Chapter 180: Caught

Lonappan didn't outright head over there and "bust" in the act or something like that, since nothing seemed to be happening there. He knew Scarlet was there, but he didn't know where he was. After all, it seemed as if he wasn't comfortable enough to drop the invisibility yet. And only when that happens, could Lonappan barge in like he planned.

"So, what happened? Why did you call us all like this?" Taro was the one who opened his mouth first and asked the question.

"Nice question. And the answer for that would be to wait and let the others come." Thankappan replied.

"Isn't literally everyone who wanna hear the shit you wanna spout here already?" Taro asked.

"What about Scarlet though?" Thankappan asked as he looked around for the Crimsoner.

"I'm here. Don't worry about it." A voice was heard from right behind Thankappan, which kinda freaked him out. "Oh, I didn't mean to scare you like that." Scarlet became flustered because of the sudden switch in Thankappan's expression.

"Ah, I wasn't scared or something. I simply was surprised by the sudden voice from behind. Nothing much." Thankappan calmly replied.

"Is that so? Good then. Pardon my misunderstanding." Scarlet bowed his head, however no one noticed—no one couldn't. He was still invisible and Thankappan didn't appreciate this.

"By the way, why are you still invisible? It's just us, you know? We've already seen you, so…" Thankappan shrugged.

"Well, after the events that transpired on the morning today, I don't want to become Mr Lonappan's prey!" Scarlet spoke.

"Ha, understandable. He's really a monster in a sense." Thankappan sighed and gave out a relatable line, furthering his friendship with the alien.

Meanwhile, someone was grinding his teeths and waiting for a perfect time to get his revenge on his junior for the way he potrayed him before a new alien.

"Wait, what happened on the morning? And how come I don't know about this?" Taro asked.

"Ah, Scarlet followed Lonappan and John to the MIB base for some reason. And he happen to hear certain things from there. You didn't hear about it till now because this is the only time we get together and I wanted everyone to know about it. So there you go." Thankappan replied, instead of Scarlet.

"So, what is it?" Taro asked.

"Yea. They know. If they didn't know about our communication before, they certainly know about it now." Scarlet spoke.

"You sure? You used an if right there. So, is that a possibility, or?" Taro questioned.

"If… I used it for the effects, I guess. But they asked to Thankappan about me and stuff. They were speculating most of the stuff, most of it turned out to be true too!" Scarlet exclaimed.

Thankappan sighed. "I'm not saying because I work with them, but those two are literal monsters when it comes to investigative stuff. So, yea. They just can do stuff like that." He nodded his head along.

"What's the plan?" Taro got straight to the point.

"Well, escape their suspicions, I guess. We gotta act the same whenever Lonappan asks us about something specific." Thankappan replied.

"Seems like someone's been watching a lot of movies these days." Taro chuckled since he remembered somewhat similar of a dialogue in one of the movies he watched.

"I kinda did, but that's not the point. The point is, Lonappan will continue doing it, so we have to say that we got no idea on who the Crimson robber is, alright?" Thankappan asked.

"Sure." Everyone nodded their heads.

"Cool. Now that's done, I have nothing else to say. So disperse or do whatever you planned to do." Thankappan spoke as he exited the place.

Soon enough, everyone else followed suit, other than one person—well, two.

"You still here, Scarlet?" Taro asked.

"Yup. Why did you ask for me?" Scarlet asked back.

"Ah, it's nothing. I was planning to close the door once everyone leaves. Since you're gonna be the final one to leave, I hope that you'll take on that responsibility." Taro spoke.

"I can do that. No worries." Scarlet assured him.

"Great. I'll leave that to you then." Taro waved his hand to thin air, felt a bit awkward about it and then eventually left.

Once he left, Scarlet headed towards the door and locked it from the balcony before releasing his invisibility. He stared at the Moon which looked elegant yet same as the day before and dwelled on some random thought.

"Hey, do you know the Crimson robber?" Someone asked him out of nowhere—quite literally. Scarlet couldn't even sense his arrival, which initially made him think that he was hallucinating.

However, once he pinched himself, he realised that it wasn't a hallucination and on putting a little thought into it, he learned about the owner of the voice.

"Umm, I don't know about that person." Scarlet gave out the cookie cutter response that Thankappan wanted him to say.

Hearing this, Lonappan chuckled. "Dude, you misunderstood what Thankappan said, didn't ya?" He asked.

"What do you mean?" Scarlet asked back.

"That response wasn't meant to you. After all, I know your face. So that doesn't work for you." Lonappan laughed as Scarlet started feeling nervous.

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The people from Crimson Planet are on the weaker side. They are not natural brawlers or have any sort of superpowers. Instead, it's their innate skills that kept them alive. Those skills allowed them to rob and that's all they needed.

In the off chances when they were caught, they wait for no one and escape like it's all that matters.

Scarlet was in a similar situation right then. His instincts wanted him to run away from the guy in front as soon as possible, but there wasn't anywhere to run to.

His instincts wanted him to jump over the balcony and run, but he knew he would break his bones once he does that.

"I know what you're thinking." Lonappan spoke.

"Huh?" Scarlet gave out a puzzled expression.

"You want to run right now, don't you?" Lonappan asked.

"How did you-" Scarlet opened his mouth to say something, thought otherwise, shut his mouth back and simply kept his ears open to what Lonappan had to say.

"Well, that would be the movies. Anyhow, glad to hear that I was actually right. I just read about you Crimsoners and that article talked about how you lot hated traveling the normal way. It also talked about your tendency to run and stuff. So… Anyhow, try jumping from the balcony and you'll be in the hospital bed for months. And don't try going invisible on me right now. You just locked your door, so it'll be easier for me to apprehend you if you mean to escape." Lonappan smiled. "Oh, by the way, hello Mr Scarlet. I'm Lonappan. But you probably know that already. After all, you followed me all the way to the MIB base." He continued smiling, but the smile had a different meaning this time.

"What do you want?" Scarlet asked.

Lonappan sighed. "Such bland, overused response. Change the tone at least. It's too boring…" He spoke. "And what do I want you ask? What do you think I want?" He asked.

"It was me." Scarlet mumbled

"Huh?" Lonappan neither understood nor heard what Scarlet said.

"It was me. I did it all alone. The others did nothing wrong. I was the one who messed up with your people in the headquarters. So, yea." Scarlet spoke.

"Ah, a sacrificial confessions to save your mates, huh? That's cute. But that was a wrong move, dude. After all, I can still charge them with harbouring a fugitive and screw them as well." Lonappan gave out a maniacal laugh. It suited him really well.

"What the!" Scarlet initially lost his composure, but quickly regained it since he knew that it was all about the mind games right then. "Wait! I forced them into doing it. I forced them to hide me here. I had the Canino hostage as well. So, how about that, huh?" Scarlet asked.

Lonappan sighed. "Okay. What you just said… it might've made a lot of sense in some other place, but not right here. Why, you ask? Because of the calibre of the men you said you threatened. First of all, there's my junior, Thankappan. So, I believe in him—scratch that. I believe in his fighting prowess." He took a deep breath before continuing. "Anyhow, other than my junior, there's someone else capable of destroying walls in that group. No kidding! He thinks cements as some unusable substance when there's an actual industry that came from it. Anyhow, when there are guys like them, do you think I'd believe what you just said?" He asked. "So, if even I don't believe what you say, what do you think will happen if you were to post a complaint against me or do some shit like that? It will always backfire on you since you are the ones lying."

Scarlet stayed silent for the longest time. He simply didn't know what to say or do. But finally, he opened his mouth. "What do you want me to do?" He asked. It seemed like he had no choice but to listen to the man.

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