The Great Headphone Heist (Open!)

Like usual, there was nothing really going wrong in Bellmuse.  Here, crime seemed to be a rarity, and an aura of contentment and trust could be felt from most of this place's citizens.  Sure, it certainly wasn't a perfect place, and not everybody could be happy here.  This was the case with Athena.  This peaceful scene was a torture to look at, and being a part of it was much, much worse.  It was way too boring, too quiet.  Life needs excitement and conflict!  It needs something to make it thrilling, otherwise what's the point?  Athena sat on a bench, arms fallen to her sides, a look of pain stuck to her face.  "Agh... something needs to happen..."  But nothing would. Not unless she made it.

And it seemed that she found the perfect opportunity to make "something happen."  A store across the street from her had some new headphones on display in the window, and Athena's pair just broke last night.   Seeing this opportunity to kill two birds with one stone, Athena jumped from the bench and made her way towards the store with a skip in her step.  As she walked, her appearance got the attention of most people around her.  A green skull tattoo on one's face wasn't exactly a subtle thing.  Regardless, she walked into the store with confidence, and she began planning out her heist.

She didn't find any security guards inside, and only one camera, but she wasn't sure it mattered very much.  Most people in the store, including the lady at the register, took notice of her, so she knew she couldn't stop by this store any time soon after stealing those headphones.  Athena took a final look at her prize from inside the store, spotting the occasional passerby through the window.  Her view, however, was obstructed by an employee that followed her for a moment.

"Excuse me, miss, can I help you with anything?"

"What? Oh.  Yeah, sure!  You could, uhm... move about... here!  Beautiful.  Alright, now get ready to grab a broom and a phone."

Athena winked at the employee once before waving goodbye to her and making a sprint towards the headphones.  Five circular blue neon light shapes would appear in front of her, knocking away whatever was in her way and shattering the window as she ran.  With all obstacles out of the way, Athena continued to sprint without worry before she jumped through the broken window, picking up a box holding the headphones she desired.  Upon landing, she almost slipped, the shattered glass making it hard to get traction on the sidewalk, but she was able to steady herself and make a run for it as a few people chased after her, probably hoping to be a hero today.

It didn't take much effort to out run them, and she eventually found herself in another part of the town, ready to enjoy her reward.  Athena greedily pulled the box open and took out the headphones, immediately plugging them into her phone afterwards.  With that, she began walking around with something new to entertain her, since she was finally able to privately listen to whatever music she pleased.

Her only worry was that someone may have followed her, be it a civilian that wanted to prove that they weren't totally inept, the employee she winked at, or a cop.  Suddenly, a thought occurred to her.  What about those hunters at the academy here?  They'd probably try to keep her from having her fun if they showed up now, wouldn't they?  After thinking about it for a bit, she'd place her new headphones around her neck and take cautious looks around while she walked, looking out for anybody that could cause her trouble.

Slynt had seen many escapes in his time as a criminal. It was inevitable for one to find themselves in a…less than suitable position in his line of work. Whether that be due to law enforcement, or simply others of his kind. The flashy lightshow that this escape had required however caught his attention.

The Criminal in question was of a different strip than him most like, especially given that the showy escape appeared to be for nothing more than a minor theft, nothing that one would think would catch the attention of someone like Slynt. A Criminal who specialized in the more subtle and subversive acts of the criminal underworld. Finding information, people, arranging meetings between…interesting people. However, he could see use in such a person, especially since he recognized that there was more care put into the escape than one would have first thought.

No this was far to interesting for the silver haired criminal to ignore, after all such a person could prove useful, albeit in a less subtle manner than his typical style. There were certain parties that could find such a person useful, with a little bit of polish in their technique.

He’d followed the person from a distance, before working his way through a backstreet to position himself in front of the headphone thief in question, as such he would be at the alley entrance when they passed by, leaning against the brickwork in a casual fashion. “That was quite the show, though your technique could use some work.” He would say simply as she passed, seemingly not paying any attention to the strangely dressed woman.

Athena stopped dead in her tracks, a cold expression washing over her face as the frustration of being watched set in. Not only was this guy watching what she was doing, but it was in a pretty questionable moment of her life as well. Normally she'd mug the guy and break his phone to prevent him from calling the cops, but the way he critiqued her quick robbery told her that this didn't seem like the kind of guy that was going to do a good deed today. Also, who was he to judge her robbing skills? She turned her head to him, looking the guy over and smirking. He didn't look like much, and Athena felt like she could definitely take this guy. She walked towards him, a confident grin on her face, getting as close as possible in an attempt to make him walk back into the alley.

"You sure judging me is a good choice right now? That was just a small thing, there. If you've seen all of what I've done, you wouldn't be trying to tell me what to improve on. Unless, of course, you want to get hurt." She looked up at him, dead in the eyes, in an attempt to prove her point to the guy. "If you can do something like that without any planning and get away with it better than I did, I might've actually listened."

It was hard to find a pair of headphones that fit over Noire's head. The pair of large horns curling over the sides of her head were inconvenient in that regard. Often she would have to settle for crappy earbuds that always slipped out when she was training. That, and they were easy to lose. But these... She stared at the pair of shiny headphones in awe. They even gave off a sort of glow, sitting there behind the display window as they had been for weeks. Finally, she had saved up enough to buy them.

Happily, she walked into the store. Before she could ask about them, however, there was a flash of colorful light that caught her attention.

Blink. Blink. Shiny.

The white haired girl shook her head. She couldn't let herself get distracted so easily. She wanted something and she was going to get it dammit!

"Sorry, we're sold out," said the young woman behind the counter.

Noire pointed at the headphones in the now shattered display case. "B-but, what about the ones there?"

"I'm sorry, miss, but those are just samples. Our last pair was just stolen," the clerk said apologetically.

Now, this could have gone one of two ways. It was a toss up, really. Noire could either cry, sulk and head back to her dorm to lay in bed the rest of the day. Or... Or she could get extremely angry and do something about her predicament. The needle in her head shifted between the options before settling on the latter with a ding.

A fire pit up in her eyes. "Where'd the culprit go?"

"That way miss, but we already called the pol-"

Noire didn't hear the last of that sentence. She jumped out of the broken window like a madwoman and set out to dash. Nevermind the shards of glass on the sidewalk and her bare feet. They were so calloused she could barely feel anything anyways. She ran down the street as fast as she could, following the woman with the bright pink hair who was already a good distance away.

Blinded by her rage, she ran past the alley the woman had ducked into, only to double back and find her standing there with someone else.

"YOU! Give those back or else." Her hand gripped the absurdly large sword strapped to her back. She had saved too much money and waited too much time to sit by and do nothing. If this came down to a fight, so be it.

Slynt responded to the colorfully dressed thief’s threat with little more than a raised eyebrow and an amused look. He wasn’t particularly intimidated by someone who ran around dressed like a clown, and the fact he’d dealt with people who were by far more dangerous caused him to be rather unaffected by the attempt at intimidation. He did notice someone run past the alley, seemingly in a hurry before suddenly returning to the entrance of the alleyway from the other direction.

The Silver haired criminal found the situation amusing, as it certainly could create a great deal of entertainment, the real question was what part he should play. He could easily act as though he were working with the shoplifter or act as though he’d been intending to stop her, thus siding with the huntress. At least he assumed her to be one based on her appearance, or he could act as though he were simply an innocent bystander.

“Friend of yours?” The silver haired man whispered silently, so that the huntress wouldn’t have heard but the woman, whom had been rather close to him already would. “A huntress! This woman’s trying to rob me! Help!” He acted as though he’d been legitimately terrified. He would move a short distance down the alleyway as though he were attempting to flee at the first opportunity. Though not far enough he couldn’t watch the ensuing chaos. After all this could prove very amusing.

The huntress appearing had proven his point rather nicely, and this could be a good opportunity to see what the thief could do in a fight, she could still be useful to him after all.

At the sudden shouting behind her and the change of tune from the silver haired idiot that she was threatening, Athena sighed audibly and turned to face the new person.  She looked her up and down and tilted her head in confusion.  No shoes, big sword, horns.  So this one's a faunus, nothing surprising there, but why doesn't she wear shoes?  Gross.  "Listen, I'm not robbing that guy, and you can probably figure that out on your own.  I already stole these, as you mentioned, so why would I follow it up with robbing some guy in an alleyway?  That's begging for the cops to catch me."  A tired, irritated expression was on her face now, and she tilted to the side and put a hand on her hip.

Athena nodded at the stranger's sword.  "You really feel like killing someone over some headphones?  You have to learn how to relax."  She stared the new person in the face for a moment, thinking over how she was going to deal with someone like this today.  Athena smirked and brought up her right hand, pointing at the girl's neck.  As she did this, a blue neon light would begin to appear around the huntress's neck, stretching and unfolding into what looked like the outlines of headphones made of light, the same ones as were around Athena's neck.  "We can be nice about all this.  If you play nice, I might just give you mine, so you can have the real thing instead of that."

Athena was being... mostly honest.  Emphasis on "mostly."  She planned on leaving this one on good terms, but not the silver haired guy.  She didn't like liars, and anyone that pretended they were in need was especially disgusting to her.  If the barefoot gal didn't want to play nice, Athena might have to run after him while running from her, and that wasn't going to be a good time.  For now, she waited for a response from somebody, and planned out her escape at the same time.  She didn't know what the huntress was capable of, but Athena was fairly confident she could exhaust her and get away safely.  Probably.

Noire stared both of them down while the moment of silence stretched across the alley. The man seemed to lean over to say something to the tattooed girl. Whatever it was, the young faunus girl couldn't hear. She narrowed her eyes. Suddenly, they boy leaped backwards, terrified. He said he was getting mugged by the other girl. It must have been true. After all, she was the one who stole those headphones she had wanted so badly. Just the thought filled her with rage. But something felt off. The boy had taken some time to react to supposedly being mugged.

Just like that, however, a bright light flashed around her neck, leaving her would-be headphones around her neck. For a moment, her rage was forgotten entirely. She sank into a happy smile. This was good, it was exactly what she wanted. She was torn, now. She had what she had come for, but the other girl had stolen them. She blinked twice in realization when the thief spoke again.

Real...ones?

The ones around her were an illusion. Oh. Her heart sank and her eyes watered. Hers weren't real. She turned towards the girl, looking like she was about to cry. A few seconds later, however, the rage was back. "You're a liar and a thief!" She said, pointing back at her. "I can't let you get away with it!" Eyes still watery and lip still pouting, Noire drew her sword.

The giant hunk of obsidian swung through the air. She moved it as if it were an extension of herself. It was her duty to bring this criminal to justice.

Slynt was quite satisfied with how events had progressed in his absence. He hadn’t gone far but was still lurking easily out of sight of the two combatants, an amused expression on his face as the girl’s demonstration of her abilities backfired on her. He’d already learned that many huntsmen and huntresses tended to be rather eccentric and based on the display of emotion he’d noted from the one that had appeared the observation held more merit than he thought.

The man wouldn’t interfere yet, no better to let the two of them fight for a time, as it certainly proved amusing, he’d continue to observe from out of sight. It would be a helpful opportunity to learn more on the neon girl’s abilities. He still felt they could be useful to him, assuming they could show so, the theft itself had shown some potential, but she was already dealing with the consequences of her lack of subtlety it appeared.

Yes, this could be quite entertaining, it was certain to be an interesting fight if nothing else.

Athena's face took on a more sympathetic expression as Noire drew her sword, feeling bad for causing her to almost cry like that.  Sure, she wasn't the best person in the world, stealing headphones isn't a real nice thing, but she didn't like ruining people's days quite like this.  The huntress didn't deserve this, and she deserved to get shot much less.  Athena stood her ground, but she didn't pull out her gun.  She still wanted this girl to calm down.  

"Well you got the uh, thief part right, at least.  If you don't mind, I really don't want to fight you, you know?  I don't want either of us getting hurt over some headphones.  Speaking of, why do you want these back so bad?  Most people don't try to fight someone else over something as small as a pair of headphones." She pulled the pair of headphones from her neck and observed them closely for a moment before bringing them closer to the one threatening her.  "If you want these back bad enough to fight someone over it, then you want them more than I do.  Plus, I don't want to make you cry.  It'd make me feel bad."

Athena couldn't help but be a little bit disappointed that she wouldn't be able to keep the headphones she just stole, but she had to remember that she had some rules.  One of them being that she wouldn't do something that would have such a strong emotional effect on somebody that didn't deserve it.  Another being that she should steal to help people every now and again.