The Great Belligerency [Round 4: Static]

Originally posted on MSPA by Dragon Fogel.

---

Cole had made his way to the museum lobby when the broadcast began. He didn't even need to watch the entire scene unfold to realize what this meant for his plans.

A terrorist attack would, at a minimum, lead to heightened security across the city. Sneaking in after hours and stealing the horn no longer seemed feasible.

Furthermore, the message seemed, to Cole's mind, designed to inspire distrust between humans and nonhumans more than anything else. He gazed at the crowd around him, and noted the humans eyeing him and the nonhuman visitors with suspicion. The nonhumans returned the gazes.

The situation was a powderkeg. Cole decided that it best served his interests to light a match.

"How DARE you humans try to wipe us out!" he shouted, drawing the attention of everyone in the room. "My people had heard this city would be welcoming for us, but this is what you think of non-humans? The Grand Mayoress of Sk'va will be most displeased!"

It had the desired effect. A human shouted back at him.

"Shut up! We let you live here for all these years, and you repay us with an assassination?"

The arguments started flying. Not long after that, so did the fists. As well as the legs, pincers, tentacles, and even a few prehensile tongues.

Cole mimicked a jumping spider to focus on avoiding the melee; although nobody was heavily armed, and his bioelectric shock would have inconvenienced him, he had work to do. Any security forces would be focused on calming down the battle; the theft of a relatively insignificant artifact would hardly warrant much notice.

Cole crept along the walls and ceilings on his way back to the exhibit; most of the visitors were either running to leave, running to escape the increasingly chaotic fight, or simply hiding.

When he arrived at the exhibit on religions, the room was devoid of life - there were few good hiding places, and enough time had passed than anyone looking to flee had already done so.

Cole shaped his hands into the pincers of a scorpion, expecting to smash the glass display case open.

He was surprised to find the horn outside of the case, with a note tied to it. Cole was even more surprised when he read the note and realized it was addressed to him.

Mr. Aran:

Consider this trinket - or, more precisely, the fact that you do not need to risk triggering the alarm in order to claim it - as your advance payment for the favor I will ask of you later. Once you have completed the task to my satisfaction, I will provide you with a means of actually using the horn.

I don't recommend that you try to contact me. I will contact you. I believe I have already proven myself capable of this.

By the way, the alarms on the window down the hall and to the left have been disabled. I suggest you use that to escape. Do hurry, the deactivation was temporary.

-Minotaurus

Cole changed his arms back, and hung the horn around his neck. He then mimicked some termite mandibles and ate the note, seeing no reason to leave it lying around, but lacking a better means of disposal.

He then headed for the window, wondering who precisely could have known he would be here. One of the other contestants? That seemed unlikely. But it seemed even less likely that one of the natives could have been responsible...

He opened the window and leapt out, mimicking a set of beetle wings and flying down. Despite what the note had said, he had every intention of locating this "Minotaurus". But first, he still needed to make a trip to the zoo.