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Shades of Grey: Tanked
By Icka! M. Chif

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Kid's smiling face as he spun himself in circles on Hakuba's computer chair was among one of the things he least wanted to see as he walked into his bedroom. Right there along with gum on the bottom of his shoe.

"What the hell possessed you to steal an effing tank?" He growled, taking off his suit coat.

The thief's grin nearly spit his face what sounded like a small maniacal giggling escaping from Kid's mouth. If Kid giggled.

Great. Hyper Kaitou.

First had been the nightmare of a warning note, which had made no sense what so ever. Usually they could at least figure out the target and rough time of appearance on the riddle notes, but this one didn't match up with any known jewels in the area, visiting or otherwise.

At least not until they had gotten word that someone had stolen an experimental tank.

Suddenly, a half hour after the heist note stated, the warning made sense.

Which had led to something that greatly resembled an episode of Dominion Tank Police, only without the catgirls, the explosions or someone shouting 'Bonaparte' and with a heck of a lot more cussing. Not all of it from Nakamori-keibu.

Comments about baseballs were made more than once.

And they had found the Kid apparently joyriding down the street in the stolen tank. If you considered joyriding driving with polite courtesy at the speed limit. In an itty bitty tank, not much larger than a mini-van. Kid had even managed to rig up turn signals on the sides of the tank, although just turning the turret in the direction Kid wanted to go worked really well as a signal.

In fact, the only thing that really made the Kid stand out from the daily traffic was the freaking turret.

Which there wasn't anything in the law books about having on your vehicle. Hakuba knew this. He'd checked. Twice. Just to be spiteful.

The entire situation would probably have been highly entertaining if anyone had known if Kid had ammunition for the bloody tank. The Kaitou Kid usually didn't hurt people, but then again he didn't usually steal tanks either.

Which had been his thought in mind when he'd gotten out of the police car at a stop light and stood in front of the blasted tank like a thick-headed moron and feeling much like a schoolmarm with a naughty child, informed Kid that the thief had had his fun and he need to return the tank now. The gun turret had dipped down as if he'd had the machine's attention. It had been a rather disconcerting moment, staring down the barrel of a tank.

And then a single pale pink flower had fallen out of turret, as if someone had just blown a raspberry.

Then the entire metal monstrosity had been enshrouded in the Kid's signature smoke cloud. By the time the smoke had cleared and the Task Force arrived en masse, both the tank and the thief had vanished without a trace.

Leaving behind a one cursing enranged inspector and a very confused police task force. Once it had been discerned that the Kid and the tank were actually gone, Hakuba had walked over to the curb and had a bit of a sit with his head between his knees. Great. Staring down tanks was NOT in his job description.

Of course, dealing with kaitou in his house wasn't in his job description either, but that didn't stop him.

"So?" He demanded he hung up his suit coat in the wardrobe.

He'd had a couple theories on the way home. Obviously gems had been out. The mysterious men in black had been a thought, except he hadn't seen any interest in the tank from them. He'd considered the notion that perhaps the Kid had done it just to be unpredictable.

"Because," Kid beamed at him, rising from the chair without any sign of dizziness and padding over to him to drape a friendly arm over his shoulders. "It was a TANK."

Oh. Right. Or it could be the simplest explanation of all:

The lure of a trick no one had done before...

-fin-

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