Chapter Text
As soon as they got the door open and entered the room, Powder already knew that this wasn't owned by an ordinary Piltie, so many books lined the shelves on one side of the room, bits and pieces of small machinery both unfinished and completed and a huge blackboard filled with calculations, drawings and schematics written and drawn in chalk which Vi noticed.
"Must be an inventor."
Powder hummed in agreement, like the rest of her siblings, she started looking for anything that could sell a lot in the undercity to put in the sack and in her search she had found a small, round object, it looked like a basket that was gold, it was lined with diamonds and within the basket is an egg that was dark blue in color. She immediately focused on the small object and picked it up with wonder and excitement.
"Woah, I think this is a real valdiani."
She pressed the "egg" and it opened like a blooming flower, a small sphere with 3 rings spinning around it while a soft tune played like a music box.
"Oh yeah? What about this!"
Mylo presented a metal stick that was white and gold, typical Topsider design, it had a pair of tweezers on the end, Mylo pressed a button on the side and the tweezers opened and closed at a rapid pace.
Powder was unimpressed.
"That's a nose hair trimmer."
Vi then came to her vision carrying many things in her arms before dropping them in the sack.
"Keep an eye out for anything that looks valuable, Powder. Before Mylo fills the bag with junk."
Powder mentally giggled and went down a short corridor where a door was at the end. She opened the door to see a small bedroom that was turned into a workshop, she hummed a small tune picking up a book reading it. She looked around before and to her delight, saw a sandwich on the table. Powder let out a small whoop of celebration and took a big bite out of the meal, sighing in relief and enjoyment from the flavors of the meat, vegetables and bread.
She noticed something hidden under the blueprint and went to move it out of the way but something on the paper had caught her attention. She grabbed it and laid it on the floor, letting the sun shine on it to give her a clear view of the blueprint.
It was a giant war hammer with different shifting parts and a round slot was placed in the center of the head. From the notes it looked like it could shoot something like a cannon, she didn't know what it was and saw on the top of the blueprint the name of the invention.
"Mercury Hammer"
'Ekko's gonna love this!'
She folded the paper small enough to fit it in her pouch and went to grab for the box that was hidden until suddenly a hand grabbed her arm and Powder jumped in fright before noticing the wraps. She would have relaxed if she hadn’t seen Vi’s worried and anxious face.
“Powder, we have to go now!”
Vi dragged her by the arm running out of the room and towards the balcony where she saw both Claggor and Mylo climbing to the roof.
“Wait, what happened!?”
Vi didn’t answer her but the banging on the propped door and the angry voice behind did, prompting her to move faster and climb up with the rest of her siblings. Just as she made it up, they all heard the door open with a loud bang and hurried footsteps nearing the balcony causing them to move away from the edge out of sight.
Vi motioned for them to keep quiet and still, Powder held her breath and stood frozen with her heart beating loudly in her ears, after a few minutes they heard the door close and breathed in relief.
“Alright guys, let’s go home.”
Powder couldn’t agree more.
Jayce was explaining his work to Caitlyn who was listening while carrying a box full of parts, she didn’t notice one leaning out of the box and it fell on the floor halting their walk. She went to pick it up before Jayce spoke up with a laugh.
“Careful, that’s your parents' money you’re dropping.”
Caitlyn playfully scoffed before picking up the fallen object and putting the box down to reorganize it. Jayce went ahead to unlock the door with the key but the door didn’t budge when he twisted the knob, he tried again with force this time and heard something crash inside and voices panicking.
“Hello? Is someone in there?”
Jayce saw a silhouette run past the room through the glass, Jayce dropped the boxes he was carrying and tried again for the lock and knob.
“Hey! Open up!”
The door didn’t budge so he resorted to ramming it twice with his shoulder, Cailyn noticed this and dropped the box on the floor before hurrying to Jayce.
“What’s going on?”
“Someone broke into the apartment! Can you help me with this?”
Caitlyn nodded and went behind Jayce and they rammed the door with their shoulders together, after a few more times the door finally gave in and both people did not waste time entering the apartment to find the culprit. The room was a mess and Jayce saw the balcony door open and turned to Caitlyn.
“Stay right here where I can see you. If you see anything or anyone here, scream okay?”
Caitlyn nodded and Jayce went to the balcony and looked outside, he gazed downward and saw nothing out of the ordinary, people walking down the streets and enforcers patrolling it. He looked up to the rooftops and saw nothing either, chimneys and a few birds perched resting. He sighed and shaked his head before turning back inside to see the bluette gone.
Jayce felt fear grip his heart and worry for the girl whom he saw as sister and started calling out to her.
“Caitlyn!?”
“I’m in here.”
Her voice came from his small workshop and ran towards the door and saw the girl looking at a sandwich. Jayce exhaled and leaned on the doorway with his hands on his knees.
“Oh Janna! I thought I told you to stay where I could see you!”
“I know but you know that I can’t stay put and do nothing when something like this happens.”
Jayce went to retort but it died on his tongue once he realized she was right, for as long as he knew her, Caityn had a very curious mind with a passion for solving mysteries and cases, he had seen her from time to time talking with Sheriff Grayson about joining the enforcers. Combine her detective mindset and unmatched aim with a rifle, Jayce knew she would be a damn good enforcer when she grows up.
“While you were gone I looked at the mess that was left behind and I concluded that there were more than one person involved in the theft.”
“How could you tell?”
“Well for one, there were many things stolen from different sides of the room including this one meaning one person couldn’t have done this in a short time, and for another, there were footprints left on the floor, I counted four and one of them are small enough to be that of a child’s, probably the one who entered this room and took a bite out of the sandwich.”
Jayce looked down on the floor and saw small, child footprints on the floor leading to the table where two sandwiches lay, one of it having a corner bitten off. To say Jayce was impressed with Caitlyn’s skill was an understatement, he could only wonder why her mother still bars her from joining the force.
“So far, it looks like they didn’t steal anything important but do you think we should still report this to Sheriff Grayson?”
Jayce thought about this for a few minutes before coming to a conclusion.
“Well, you said that they haven’t stolen anything important right?”
“From what I could gather, yes.”
“And they haven't hurt anyone, so this doesn’t need to be reported to the authorities.”
Caitlyn looked thoughtful before nodding at Jayce, agreeing with his decision. She went outside the room and once she was out of range, Jayce quickly looked for the box, opened it and relaxed once he saw that the stones were safe and accounted for. He closed it, placed it somewhere hidden and out of reach and went back to the main room and looked at the mess.
“Well, I guess we can start cleaning now, the supplies are in the closet next to the bathroom. You know where that is right?”
“Yup!”
“Okay, you can go get those, I’ll get the boxes we left outside.”
Both went to do their tasks and started cleaning the ransacked room, while doing this Jayce felt like there was something missing, it would be by night would he realize that the blueprint of his hammer was not there and was instead inside the pouch of a blue-haired undercity girl.