Chapter 52: Escape

“I really must say you’ve outdone yourself Damien,” Currently hiding in a barrel full of ruby chips, Damien found himself trapped by his animal like-captor as she almost caught him snooping around Raven’s room. “I’ve been through worse, let’s figure a way out of this.”

After Dante caused such a huge uproar, the huge meeting ended, but he disappeared shortly after. Many of the chiefs and leaders wanted to speak with him, but all they got was silence. Damien guessed that he was employing the strategy of leaving them wanting more. In time they’ll have to see what Dante does next. Unfortunately, Damien decided those who will have to wait won’t include him.

He knew Krista and Amelia might be upset, but Damien was calling it, this whole adventure was a huge failure. Krista had turned to the enemy, and Damien was sure that if it came down to it, Amelia would always have Krista’s back. At the very least, Damien knew he wouldn’t have to worry about either of them being in trouble as long as they had each other. Damien, on the other hand, will regroup and recover. Only, his first hurdle to do so had already presented itself.

Slipping through the crowds, Damien managed to escape the purview of his captors, long enough to look for his stolen equipment. He was only able to make it so far as to find his gadget kit in one of the rooms, Raven’s room. Damien decided to take his time moving about the place, in case it was booby trapped. It was in these short moments when a movement alarm he quickly set up at the door went off.

Damien had only set up the alarm by habit when breaking and entering, so he didn’t have an escape plan. He hadn’t expected anyone to just enter the premises, especially when Raven wasn’t in it, and he fully expected Raven to be floating around Dante somewhere.

Thinking quickly, Damien had jumped into a conveniently large sized barrel left in the room, complete with a small hole to look through. Rather than Raven walking into his room, it was Animus as she looked about the room, looking for something or rather someone.

She continued like that for some time as Damien sat completely still and thought about his escape options. He had his gadget kit, but his hands were still cuffed together, and he was missing all his weapons.

As he was thinking, Animus suddenly stopped and called out, “Conner, Anny, please trolley these riches to the vault.” She gestured to the barrel as two young men, though both older than her, came running in.

The man spoke up, “You got it boss, Niki, hurry up and help.”

“Conner you’re so strong,” Anny praised, “There’s no way you’ll need my help. You got this!” Damien could hear someone getting punched. “Alright! Alright, Conner! Why do you have to be so mean?”

“Shut up and lift with your legs,” Conner scowled, “I can’t handle another week of you complaining about your lower back hurting.”

“You’re my best friend, who else am I going to complain to?” Anny responded. “Though I’m more interested as to what they have in here. It’s so heavy, there must be a lot inside.”

Inside, Damien realized that they might just look in. In that case, he’d have to be prepared to go when they did.

“Don’t know, don’t care,” Conner said without any hesitation. “Animus told me that we are not supposed to open it, and that it’s going to the vault. Also, I have orders to kill whoever does try to open it. Including you, Anny.”

Some weak laughter, “You’re kidding about that right Conner? Conner?” After that the two of them walked in silence.

A short while later, Damien felt himself being put down followed by the loud, familiar sound of a large door close, namely the vault doors.

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Opening the barrel, Damien was met with a beautiful sight. Gems, emerald, ruby, and sapphires. A room full of the sparkly rocks. Some of them almost as big as his hand. Looking further, Damien also noticed some staffs of much higher quality than what he had before.

“I think I deserve a reward,” said Damien to himself.

Stuffing his gadget kit with as much as it could carry, not even being picky about just getting emeralds, Damien began to feel somewhat good about himself. He even found a useful harness that would let him tie four staffs around his waist. After everything he’d been through, he deserved something to go well for him for once.

Damien searched the room for anything sharp or heavy, as long as he was handcuffed, he’d be unable to use his wattiez let alone escape. Considering where he was, Damien suspected that the vault was protected by wattiez in some way, and he figured that normal lockpicks would have very little effect on it. Trying it anyway resulted in one of his lockpicks melting.

“That’s about right.”

This event gave Damien an idea, taking another one of his lockpicks, he stuck it through one of the chain link rings on the hand cuffs and put the lockpick in. The melting lockpick globed onto the ring, enough so that he could find the nearest solid object and smashed it on the ring, breaking it and releasing the bindings between his hands.

“Excellent!”

This process didn’t work for the metal around his wrist. The metal case was too large and strong so doing so only served to burn him. Unfortunately, this meant that Damien still couldn’t use his wattiez, but he at least had some freedom.

“Baby steps Damien, is there any way out of here?” Follow the light. The room was illuminated by sunlight, so where there was sunlight there would be a way out.

“Windows, yes… 50 feet up.” Damien took a second look around, the floorboards… sturdy. The Walls… made of brick. No other options, so Damien glanced back up at that window. “I have a question for Iroh, why?!”

There was no time for him to complain, Damien had to assume that Animus was still looking for me, and she may have even gotten some help. Finding him may take some time, but if Damien dawdled, they’d find him eventually.

“Ledge climbing, then? What did Lily say to do?” Damien found the highest build up of treasure and climbed on it, getting to a less than comfortable handhold. Luckily, the vault was pretty ancient, the bricking around the walls had more than enough space for his fingers and toes.

“It was something like this. Compact your body and spring up, got it! I was able to reach a higher ledge! Only 49 more feet to go… I hate myself.” Damien was only 30 feet up when he realized that maybe he should have ditched the extra 20lbs in his gadget kit.

Once he reached the top breaking the glass was an easy enough, if not time-consuming process. Had he been prepared for this, Damien might have brought the appropriate tools, instead he had to fall back on an age-old tactic. Beat it with a rock, or in this case gem, until it breaks.

“Last step Damien, now all you need to do- Aw come on!” Outside, Damien looked down only to be met with a drop of about 100 feet. Seemed that Soaring Sun’s royal family liked to keep their vault locked up high.

Damien could feel himself getting lightheaded and even cut his hand on some broken glass as he almost lost his balance, “I’m gonna kill him, I swear that I’m gonna kill him.”

Luckily, recent damages gave the side of the wall far larger foot and handholds than on the inside. Damien even found a large crevice that he could rest at some ways down. That was looking at it positively, if he were to look at the whole situation negatively, this only means that there is a higher chance of a faulty-

“Ah!” The brick at Damien’s foot gave way and he fell. “Dammit, if I survive this I promise- Ow! Huh?”

Damien hadn’t even fallen for two seconds before he hit the ground. The floor must have been less than 10 feet away. Up until now, he was too afraid to look down.

“That scream was probably heard by someone though.” Just like he thought, the familiar clinking of metal armor could be heard making it’s way towards him, “Time to go.”