Hanston's Keys: The Prize

[Dante in ze pot]

- - - Hanston's Keys - - -
- The Prize-

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Remember how I said that the OOC and IC plots would eventually collide? Well, they collided in the prize granted to our winners.

And this is how the story goes...

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Five people, four female and one male, sat along the edge of the Riverdale ravine. Smoke was rising not far away, the bonfire drawing to a close. The one male had his hood pulled up, a shadow cast across his face. He sat a little ways away from the three others. "So now you see how easy it is. A little bonfire, little work. But...I think you ought to try something bigger. I gave you a demo. Do something with it.

"Sir..." One began, cut off by a second.

"HC, come on, give us an idea." The second one nodded. Sir HC seemed to ponder this for a moment, expressions hidden.

"Steal something. Or somethings, of great importance. Okay, how about this. Steal something of Hanston's."

"Like what?" A third one spoke up.

"Oh, I don't know..." Sir HC chuckled. "Take her keys or something. Take the RSOR keys she's got. That will put them up in a panic."

"And how?" The fourth asked.

"I don't know, figure it out, Amened." Sir HC laughed. "Between the four of you, it's bound to work out." And with that, Sir HC simply ran away.

Amened looked at the other three, then broke the silence. "Okie dokie...now what?" She asked.

"That's a challenge." The third one said. "I'm going to be up all night thanks to his stupid challenge."

"I guess I'll have to channel my inner Clyde Barrow." The first of the four said.

"You're not kidding, Haybent." The final one agreed. "Though I don't wan to stay up all night, Anti. He didn't exactly tell us to pull this off in a week.

"True, Jeez." Amened nodded.

One week ago...

It took them months of research, but the four were ready to strike. Now, it was all a matter of acting at the right times. Anti was patrolling near Hanston's house in her red car, while Haybent sat in the backseat, binoculars to her face. "She's holding a party." Haybent said. "Maybe we can slip in as party guests."

"No, we're going to plan." Anti pulled the car over and looked at Haybent. "Put the moustache on, and..." she leaned over, tied her friend's bright pink tie properly, and put the bowler hat on Haybent. "Tuck your hair up in there." She then looked at her own silly costume. A pink greaser jacket and blue jeans. And Haybent in some mix of a suit.

"Let's do this before I laugh too hard." Haybent tucked her hair in the hat, and sighed. "I'll get the cart ready. You go smokebomb them."

Meanwhile...

"Jeez, do you see anything?" Amened asked, from beside the janitor's supply cart. The other two of the four were in Riverdale High, in the dead of night. Not even the RSOR room, which was used to functioning in the wee morning hours, would be open this late. No, only one (sane) human being was in Riverdale right now.

The janitor.

"I don't see anything." Jeez replied, peeking around the corner again. "He's not back yet. We're in the clear. But hurry up!" Sneaking in had been a crazy endeavour, and getting kicked out would ruin the plan.

"Okie dokie." Amened grinned, and poured the itching powder into the janitor's rubber gloves, and then all over the rags he used to clean with, and would have to hold, including the handles of the cart itself. Once she'd rigged the cart, she ran over and joined Jeez. The two then bolted down the hall and down into the basement, hiding behind boxes and crates that housed the decorations that Riverdale set up on various occasions. They heard the janitor coming down the steps a few moments later, grumbling about bedbugs, watching him scratch while wearing the rigged rubber gloves. He unlocked the door to his office, and swung the door open, but didn't stay in there long.

"The hell..." The janitor grumbled, itching his hands like mad after taking off his gloves. He turned and left again a moment later, presumably to the washroom, and the two girls ran into the tiny little office without a second thought. They then proceeded to go through every single drawer, looking frantically for the skeleton key that he had.

Back at Hanston's...

Anti was walking very carefully along the top of the fence to the back of the Hanston estate. She had three smoke bombs with her, but one well placed throw would do the trick. She couldn't help but feel very obvious, walking along the fence into the backyard where an evening party was set up, but guests were still filing in and talking to one another, rather than pay attention to her. She didn't need to get far into the yard, either, just a bit past the house...there. She lit then threw the smoke bomb, and it landed dead center of the yard. She turned and darted back along the fence as behind her, an inky grey cloud enveloped the entire yard, and screaming erupted. She jumped down from the fence and ran back to her car, where Haybent was waiting with a push-cart of perfumes, in old-fashioned bottle. They exchanged a nod and went up the walk of the house in disarray, waiting at the open door until someone came by. "I'm sorry," A woman of about thirty said. "The lady of the house is in the back, and we're not buying, though if either of you could call the fire de-" She was cut off mid-sentence as both Anti and Hyebent burst out in song.

"His and hers!" They sang in unison. "His and hers perfuuummmmesssss! So beautiful, so grand, so smelly and niiiice!" They linked arms and did some sort of dosado around their cart, which conveniently put them both in the doorway so the befuddled woman couldn't close the door. "His and hers perfuuuuuummmmmme! Lalalala, so grand! So nice!" And the hiphop routine began. At the end, while Anti started to sing about "His and Her's Grand Perfumes" to the tune of 'Pop Goes The Weasel', Haybent grabbed a specifically-chosen pink bottle from the cart. And at "POP!" in the song, she gave the bottle a squeeze, and pink smoke erupted everywhere. By the time it cleared, the cart was in the doorway, but the two 'salespeople' were gone.

Flip-time!

"I found it!" Jeez picked up a key in triumph. It was old fashioned, stowed away, and had a skull on it, exactly what various leads and a parrot had told them was the Riverdale Boarding High skeleton key. The key that would open any door, or more importantly, the door to Hanston's office. They left the janitor's room messy, but not before putting saran wrap across the doorway, sealing the poor man out for a bit. He'd know someone was in the school now, but that didn't matter. They saran-wrapped the door to the basement, too, and set off running again, to the school office. Along the way, they cling-wrapped the staff bathroom and any mens bathroom they could find. Unless the janitor was a creep, they hopefully cost him time.

They ran to the school office, and opened the door with they key, but as soon as Amened stepped in, they triggered an alarm. Both girls jumped out of their skins, and looked at each other in shock. This hadn't been on the plan. "I know codes..." Jeez said tentatively. "But not hacking..."

"Try?" Amened pleaded, and Jeez went to the alarm box. She flipped off the lid, and went to work on the tiny keypad, as the shriek increased in intensity, to the point where it could wake the dead.

"Cling-wrap the door!" Jeez said, and Amened closed the door to the office, then cling wrapped it over and over. It was a good thing she had five rolls in her backpack, because she'd spent one by this point. While Jeez tapped feverishly on the keys, Amened opened the door to Hanston's office, and began to look around.

Back to the party...

Haybent and Anti ran in two different directions; Anti to the left, Haybent to the right, and through the partygoers. The both of them felt they got the crazier of the two sides of the robbery, and the one with greater chance of arrest. But that was what drawing straws did to a person. As they ran, they both removes their jackets; Anti shoved hers into a rubbish bin, and Haybent deposited hers upon the head of a small child. Both ran through assorted rooms in the chaos, and right up to the master bedroom.

"I cannot believe we're doing this." Anti grumbled. "Stupid challenge." She shut the door to the master bedroom behind her, as Haybent sighed.

"It would be like him to put us up to this. Now if I were a key, where would I be?" Haybent asked, opening a closet that smelled of mothballs. Anti looked under the four-poster bed, and then in Hanston's purse, then went for a drawer that was half-open.

And in the school office...

Jeez finally got the alarm to die, but not before the janitor was angrily whacking the door to the office with a mop, unable to open it due to the cling-wrap. The two were ransacking the principal's office, overturning pictures of family and friends, looking in drawers and under the desk. Nothing.

Amened couldn't figure it out. Where, if not here, would Hanston put her keys? They were in here, but where would they be hidden? She looked around at the personal effect thrown upon the ground, and saw something that just might be the solution. A large bobblehead of Queen Elizabeth 2 was lying on the ground. It was a large bobblehead, with an odd crack. She picked it up, and gave Her Majesty a shack to the head. The hat came off...and inside were keys. Amened pocketed them, and put the hat back on. "I got them, Jeez."

Jeez didn't answer. She was holding a globe and grinning. "There's a catch." She undid the catch and pulled out some keys. "Got 'em." A quick count gave them eight keys. "Half and half." Jeez grinned. "We're out of here..." She trailed off at the sound of cling-wrap ripping.

"Okie dokie." Amened nodded. "How does the window sound?" She asked, opening the window in the office, which was thankfully on the first floor, and removing the screen.

"Sounds splended." Jeez agreed. "After you."

Back at the Hanston home...

"They could be anywhere in here!" Haybent grumbled. Anti did not answers, instead she opened that half-opened drawer fully, then recoiled.

"Do...I...no. No." Anti looked down in the drawer. "I'm just...not. Haybent, look in here." Haybent went over to the drawer, and stared at it.

"If I have too....this is awkward and outlandish." Haybent sighed, and began to rummage in the underwear drawer of Mr. Hanston, as Anti opened the closet, to find a plethora of royal family collectibles. And a single statuette of Queen Elizabeth 1. The base had hinges, and so she opened the base...and found...what else? Keys.

"Anti..." Haybent sounded mildly disturbed from by the wardrobe. Anti shoved the keys in a pocket, and went out of the closet, to see Haybent holding up some keys. "She puts them in the weirdest places."

"Don't question it. We don't have time." Anti could hear people running around. "The window sound good?"

"Yep." Heybent nodded. "Let's go."

Riverdale Ravine

"There, Sir HC. We did it." Amened said, holding out a ring containing all 15 keys. "Ha."

"Now go scatter them." Sir HC said, voice level. "Go on."

"But...we just found them all!" Jeez pleaded.

"So?" Sir HC raised an eyebrow, though the motion couldn't be seen from under the hood.

"Well, can't we keep them." Haybent asked.

"No, go cause trouble." The boy was clearly not going to give. "I already posted a notice about it, go on."

"Fiiiiiiiiine." Anti sighed. "C'mon, guys, let's go."

"Besides," Sir HC added with a grin after they left. "It makes for good plotting."

After all, 'Jeez', 'Amened', 'Anti' and 'Haybent'...

If you found all those keys, who's to say you didn't steal them in the first place?

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