Don't mind the criminals, Junior.

[hiruma]

Hirosuke felt ungodly conspicuous. He was being followed by a couple of cats, those wild, kill-you-quick kind. Cheetahs, or leapords, or something like that.

Well, on the good side, his mom wouldn't be flipping out on him quite as bad as she normally would, mainly because he had gotten his little hiest off without any actual hitches, save the Krad problem, which always happened, whether he liked it or not.

Arriving at his front door, he indicated to his companions the home of Dominic Draconis, an anti-social guy with a sword. He spoke one last time.

"I'm pretty certain that either path is risking your life. Dominic doesn't like people and has a sword, and the traps set up in my house include a pitfall, certain alarm lazors which unleash pit bulls, electrified floors, spikes that shoot out from the walls, and falling cielings. Mom adds and subtracts as suits her mood. Your choice."

[blackwolf]

"We'll go with the neighboor's house." Jiz replied. "If all that's to worry about is a sword, then that's not too much." Larx nodded, then crept over to the window to see if Domanic was home.

[hiruma]

Hirosuke nodded. "Oh, by the way, he's an illusionist. A really good one. Don't trust your eyes. Or your ears. Or any of your senses." Hirosuke opened the front door of his house, set the clothes in a small mailbox attatched to the outside wall, stepped in, and closed the door.

As he did so, he heard a click, and he immediately flattened himself against the door.

No alarm. Good, he was fast enough. He gave a sigh, shouted, "Mom, I'm home," and began threading his way through the lazors.



Dominic was indeed home, watching the news. His sword was resting on the table next to him.

[blackwolf]

Larx and Jiz circled the house, looking for a tree in which they could get up to the second floor. They found one, but if Dominic turned away from the news, he would see them if they weren't careful. Jiz went up first, as quickly and quietly as he could, and began to cut a hole in the window. Larx started up as this was going on, forgetting to watch Dominic.

[hiruma]

Dominic's ear twitched twice, as he heard a high-pitched whine. He grimaced, imagining those kids across the street playing with a dog whistle or something. If it kept up, he'd go yell at them. No, he'd send an illusion to go yell at them.

Having passed the lazors, Hirosuke took a light step. The hallway was clear, which meant.... He pushed down with his foot while overbalancing backwards. It worked perfectly, opening the pitfall. As he looked down into it, he sighed. "Great, a spike pit. Mom really loves me, I guess."

Taking a step back, Hirosuke took a running leap for the other side, then rolled. A spike shot out of the wall over head and thudded into the other side. Hirosuke sprang to his feet and jumped, and another one shot out beneath him. He landed on that one, perfectly balanced, as spikes just shot out of the walls around him, a good thirty at once. He then climbed through them smoothly like an obstacle course.

[blackwolf]

The circle through the glass was finished, but when Jiz attempted to take it out, he lost grip on it and it crashed on the ground. Larx scrambled up the tree after the crash, nocking some twigs off.

[hiruma]

Dominic stood and whipped around, noting the twigs falling outside his window. Those kids! Now they were playing baseball, weren't they? Oooohhhhh, they were going to be hearing about this for a long time!

As a precaution, he grabbed his sword , wrapped it in illusion to make it seem not there, and belted it on. Opening his front door, he looked for scattering kids. He saw none. He looked at the front of his house to find out which window was broken.

Hirosuke, having made it through the spikes, sighed. Dog time. He took off his tie and fished in his pocket, grabbing a small rock he had put there for that very purpose. Tying the strip of fabric to the rock, he swung it around his head twice and let fly. Three dogs, hidden by clever wall paneling, took off after it, barking loudly. The young thief jogged after them and around the corner, where he looked down at the knob. He began to reach for it, but stopped. "I bet she did...."

Taking off his shoe, he touched the rubber sole to the door handle, and there was a popping noise. Using it to push down on the handle, he opened the door with his shoulder.

His mother whipped around. "Daisuke! Not a single mistake this time!" Her offspring rolled his eyes. "Yeah, I'm ecstatic. Does that mean you can stop setting traps?" Emiko gave a great big loving smile and said, "Of course not, dear, that means I need to add more!"

Hirosuke face-faulted, Anime-style.

[blackwolf]

Larx's tail was the last thing to disappear as they went through the window. "Uh, don't we need to pay for that?" He whispered to his brother, who promptly took out a wallet and left a couple tens and their P.O. Box address. They then started towards the window that was near Hirosuke's house.

[hiruma]

Dominic saw that tail and gave a shout of fury. He pounded back into the house and was up the stairs, four at a time, owing to his great vertical leap. Whipping around the top banister, he threw open the door of the room that he had seen the tail dissapear into-

-but it was the wrong one. In his anger, he had lost track of his own house. He slammed the door and turned, this time calming himself to throw the correct door open.

[blackwolf]

At the window, Jiz unlocked and opened it, and lept to the balcony. Larx waitied until his older brother was across, then made ready to leap across himself.

[hiruma]

"You little sons of...!" Dominic broke the illusion of nonexistance on his sword and drew it.

How dare they break into his house? Oh, they were dealing with totally the wrong guy! He summoned an illusiory wall that slammed into place between the balconies. "This is not the house to break and enter, bro!" Leaping forward, he took a swing at Larx with his sword.

[blackwolf]

Larx ducked from the sword, and ended up loosing some fur from the top of his head. "We weren't going to steal anything!" He yelled as he dodged Dominic's attacks. "We're just stying to get into a friends house!"

[hiruma]

"Yeah. Sure. I guess your friend doesn't have a front door!" He split into one real him and one illusionary him and circled around, then splitting again to surround him from four sides. "I'm going to escort you off my property," one of the illusions said, "and if you come within spitting distance one more time, ever, and I will cause you serious bodily harm. I think you know that I am not kidding, yes?"

Hirosuke finally got through the labrynth of his mothers hugging and got upstairs. He opened the balcony and saw Jiz, but no Larx. "Where...." Then the wall. "Oh." He took a step back and took off, jumping through the wall. "Hi, Mr. Draconis. Sorry about Larx. My front door is.... dysfunctional right now. I'll get him off your property, sir."

The illusions all vanished. "Fine. If I catch either of them on my property again, there will be blood. If I catch you on my property again, I'll hit you." Hirosuke nodded and saluted, then jumped back over the balcony to his house.

[blackwolf]

Larx followed Hirosuke, his hair still on end. "That guy is grouchy." He stated when they were in Hirosuke's house. Jiz sighed. "At least it didn't get any worse." He looked over at Hirosuke. "Have fun with those traps?"

[hiruma]

Hirosuke sighed. "Grouchy is an understatement. Just don't mention Jacob near him. He'll go ballistic." The kid sighed again. "As to traps, yes, always greatly entertaining." He held out an arm with a bit of blood dripping from it. "I've gotta wash this, and then tie it off untill I can inject an antivennin. Mom loves using a sleeping draught on those spikes." He opened his door and gestured for them to roam as they pleased. "Just make sure you don't go into the basement. Totally not cool. Mom will have every trap she has and some she doesn't set up down there."

The young thief jogged to the bathroom to clean his wound, leaving Larx and Jiz to themselves.