Morning had finally came to the city. Cars were already flooding the streets as people were trying to get to work. Horns were blowing and the loud chattering of people filled the air. It was Wednesday, it's always this busy in the mornings on Wednesday. The noise was echoing down the alley and ringing in the dumpster where the boys slept. Omni groaned and turned over, grumbling in his sleep about a monkey trying to steal his cookies. Sergei was still against the wall, snoring lightly. Outside, a door flew open and slammed against the wall, making Sergei jump. A short man with curly black hair with a beer gut and clean shave came out with two trash bags in his hands.

He walked quickly to the dumpster as he struggled to carry the heavy bags, beads of sweat dotting his red face. He flipped the lid open and threw both bags in, each hitting the boys on the head. They both shot up out of their sleep, holding their heads.

"Owww, God damn, what the hell?!" Sergei yelled out as he held his head. The man jumped back some and looked inside to see the boys rolling around. Omni looked up to the man and frowned at him.

"What's your deal guy?" Omni asked, rubbing his eyes. "The hell are you two doin' in the dump anyways?" His accent sounded like he was from New York, he looked like it too. Sergei narrowed his eyes in the sunlight and struggled climbed out of the dump. He held out his hand to the man; however, he was reluctant at first but decided to help him out. Omni hopped out and stretched his back, letting out a loud yawn.

Omni stomach growled loudly and laughed. "Man I'm starvin'... do you know where we can get something to eat?" Omni asked. The man shuffled on his feet and motioned them to follow him. Sergei looked over to his brother with a concerned look like, "We don't know this guy so why trust him?" Omni shrugged his shoulders and followed the man into the building. Omni grabbed Sergei by his arm and pulled him along, insisting he would just go with it.

"Hey Anthony, you got some hungry kids out here!" the man called out. He looked back the two boys and told them to close the door. "Normally we don't feed outsiders, but Tony don't mind feeding the homeless." Omni laughed at the comment and shook his head. "Nah, we're not homeless dude, we're just drifters." He mouthed an "oh" and lead them into what seemed like an old arcade room. It was full old games like Pacman, Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter, Donkey Kong, Tron, Tetris, and Mario. There was a prize bar to their right, old toys and prizes lined the wall and a glass case contained smaller toys and various candies that looked pretty dusty.

"Yeah, this is our "hideout" so uh, entertain yourselves and I'll go get Tony for ya," the man said as he began to walk off. Omni waved him off and began to snoop around the arcade while Sergei stood to the side, hands in his pockets. He watched his little brother play one game called "Galaga" and one called "Ninja Gaiden". He got really excited when he saw the main ninja character using tonfas.

"Dude, check it, he's using the same things I got right here, see?" he said pointing at the screen. Sergei nodded and continued to watch him play the game. Omni made a comment saying he'll learn how to use them just like him, minus the heavy bit of blood being splattered around. Sergei laughed at his little brother. He was so interested in learning how to use a dangerous pair of hand-held clubs but he was worried about causing a little bloodshed. After a couple of minutes, a man with a cigar in his mouth came down. His dark eyes were slightly red from the smoke, his short black hair was combed back and his chin was covered in shaving cream. He wore a semi-clean wife beater and ripped blue jeans with a pair of sandals. He dragged a silver razor blade over the left side of his face while he walked over to the boys.

"Hey, I heard you boys were sleeping the dump out back," he finally said. They both turned around and saw him standing there, smoking his cigar and shaving. Omni raised an eyebrow and smirked.

"Well yeah, we were... I gotta say I'm impressed with your multitasking skills." He nodded in agreement with Omni and flicked off a glob of shaving cream into a tin trash can. He took a puff of his cigar and put it in an ash tray sitting on top of the prize counter. Sergei watched him carefully as he shaved his face. He doesn't know him so he doesn't trust him. For all they knew, he could be undercover Interpol or some freak with sick intentions. He noticed the tension and finished shaving the rest of his face and put the blade down. He wiped off some of the shaving cream onto his pants and walked over to the boys and leaned on the game machine.

"Ease up man, I ain't gonna do nothin' to ya," he said. Sergei slouched back some and Omni stopped playing his game. "So you guys hungry?" he asked them. Omni rubbed his stomach as it growled and nodded. "Well, you probably already knew this, but I'm Tony, Butch's boss," he said, extending his hand out to them. Omni was the first shake his hand but Sergei didn't.

"Sorry man, I ain't not too partial to strangers," Sergei said crossing his arms. Tony tucked his tongue in his cheek and put his hands in his pockets and walked past them. He stopped at the doorway on the other side of the room, looking back at the boys. "When you've decided you wanna eat, just come upstairs right?" Tony said as he disappeared to the upper levels. As soon as Tony left, Omni smacked Sergei in the stomach.

"Hey man, what was that for?" Sergei asked, rubbing his stomach. Omni narrowed his eyes at him and scoffed. Normally, situations like this would be reversed where the older brother scolds the little brother. Omni only did that because he didn't wanna tick Tony off and make him take back his hospitality and kick them out. Omni began to walk up the stairs and Sergei stopped him. "C'mon man, you know I don't trust people right off the rip," Sergei said. Omni looked back at him and pulled free from Sergei's grip. "Give it a chance for once, how often does any random stranger let you into their place, let you use their belongs without them worrying about you stealing anything, and offer you a free meal?" Sergei looked down for a minute and thought to himself. He didn't want to admit he was right but he was. Omni wrapped his arm around Sergei's neck and lead him upstairs. He told him it won't be bad for their health to do this.

They reached the top of the stairs and entered a room that was blasting with heavy metal. There were several bars stacked up with shelves of a variety of drinks, ranging from old school sodas to a rainbow wave of alcoholic drinks. They saw some lady and a guy slouched back on a raggedy couch, drinking beers and laughing. Some other guy was leaning on the bar while a girl was shaking up a drink for him. They walked by a few guys who gave them strange looks, making Sergei tighten his grip on the diamond. They spotted Tony in the back of the room, smoking another cigarette and playing pool with Butch and three other guys. Tony looked up and grinned, motioning them to come over. When they made their way to the table, Omni took it upon himself to take a seat next to the table. Sergei propped himself up on the wall next to Omni, his arms crossed and his eyes focused on the game.

"You boys never did answer my question, why were you in the dump this morning?" Tony asked, taking a puff of his cigarette. One of the guys looked up from a full hand of cards and furrowed his eyebrows. Sergei looked at Tony and shoved his hands in his pockets, still being a little reluctant to speak. Omni leaned back in his seat and twiddled his thumbs. Sergei simply shrugged his shoulders and a jolt of pain shot through him, making him wince. Tony looked up and grimaced.

"But more importantly, what happened to your shoulder there?" Tony asked earnestly. Sergei shook his head and said it was nothing. Tony wasn't buying it. Omni looked at his brother and bumped his side, insisting that he just tell them. Sergei glared at him and told him it would give them away for sure. Tony put his stick down and took another breath of his cigar, waiting for an answer.

"I uh... Well, what happened was that I was shot," Sergei finally said. Tony's eyes widened and looked at Omni in disbelief. Omni only nodded his head and Tony looked back at Sergei. "Now what the hell did you do to piss someone off and have them shoot ya?" he asked again. Sergei looked to Omni like he didn't want to explain the story. Omni slouched back in his chair and clasped his hands together. He took a deep breath as if he were prepared to yell at someone.

"Well it all started when we were on a heist and we were at the museum. We got in safely and we were looking for the Black Heart, a really huge purple diamond that was the crown jewel of the museum. I looked around for it but I found nothin' but these awesome things," he raised his tonfas up and Tony nodded. The rest of the guys stopped playing pool and listened to the story Omni told. Even the heavy metal music that was playing was turned down so everyone else in the room could hear him speak. "So after I picked these things up, I went to go check to see if Sergei found the Black Heart and he did. But here's the thing, I thought they were slackin' off when I didn't see any infrared lights or hear any alarms so we assumed we could just take anything and split." Sergei shot Omni a glare and he chuckled. "Okay okay, I assumed we could take anything we wanted. Little did we know that the whole place was wired with silent motion sensors so when we were making our exit, there was a S.W.A.T. team already waitin' for us around the corner!"

As Omni played into his tale, the guys were leaning in more as if they were trying to be entangled in the excitement. Omni went on about how close they were at gunpoint and Sergei's quick thinking with the smoke bombs. Then he wrapped it up saying they thought they were home free when they really weren't and said someone sniped them out, shot Sergei and they fell in the alley, and had to to cover in the dump. He said after Sergei got shot, he had to dig the bullet out by hand and wrap it up. He even mentioned accidentally stepping on some cat's tail and pissing it off. The guys and girls laughed at that detail as did Omni. Tony wiped a tear away with his thumb and stood upright, clapping his hands.

"That's quite a tale there boys, so you're master thieves... not bad for a couple of kids," he said, rubbing his hands through his hair. Sergei loosened up a bit and relaxed himself. Tony didn't seem so bad after all, he checked out okay. Tony perked up for a quick second and ran to the girl standing at the bar and asked her something. She stood on her toes to reach into a cabinet above her. She fumbled around empty wine bottles and pulled out a small white pill bottle and handed it to him. She then went under the counter for a few seconds and popped back up with two cans of soda in her hand. He came back over to the boys and handed them each a soda. He poured out three pills and handed them to Sergei, who looked at them questionably.

"It's Tylenol, ya know, to help ease the pain in your shoulder," Tony said as he shook the bottle. Sergei twitched his nose and swallowed all three pills. Tony offered Omni some but he declined saying he'll just walk off his sores.

"You boys can sit down and chill, mi casa su casa, yourselves at home." Omni accepted the offer and flopped down on the couch. Sergei did the same and opened his soda. As they sipped their sodas, they watched Tony and the guys play pool. Sergei propped his feet up and yawned. He looked at his watch. 11:45. Sergei bugged out and shot up onto his feet.

"Dude, we gotta go, we should've been at Sax's place like an hour ago!" Omni chugged down the rest of his soda and crushed the can. Sergei yanked Omni to his feet with his good arm and pushed him along to the door. Tony saw them leaving and went to stop them.

"Hey guys, what's the rush?" Tony asked them. Sergei stopped and looked at him, trying to formulate a reason at the last second. He couldn't tell him exactly why they were leaving. "We just have business to take care of, major business like we have to go right now," Sergei said as Omni went down the stairs. Tony looked him in the eye and Sergei looked back at him. His green eyes practically looking through Sergei. Tony shrugged his shoulders and walked away. Sergei ran down the stairs after Omni and burst through the door. As the door slammed, Butch went over to Tony and stood next to him.

"So, what did you think of those boys huh? The one with the shot shoulder looked promising but what about the other one? Bossman ain't gonna like him to tough with the way he acts... not even his wife would like him," Butch said, scratching his big stomach. Tony only stood there, smoking his cigar and blew out a puff of smoke. "Yeah, Sergei is the key, he's the one alright... he'll convert easily," Tony replied slowly, "and his little brother, well, if he doesn't wanna get on the party boat, we'll just make him... or Bossman can deal with him." Butch widened his eyes and looked at Tony, hoping he wasn't being totally serious. Tony laughed and put out his cigar and looked Butch right in the eye. "It's gotta happen some way or another man, but until they come back, we have to consult with Bossman on what to do before we just run into things blindly," Tony said. "Besides, Sergei accepted the pain killers right?" Butch looked over at Tony and nodded his head. Tony smirked and tossed a dart at the board. "Then everything should work out perfectly," Tony said with a laugh.