//------------------------------// // Chapter 28 // Story: Angel of Gold // by Magna85 //------------------------------// "Holy Celestia! This thing's heavy!" "Of course it is you idiot! It's pure gold! And keep your voice down!" The sounds of something heavy being lifted along with quiet grunts of exertion and the creaking of metal echoed silently in the night. Then there were several voices panting before a male voice said, "Alright, it's ready. Let's get this thing back to camp." Silently, three figures appeared from the smallest tent in the small camp that Celedon and co. had set up. Unknown to the burglars, four pairs of eyes were watching them. Three devious grins showed up underneath three of those pair of eyes, while the pair of brown eyes simply had a smirk under them. Back at the main camp of the highwaymen, everyone had surrounded the 'statue.' "Wow. If I didn't know better, I'd say that thing was asleep!" "She's pretty." "It's a statue you dolt!" "Why did someone make a statue of someone sleeping?" "It's called art for a reason. There is no reason to art." "Everyone, quiet!" A tall man with a long red cloak around his neck strode out of a large tent. His eyes were gold and his medium length hair was two different colors, red and blue. "So, Penny Pincher, how much do you think its worth?" The man's voice was relatively average, though there was an underlying current of confidence in his tone. "Boss, I'd say it's worth at least five million, if not more." A thin man with a glowing orange aura covering his hands spoke. He was staring down at something that looked like a screen, with words and numbers floating across it. "If you say more, I expect more. This was a risky operation." The man with the cloak stepped forward and gazed upon the beauty of the 'statue.' "I understand that, but we got what we wanted." The thin man looked up at the larger of the two, wire-rimmed glasses perched on a young but intelligent looking face. His eyes were the same color as his aura, orange. His short hair was a light red. "And we need to get moving," the cloaked man started. "Everyone, I need you to get everything ready for another move, because at first light tomorrow, we never stayed here." A chorus of agreements rang out from the assembled thieves and they scattered. At a signal from 'Boss,' four large men hoisted the 'statue' up on their shoulders, a flat plate of metal keeping it from moving too much while riding their shoulders. After they had set it down, they left the tent, leaving the Boss with the statue. Why do I have a feeling that this was a very bad idea...? the Boss thought. He lightly shook his head before he laid down on his bed. Ugh, why do I feel like I'm lying on a metal plate? I thought as I rose from my bed. Before, I had laid down on a heavy-duty cot capable of sustaining my weight through enchantments. I looked at my cot and saw that I was, indeed, lying on a metal plate. Ok, what the heck. I stood up and stretched before turning around to look behind me. Then I saw a tall man sleeping on a large cot, lightly snoring. All around him and inside the tent were many, many treasures of various make, material, and size. Instead of gears turning in my head, I felt wires heating up and electricity zipping around in my brain as I figured out what had happened. I then, lightly, brought my hand to my forehead and shook my head. Either C Squad didn't catch these guys, which I doubt, or they let them have me so they could watch me break out. Then a thought occurred to me. If they had thought I was statue, then... A malicious grin came over my face. Well, people have been calling me "Angel" a couple times. Just have to add the "Weeping" part to get something terrifying. Slowly and silently, I crept over to the tall man's sleeping place. Just as I was about half way there, I heard him stir and stood stock still. He didn't go back to sleep, so I held my hands over my face, head down, and stood straight. "What the...why am I-WHOA!" I heard. Through a crack between my fingers, I saw the man leaning away from me on his bed. He then shook his head before laying back down to sleep. I grinned again. All too easy... I stepped forward again, quickly. He rolled over again and opened his eyes. I was still in the 'pose' of a Weeping Angel. "Holy..." He started. Then he narrowed his eyes at me before shaking his head again and saying, "Must've been something in the mead. Yeah, that's it..." I'll admit it, I giggled a little. He jerked his eyes back to me. I could practically see him straining to hear another sound. With his eyes still on me, he laid back down to sleep. He kept one eye on me for about a minute, blinking rarely. Then he relaxed and closed his other eye. Alright, time to play. I got up nice and close to his face before I whispered, "Boo." Right before I said that, I felt some vibrations in my chest, and as I breathed out, a greenish gas came with it. The man's eyes shot open and he started to scream, before the gas took its apparent effect and knocked him out cold. Huh, so I have tranquilizer breath. That must have been what those pumps connected to that empty chamber were for. I straightened up and turned around, listening for any noise of footsteps coming to look into the large tent. Unfortunately, nothing came to check on the man. I stalked outside the tent, watching for sentinels in the night. There was a slowly dying fire in the center of a ring of a half-dozen tents. Snores came in different volumes from different tents. I chose the one directly to the right of the one I came out of, and crept inside. Ugh, these guys need to take a bath. Inside were at least eight men of varying sizes, all of whom were sleeping soundly. The one directly in front of me did stir a little, probably from the light I was letting into the tent. "Urgh...turn out the lamp..." a voice to my left said. I assumed the pose and turned to where I heard the voice. Between my fingers, a man with dark blue wings was slowly waking up because of the shine that my entire body put into the tent. "Come on, I said-WHAT THE?!" He started to say something before noticing me standing in the entrance. "Guys! Guys, wake up!" he shouted, trying to rouse his tent-mates. "Wolf, go back to sleep..." a voice to my right whispered. "They can't help you," I covered his voice with my own. "What are you?!" He was hysterical now. The others were waking up. "I'm your worst nightmare!" the shining angel said, eyes blazing red. Her voice was like a signal that sent fear down every single spine present. She then spread her wings slowly before metal slid against metal and her feathers locked together. Now her wings were single edged blades of terror. I'mgonnadieI'mgonnadieI'mgonnadieI'mgonnadieI'MGONNADIE!!!!!! "AAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!" the man screamed. The angel then flapped her wings, blowing the tent and the men inside away with the gusts. The whole camp had woken by now, except for the Boss obviously. She swooped down and tried to grab at one of them, to further scare the camp. "Hahahahahahaha! You're all going to die!" The voice in the sky, coming from the flying angel that blasted everything away with her wings, terrifying everyone in the camp. It was utter chaos as tents and equipment was sent flying, men were forced to the ground, and all the while the angel was taunting them. "Come on! Show me that you've got some backbone! This is too much fun! I thought as I flew above the now flaming camp. One of the tents must have rolled onto the fire. Of course, my wings weren't helping put it out, rather they were just weak enough to spread the flames. I was laughing madly now. Run! Run for your lives! RUN YOU PATHETIC PIECES OF MEAT!" I screamed into the air. What the... I stopped flying and hovered, still blowing everything underneath me away and adding further to the chaos below. I've never said anything like that before. The words that had come from my mouth were not my own. I decided that for now, it would be best to leave them. Still, I had an act to keep up. "Be glad that I am sparing your lives! But I will not be so merciful if I find out that you have returned to your lives of crime! Scatter, and never return!" I roared. And scatter they did. As they were doing so, four familiar faces showed up from the surrounding forest. I hadn't even noticed them from my place in the air. I dropped to the earth, not wanting to blow them back with my wing beats. Of course, doing so caused a massive crater to appear underneath me and a dust cloud to spring up from the impact. After walking through the dust cloud, I met up with C Squad. "Hey guys, how's it going?”