way as the two of them had been no older than six years old when the war began. Chase nodded, with everything that had happened, he wasn't going to let Anti off the hook, they were close to catching him before but this time it was worse, they needed to get their hands on the staff before the thieves reached it.

***

Mark and Ethan arrived at the old museum, long since closed down due to unforeseen circumstances, no one really went into museums much lately. They all viewed it online, the large grotesque building stood on a hill with cobwebs surrounding it. The entirety of the building was dark, especially on the inside. The two forced partners were standing outside discussing the best route to go into the museum.

"Mark, I really think we should just walk through the door," Ethan suggested "I mean what's the harm in doing that?" Mark touched the bridge of his nose, they had changed out of their outfits before they came out here and wore nothing but black clothes. Mark had his black messenger bag over his shoulder and wore black gloves.

"This is why you always get caught," Mark said. "Now how about this, we need to go through the vent."

"But there's no way you'll fit through the vents, they're too small." Ethan commented and Mark tuned him out as he used his crowbar to unscrew the nails of the vent, but before crawling through he made sure to hack the security system with a device he had to check for any traps. The museum had upgraded from lasers and cameras to motion detectors that couldn't be seen and were capable of setting off alarms that alerted Golden Dawn.

"Hmm we will need to plan around," Mark said. He looked at Ethan and suddenly got an idea, if Ethan could be the distraction then he would be able to grab the staff before any so-called heroes showed up. "Ethan, I need you to go in and disable the security system so that way we won't have unwanted guests."

"Well there is no way to get in without being detected but I should be able to give you the signal." Ethan responded.

"Yeah, yeah, signal whatever, just get into that damn vent before I leave you here for the J2 squad," Mark said. "Anti wants that staff." Ethan gulped and climbed inside the vent without protesting, he didn't want to risk angering Mark any further. "Big chicken." Mark said to himself. Ethan climbed through the vents as quiet as a mouse but it didn't quite help due to the noise the vents made any time he crawled. Pulling out his map he turned on his flashlight and looked through the map, he had printed off a map of the museum from his computer and most of the places were left to rot so he didn't have to worry about anyone guarding it. He moved his finger on the blueprint looking for the right way to the door. Coming across it, he put the blueprints away and kept his flashlight in front of him, Ethan crawled until he found a vent that was loose, he kicked it a few times before it came crashing down onto the floor. Ethan swung himself out and made sure that there weren't any traps set up.

He walked through the dark museum with his flashlight until he found the front door and tried to open it. With no luck he thought about breaking the glass. Making sure that there weren't any traps set up around the door he grabbed a nearby pot and threw it at the glass door. It bounced off harmlessly, making Ethan curse under his breath. He pulled out his lockpicks and picked at the lock until he heard a soft click and pushed the doors open. Ethan stepped out to find Mark making hand gestures involving all the noise.

"We're clear," Ethan said. "No one's here, come on."

"Do you realize that you were loud enough to be heard in the next county?" Mark asked. "Keep your voice down before you set off the motion sensors!" He said and grabbed Ethan by the arm but the two didn't get too far before one of the motion sensors went off sending glass bottles from shelves everywhere. Mark managed to avoid getting cut by any of the glass but he glared at Ethan who was smiling weakly. "Ethan." Mark growled.

"How was I supposed to know there were glass bottle traps?!" Ethan whispered-screamed. "I don't think there are any more traps though, I feel like we're close to the staff." Mark rolled his eyes and pulled Ethan towards the artifacts room and it was so dusty that the two of them coughed a bit. But in the far distance Mark could see the stand of the staff and when Ethan tried to run to grab it, Mark motioned for him to stop and he picked up a rock and threw it causing laser beams to appear.

"Hmm I thought so give me the mirror Ethan," Mark said. Ethan didn't see how that would help but he handed a small mirror to Mark and watched in awe as Mark used the mirror to reflect the lasers to disable themselves. "Never gets old now, come on, we need to get it before the alarm goes off." With everything in place Ethan pushed Mark back out of excitement and despite Mark's protests, the young man ran at full speed to grab the staff only the minute Ethan got to the stand and Mark chased after him, the staff was gone. "Damn it! Where'd it go?!" Mark exclaimed. The lights in the room turned on and the two thieves heard the sound of a cloaking device turning off.

"I'll give you two guesses," Jensen said as he and Jared revealed themselves. "Evening gentlemen I'm pretty sure that you two don't belong here."

"How the hell did you find us?" Ethan said. "We were so stealthy!"

"No really?" Jared said sarcastically "Next time you want to rob a museum you might want to be quieter." Mark clenched his hands and reached slowly for his weapon hidden in his messenger bag.

"Where did you send that staff?" Mark demanded. "Answer us right now and maybe we'll make your death quick and easy."