Thief's Theme: A Love Story
Chapter Twelve

Once again Ji stands outside of his ship, peering deep into endless void of space as he’s bombarded by radiation and cold. Like last time, he is looking at a star, but this one is much different than the neutron star he took before. This star is super massive and super-hot, so much so that it is classified as a blue hypergiant, the largest and hottest type of all stars. What makes this star even more different is the state the star is in. Currently the star is preparing to explode and go supernova, something which will likely form a black hole due to its size. Or well, it would if Ji wasn’t here. And of course, that is what Ji is waiting on, to witness the beauty of nature, of destruction, of the natural life cycle of a star as big, as bright, and as hot as this one. Once it’s reached the pinnacle of the explosion, the peak of its beauty, then Ji will step in and do as thieves do. ‘Come on, star. Don’t make me beg for it.’ Ji thinks with a grin. Not a minute after he thinks those thoughts does something happen, something wonderful. BOOM! The hypergiant explodes, finally going supernova. The force, the light, and the heat wash over Ji, his ship, and the entire area for lightyears as the supernova reaches full force, and yet somehow he doesn’t flinch or move a muscle. He remains rooted to his spot, merely staring at his prize with a wide grin on his face.

“Wow!” He starts. “It’s weird to see how each star explodes differently. A shame this’ll be the last of my collection though.” He says as he takes the star, mid-supernova, and places it next to the others he’s collected in the same state (one of each: a blue giant, blue dwarf, red giant, red supergiant, red hypergiant, yellow hypergiant, white dwarf, yellow giant, white giant, and everything in between). “Had to save the best for last.” He muses. ‘Or maybe less “best” for last and more “biggest” and “brightest” for last.’ He corrects himself in his thoughts. He waits in the outskirts of outer space a while longer, staring at the now empty spot where the star—no, where his star used to be. He shakes his head at the craziness of it all and goes back into his ship.

“Next up, a Black hole. And then…a solar system.” He says to himself as he re-enters his stolen ship. Before he does much, he looks around as if searching for something. “Keepers seem late.” He comments. BOOM! The ship shakes from the attack, causing Ji to grin wildly. “Ah, there they are.” He exclaims excitedly as his ship is instantly swarmed and boarded by ten Keeper Elite. The Keeper Elite wear similar robes as normal Keepers, only with different symbols on them. They also wear black masks that have white triangle-shaped glass that extends from the forehead to the mouth. Oh and they also have powerful looking, futuristic guns as weapons, guns they currently have pointed at Ji. In response Ji sighs and puts his hands up in surrender.

“’Sup boys, come to fail at catching me?” He taunts with jubilance. No one talks or responds in any way. Instead they shoot a strange projectile towards Ji, one that looks like a misshapen orb of some strange white energy with a black glow. The orb travels fast, faster than anyone could ever hope to dodge, and hits Ji in the chest, quickly engulfing him until he disappears inside said orb. Unfortunately for the Keeper Elite, Ji pops right back out, reappearing where he once was.

“Was that a pocket dimension?” Questions Ji, incredulous. He knows it was, so it’s more of a rhetorical question, one asked in surprise, shock, and awe. “Awesome!” He states, unharmed and unrestrained in anyway by the high-tech attack. “The space cops just had dope lasers with a lot of settings.” He muses as he looks up as if trying to remember something. “Hold up let me see if I remember um…” His brow furrows as he concentrates on his memories of the space police. “Paralysis, sleep, stun, burn, freeze, constrict, explode, and kill.” He lists off. “Some seem redundant but hey, I didn’t design them.” He explains with a shrug. The Keeper Elite are not amused. Again, without speaking, they switch their guns to a new setting and fire.

Ten beams hit Ji at once, freezing him solid…for a moment. After the moment is up, Ji steps out of the ice cube somehow (no doubt, due to his aptness at thievery) and comments on the weapon.

“Man, that was cold!” He exclaims. The Keeper Elite tense up at his joking matter and easy survival and escape from that attack. It meant that absolute zero, the temperature at which atoms themselves stopped moving, didn’t work on their target. They began to wonder if Merc was impossible to catch. Wiping that thought from their minds, they try to think of ways to take him out. They already knew the gravity functions were useless due to witnessing him standing in the center of a neutron star, and the heat and force functions were useless for much of the same reasons. It looks like they’d have to use their trump card. With a few silent hand signals and nodding from each of them, the Keeper Elite all change their gun to the strongest setting they have and pull the trigger.

Instantly everything around the Keeper Elite stops moving. The ship stops flying through space, air stops circulating through the ship, light from stars stop traveling to the solar systems and planets they shone over, every person not a Keeper Elite stops moving or functioning in any way, and every molecule and atom stops as well. Time and Space itself is frozen. This is the absolute power of the Keeper Elite weapon, to freeze time. Something that no being outside the gods and the Keeper Elite themselves could counter. Or so they hope. They’ve seen some crazy things over the years, and have seen Merc do the impossible, so nothing is ruled out. Because of this, every one of the Keeper Elite keeps their guns trained on Merc, all moving closer to him slowly, by the inch. It seems to have worked as they get in as close as all ten of them can and still Merc hasn’t moved a muscle.

Suddenly Ji moves, holding up his hands as he shouts loudly to surprise the men, as if conducting a high school prank.

“Boo!” He yells, startling the trained elites of the Keepers. Not expecting any kind of movement, and being highly trained in ways that no man can imagine, the Keepers Elite respond poorly to the jump scare, and react instantly before they can stop themselves. In one instant, all of their guns simultaneously switch to the most deadly setting: Kill. Pure anti-matter rings out from each of the ten guns and annihilates the ship and everything surrounding it, leaving only the Keeper Elite unscathed.

The Keeper Elite all look at each other and their guns in confusion. What just happened? Did they get him? Did they want to get him like that? The questions travel through the heads of each of the Keeper Elite as they run over the scenario over and over again in their minds. Once they realize what’s happened, all of them are surprised at first, mostly at Merc being able to move during the Time Freeze as that’s supposed to be impossible, and then they all feel shame and regret. They were supposed to bring the thief in, not kill him. As Elites, it’s unacceptable to fail a mission so heavily, even if the target is as dangerous as the thief seemed to be. The Keeper Elite realize that for once in a long time, they may have just messed up.

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