“Can you walk a little slower Kyer. I can’t run all the way around this
huge building to keep up with you and carry this thing at the same time.”

“If you had resigned from wearing those fancy high heels and that tight
evening gown you wouldn’t be feeling tortured by now.” Kyer pulled at the
other end of the ladder she and LaCountess were carrying making her friend
jerk forward and let out a growl of frustration.

“I didn’t possess a sixth sense to assume we were going to play thief
here, didn’t you say we were just going to ‘pick it up’? You never told me
there was ladder haulage involved. Why am I always singled out for the
dirtiest jobs when I’m wearing my nice clothes?” She panted heavily as she
tried to keep up with her faction leader and keep the heavy object
balanced between them at the same time.

“I told you there would be no Nick peeking, didn’t I? Who did you dress up
for? The Knighties?” Kyer yanked her forward again by pulling her end of
the large wooden ladder.

Just as Sunny opened her mouth to answer her they heard a choir of voiced
and instruments start at once. It was the rest of the CotK presenting
their best instrumental and vocal ability in order to get the Knighties’
attention.

----------
As soon as the Kezia gave the sign the whole group started to sing a
cheesy ballad that sounded like something between “Jingle Bells” and
Britney Spears’ new hit for the Pepsi commercial. Some of them had brought
instruments with them, which they started playing as soon as the singing
started. After two minutes of pure noise that had began to even attract
the rats out of their sewers and possibly some Rattpacker with them, a
window on one of the upper floors of the building opened and someone cried
out, “What is going on? Who are you people?”

Kezia put all her remaining vocal strength in her voice and replied,
“It’s, umm, well, us. We’re gathering donations for the Old Medieval
ReEnactors Home.”

Some of the CotK started waving a large Banner they were holding in their
hands with the words “Old Medieval ReEnactors Home” inscribed on it,
displaying their most innocent and rather foolish looking smiles.

“What? I can’t hear you. Can you walk into the intercom and speak there
please?.” The other yelled again.

Kezia yelled back, “Ok, hold on!”

She then walked to the intercom and just as she turned her face up to look
at the monitor and speak, the garage door suddenly started to open, while
at the same time, shouts, curses and screams of “I told you that was the
wrong button!” Was heard from the loft’s still open window.

“Ok guys, this is our chance. Looks like they screwed up something and now
we have access to the interiors. Diane, have Upiddy ready!” Kezia told the
others, but as she turned to look at the young woman on the horse, the
animal who apparently was terrified by all those noisy creatures
surrounding her, reared and jumped forward to enter the garage through the
now fully open door. Its neighs were accompanied by screams coming from
the Knighties who had just entered the garage to see what was going on and
possibly deflect any potential attacks.

“Don’t let the beast jump on the Caddy!” One of them shouted. Two others
ran to restrain Upiddy who at this point was completely overwhelmed by all
the noise and didn’t seem to listen even to its rider. The resulting
mayhem was something Gateway Lane had not seen since the last war.

------------
On the other side of the building Kyer was already climbing the ladder
that LaCountess was inexpertly holding to keep it balanced and at the same
time, not lose her own balance on her overly high-healed shoes. Kyer had
almost reached the fire escape stairs when someone’s head poked out of the
above window and a few minutes later a very large bundle appeared. Kyer
tried to yell and keep her voice hushed at the same time as she looked
down in frustration, “Sunny, could you PLEASE hold it a little steadier.
I’m falling off even now without the package in my hands.”

Another hushed voice came from above, “Hey ! I can’t stay here any longer
or they’ll find out. Take it already and get lost before the mess gets
messier.”

Kyer reached up and tried to grab the package as soon as the owner of the
voice dropped it unceremoniously. She almost succeeded in catching it but
this made the ladder wobble precariously and Sunny, who was just at that
very moment checking her dress for something that looked to her like an
ugly stain, lost her balance and let go of the ladder to hold on to the
nearby wall. “Thwack” something crashed on top of her head knocking her
down senselessly. The last thing she saw before darkness claimed her was
Kyer’s flailing legs as she hung on for dear life to the last step of the
fire escape and the ladder landing on the concrete floor. She then
submitted to unconsciousness.

Kyer tried to estimate the distance between her and the ground and for a
fleeting moment, wished that at some point in her past, someone had been
so generous as to bring her across and grant her the ability to fly. That
would have been really handy to her at this point. Her eyes searched
frantically for the precious cargo they have came here for when she
watched, wide eyed, a shadow emerge from the darkness of the alley and
jump forward in lightning speed to snatch away her prized bounty. She
didn’t know whether to scream for help or yell at the crook to stop,
although she knew both those cries would most likely go unheeded anyway.
So she just hung there like a kitten and thought about the nice
predicament she was in, for she was sure that even if she survived her
current ‘suspension’, nobody guaranteed that she would survive a
crusader’s wrath for loosing one of his most precious belongings.

TBC~~