The Golden Code (Sora's audition)

Another cold night in the cell. Sora stared at the barred window. The memory kept replaying in his mind, no matter how hard he tried not to think about it.

‘Stop it...just stop it. This won’t change the past.’ Sora thought.

The only reason he was in the cell was due to the betrayal by his old team members. Their newest heist was a corrupted company owner who stole from the customers. They planned to steal all the money and blow the place up to make it hurt the owner hard. However, the boy would only blow up a building once he knew everyone was out. After all, they were thieves, not killers in his mind. Sadly, that view wasn’t the same to his former friends. Not anymore. Sora had set a timer on the bomb and was about to leave the area when he learned the truth. A teenager was still in the building. Terrified, Sora rushed into the building and focused the teen out. And barely in time as the building explored as soon as they reached a safe area away from the exploration. Sadly, Sora didn’t have time to escape either. Someone had called Interpol after he or she got out of the building. Sora was arrested and his former team was no way in sight. It hit the brown haired boy hard to know his friends betrayed him that way.

And here he was. Thankfully the other inmates didn’t pick much of a fight with him. But he hated being locked up like this. Not to have any freedom, not being able to go where he wanted too...he felt like a caged animal.

‘How am I going to get out of here? There’s no way I can get the tools needed to make a bomb.’ Sora thought.

The guards of the jail was smarter than they looked. Sora had seen some inmates try to sneak items to their jail, only to quickly get caught. The boy knew he wouldn’t be able to sneak anything himself by that alone.

He sighed to himself. As much as he won’t admit it outloud, things looked hopeless. It seemed like he would be stuck there for who knew how long.

Tick...tick…

Sora quickly sat up when he heard that. It was an all too familiar sound to the boy. The sound of a clock on a bomb.

‘No...it couldn’t be.’ Sora thought.

However, a large exploration echoed through the place as the wall was blown up. Sora coughed from the dust flew into the air. He soon stopped and looked towards the hole. To his surprise and shocked, a huge panda stood there.

“A-A panda?” Sora asked.

“Are you Sora?” The panda asked.

Sora blinked in surprise. This panda knew his name?!

“Um, y-yeah. Why do you want to know?” Sora asked.

“I think that will be best to explain latter. Right now, we should leave.” The panda said.

“O-Oh right!” Sora exclaimed.

He was so surprise that he completely forgot about the guards. There was no doubt they heard the exploration too. Sora followed the panda out of the cell, the two running as quickly as possible…

(....)

The two soon stopped. Sora was trying to caught his breath. They seemed to be safe in an old warehouse the panda took Sora too. It would take the police some time to find the two.

Once Sora caught his breath, he looked towards the panda.

“So...who are you? And why did you break me out?” Sora asked, curious.

He knew he never met the panda before.

“My name is Panda King. And I’ve heard a great deal about you. How you pulled off many heists yet made sure your bombs wouldn’t harm anyone.” The panda, Panda King explain.

“Well, yeah...I mean, I don’t want to hurt anyone.” Sora said.

He looked down a bit in sadness.

“Through I can’t say the same for some others…” Sora said.

“What if I told you there was a place for you? A place where you can meet others with your same code?” Panda King asked. “A safe place for thieves.

Sora quickly looked up. A place just for thieves? It seemed to good to be true. Still, Sora didn’t think Panda King would go this far for just a joke.

“And what would this place be called?” Sora asked, a bit curious.

“A school called Leverage Academy. You don’t need to come if you don’t want to through.” Panda King explained.

Sora paused. A school for thieves sounded weird to him. But Interpol would most likely chase the boy down if he tried to go someplace else. It was most likely the safest place he could go too. And hearing others there most likely had the same code he did...he soon smiled.

“Just show me the way!” Sora exclaimed cheerfully.