Chapter 1
“I can’t believe you! You act like I can’t even take care of myself. All I want to do is go onto one heist, ONE! It can even be a supervised one, so you guys won’t have to even worry!” Henry yelled annoyed at Reginald and his right-hand man, Henry’s parents. All he wanted was to go on a heist, instead of being stuck on the ship while everyone else went out. He was eighteen and yet still hasn’t gone on a heist yet! Not even to just watch one happen!
“Henry, it’s still too dangerous. You’re just not ready.” Reginald told him, looking at Henry with a stern expression. Henry gritted his teeth.
“Dad. I am one of the top in every training session. I can sneak around without even being detected for days, can swipe something in front of someone’s face and they never notice, and can even shoot a man without missing while on the run. I am ready! You and Pops are just being too overprotective! Others are questioning why I haven’t even supervised a heist at least! Everyone else that has been raised on the ship has already started to go on solo heists my age!” Henry yelled angrily, hurt that they wouldn’t let him go. He was ready, why didn’t they believe in him?
“Henry. Don’t raise your voice.” Right hand said, frowning with crossed arms.
Henry groaned in annoyance, ready to scream in frustration. “You’re both impossible! I hate you both so much sometimes!” He yelled, running out of the room and hopping into one of the vents, taking a shortcut to his room.
“Henry!” Reginald called after him, prepared to go after him, but his right hand stopped him, convincing him to let Henry calm down.
That night, however, Henry was no longer on the airship.
six years later
Henry groaned as he rubbed his head, wondering what happened. The last he remembered was being in his cheap apartment, to save his money for when he finally got a better place, when someone grabbed him.
That thought made Henry on alert, looking around confused as he tried to figure out where he was, and a way out if necessary.
"Well well. Look who decided to finally wake up." A voice spoke, making Henry look up at the general in front of him.
"You've been quite elusive but your skills make you quite the catch. You'll be perfect for the job." The general told him, making Henry blink confused. "We've been having issues with a group of thieves known as the Toppat gang. You know they're guilty, you just can't pin them down for any crimes. You'll be going on the airship to bring them down." The general told him, making Henry internally freak out at the thought.
They want him to rob the Toppats. They want him to rob his parents. The same ones he hasn’t seen in six years. They wanted Henry’s help to bring down his family.
Henry left that night six years ago. Snuck away with only a few belonging and hadn’t seen them since. He’s had a few close encounters, a few times where they were so close to dragging him back to his parents or his dads almost catching him.
"-find a way to bring them down, and you'll be a free man." The general spoke, breaking Henry out of his thoughts as Henry stared at the airship, the one he grew up in. The one where Henry had some of his most precious memories. His gut twisted at the thought.
"Hey uhh. How do you want me to bring you in?" The pilot, Charlie? Spoke, making Henry look at him, looking at the dorky looking pilot trying to look serious and wearing a large pair of red headphones. Henry blinked at the sight of him, before looking at the items they laid out for them.
He could take the grapple and use it to get to the side door, then just get a USB from one of the military men on board and download some stuff on it that would satisfy them.
He turned to the pilot, Charlie? and signed, hoping he understood. “Just take me close to the side and I can use the grapple to get up and could use a USB to get the evidence downloaded from one of the computers.”
Charlie stared at his hands, before nodding, grinning at the thief. “Course! Do you want to take the headset with you? I can help out and tell you where others are with it.” He told him, making Henry think for a second before nodding.
So Henry took the earpiece, putting it on before grabbing the grappling hook. The general handed Henry a USB as Charlie flew closer to the side. With a careful aim of the gun, Henry shot the side of the airship, pulling himself to the walkway on the side.
Henry pocketed the gun, going to the door and looking inside. If there was no one inside, he could just try the old password and slip into the room, download the files, and slip out.
Seeing someone on the computer, Henry had no choice but to wait until he left the room.
Henry sighed, leaning against the wall as he waited. He could see the helicopter out in the distance, waiting for him.
“Hey, uhm… I just realized that since you’re mute, you won’t actually reply to anything I say. We should’ve gotten you a camera to wear as well huh?” Charles's voice echoed in his ear as Henry chuckled lightly, watching the door quietly. “Man. Reallyyyyyy wish we thought of that. I even made sure to brush up on my sign language for this mission too!”
Henry made a noise of amusement, turning him down as he peeked into the doorway. It seemed like they were getting ready for a break. “After this mission do you want to hang out? Wait, you can’t answer. Ugh, this is so embarrassing now.” Charles continued to talk, making Henry shake his head smiling. This pilot sure was talkative. It was refreshing to listen to him. Maybe he would take his offer up to hang out. It would be nice to have a friend, though they would have to agree on work not getting in the way when they hung out.
Henry slipped past Cuppa Joe, shutting the door behind him as he went to the computer, he reached down, inserting the USB to the computer before quickly copying files over to it, including the ones he knew were there to deliver deadly viruses to whoever copied them and destroy their whole hard drive. They were unnoticeable until too late and the files couldn’t be recovered. Yes, Henry knew how to spot them and disable them easily, but he didn’t want the government to touch his family.
“Henry, that guy outside seems to be about to go in, you’re gonna have to go the long way to get out from the looks of it.” Charles's voice popped up as Henry finished, making him look at the door before diving into the vent.
Henry smiled, seeing little scratch marks and carvings he had done to the inside of the vents when he was little when he would be in the vents all the time. No one knew them better than he did, and they helped Henry realized the signs of a good/bad vent to go through.
Sliding through them, he looked into the vault to see a large Ruby, making Henry blink in surprise. He really wanted it but knew it was risky.
Henry sighed, tapping the mic to try and get Charles attention as he landed, the vent breaking and flinging him over. “Yeah? Want me to check the area?” Charles asked, making Henry make a noise of confirmation.
“Hmm… in the cells in front of you, there doesn’t seem to be anyone guarding, but someone in the cell. Don’t ask how I can tell I don’t even know. No one is in the vault which is the next room. Behind you, in the archives, there is a Toppat. It seems like your best bet is to go forward.” Charles continued, making Henry groan lightly.
He knew there was a sensor on the door in the front of the vault that would go off as soon as he passed through, but he didn’t know who was behind him. Not to mention they could let someone know he was on board before he had a chance to knock them out, blowing his cover.
Henry sighed, thinking it through before finally going behind him. He had an easier chance getting out that way, as the vault was heading towards the front of the airship.
He crept inside, looking around the archives, marveling at how neat everything was inside now. It used to be a mess at times. A Toppat sat at the table, looking over some documents. Henry crept up to them quietly, before taking out a fake spider, hanging it above their head.
“Oh hello, mister spider.” The Toppat said smiling. Henry rolled his eyes before smacking him hard against the head, knocking him out.
Henry was quick to hop into the vents in the next room, gritting his teeth as he realized that it was one that had electricity going through it. Why did they have this anyways?
“Hey uh, I’ll reroute the power for you. The next room is storage and it has two people inside.” Charlie told him, rerouting the power. Henry quickly ran across, but couldn’t hold back the wince at the loud ‘Nooooo!’ nearby, having a feeling it was from the photo room.
Henry ran to the storage room, hitting the button to open the door, and ducked to hide, seeing the two Toppats look around in confusion at the door opening. One took out his walkie, “Hey uhh boss? I think the door is messed up back here, it just opened on its own.” He said.
Henry winced, seeing Charlie’s helicopter fly up. Henry was quick to take out the force gun the head mic had, aiming it to the floor once close enough and jumping onto the copter.
Just as he landed, Henry saw one of his dads, Right Hand Man, walk through the door, making Henry wince as he was quick to hide, hoping he didn’t see him.
The way back to the government base was long, and Henry couldn’t get rid of the guilt he felt from doing this.