The Life Of Normal-Taro

"Basically, yea." Ponnappan nodded his head upon hearing Lonappan's summary of the events.

"Nice. Now, tell me. What the fuck are we even supposed to do in a situation like this?" Lonappan asked. He sounded extremely frustrated about the lack of everything in this case.

"Well, it's not like you can't do anything. You can ask a certain someone, you know?" Ponnappan spoke.

Lonappan sighed. "If that was the case, you could've just called him here and asked directly, don't you think? Why go the roundabout way?" He asked.

"Hmm, he trusts you more than me. It's the junior-senior relationship like the one we had. He'd like to be questioned by you than me." Ponnappan replied.

"Thankappan knows something?" John asked.

"Huh?" The both on his side looked surprised as heck thinking about how John found out who they were talking about.

"Oh, come on! I'm not that big of an idiot! It's child play to decipher that you were talking about that guy since you were talking all about junior-senior relationship and shit like that. So, if that was meant to be a secret of some sort, then that was a poor attempt to hide it from me." John explained.

"We were not hiding something from you. It's how we usually talk, I guess." Lonappan shrugged, as if there was nothing weird about it.

"I see." John nodded his head with a suspicious look on his face. "So, does he know something then?" He asked.

"Nah, not really. We just wanted him to know about this as well. More manpower, you see." Lonappan replied.

"Huh, weird. It sure didn't sound like that when you two talked just a few seconds ago." The suspicious look on John's face grew even more as he stared at Lonappan.

However, Lonappan didn't crack under the immense pressure and replied with a straight face. "I didn't know it sounded like that to you. Look, there's a language barrier between us. Even the most advanced translator—which, to be honest, isn't the one in your ear right now, could make mistakes. So, something that I said in Malayalam might sound entirely different after getting translated. Yea, so it probably got mistranslated." Lonappan replied.

"Is that so? I guess that makes sense." John nodded his head yet again, still not believing the shit that Lonappan spouted.

"So are you gonna talk to Thankappan about this?" Ponnappan asked, not feeling the need to hide the name anymore.

Lonappan thought for a while. "I don't think he should be disturbed for something like this. I mean, he's the one looking after the aliens. So, it doesn't make sense." is what Lonappan said, but what he meant was- "Dude, he simply is a caretaker of the aliens in the Holy Land. I don't think he's involved in this."

"That's precisely why I want you to have a talk with him. After all, he's one of our front line men when such a crisis happens." Is what Ponnappan replied to that, but the real reply was- "Why do you think I said that? After all, he's the one in front when shit like this happens, right? With the Karate tournament as well, he becomes a spectator one way or the other."

Lonappan sighed. It seemed as if he didn't have a choice anymore. "Fine. I'll have a chat with him about it." 

"Great. Let's see what he has to say." Ponnappan spoke with a smile on his face.

#

After this brief conversation, Lonappan left for the Holy Land, while John followed Ponnappan to talk about his prospects of working in the Snehatheeram base if the HQ actually ditched him. In between both the parties, there was one party who was actually freaking the hell out right then. He had his mouth closed with his hand, so that he doesn't accidentally bring out any voice. He had no plans of turning back into a visible personality. At least, not for the time being.

Scarlet looked out of the window and saw Lonappan going in a car to question Thankappan. It was only then he realized the danger of the situation if Lonappan was to get home before him. Well, it might not be that bad, but Scarlet sure did want to inform Thankappan beforehand.

Thus came the thought of getting to the Holy Land before Lonappan. Initially, it was just relaying the message to Thankappan in some way, shape or form, but there wasn't any other way for him to communicate with the junior agent unless he heads there himself. After all, he didn't have a mobile phone or Thankappan's number. He didn't even bring money on him, so he couldn't catch a taxi. Thus he came up with the brilliant idea of getting on a limited stop bus, which goes way faster than a normal car, which is technically illegal—and reaching Mundur before Lonappan does.

And for this, Scarlet thought that a good idea would be to stay invisible, since he wouldn't have to pay for the ticket in that form. However, he forgot the fact that the buses in Thrissur are a literal crowded clump. And if they were to see an empty spot, they are gonna have a swing at it and grab that spot no matter what. 

So, in this case, Scarlet's invisibility seriously messed with him as he was thrown around by people in a struggle to get that eleven inch spot that he was previously standing on. At one point, Scarlet actually managed to sit on the lap of the driver, after which he seriously regretted the decision of entering inside the bus. If he wanted to, he could have got on the top of the bus and avoided all the fuss. But, there was no point in regretting it then, since he was stuck with it at that moment.

However, the main point to note was that the limited stop was fast—way too fast, to the point that he was sure he would reach Mundur before Lonappan would. However, as fate would have it, he couldn't exit on his stop due to the crowd, so he literally crowd surfed before reaching the next stop to get to the door.

The problem with limited stop buses was that the stops were limited. So, the next stop after his stop was about ten kilometers away from his. So, he actually had to waste time getting on a normal bus back to Mundur, which completely destroyed the massive lead he gained with the limited stop bus.

But he wasn't ready to give up just yet. Once he reached Mundur, he didn't see Lonappan anywhere, which either meant he was already at the Holy Land or that he hadn't reached Mundur yet. Since there was this faintest glimmer of hope, Scarlet was determined. He grabbed on to the first car that went their way and firmly occupied the top of the car. 

The said car was going way too fast, if you were to consider the fact that it's a place with a lot of twists and turns. And this concerned Scarlet. He might injure himself in the process of humping down. The only thing that gave him the slightest of relief was that the curve before their house was one hell of a curve that makes even an expert racer take a notch down in speed.

Anyhow, while staying on top of the car like a wet blanket placed to dry in the sun, Scarlet sure did wish for a running power, which could've helped him a whole lot in cases like this. He simply could've ran all the way from Snehatheeram if he wanted to and didn't have to cling to structures like he did right then. 

While this unattainable dream seriously bugged Scarlet off, he noticed that he was near the Holy Land and got up on the top of the car as if he was some action hero movie before somersaulting from the top for no apparent reason. Thankfully for him, he didn't get a fracture after pulling out something idiotic like that.

Anyhow, he didn't give a thought for any of that as he ran towards Thankappan to hand over the info. However, someone had already occupied the space near Thankappan before he could.

#

Back in the Holy Land, Thankappan was having a guilt free moment with some random stray cat, when someone approached him.

"Are you free right now?" It was Lonappan who asked him that question.

"What do you think?" Thankappan asked as he picked the cat and showed it to Lonappan's face.

"You seem pretty free in my eyes." Lonappan replied.

"If that's how you see it as, then why even ask?" Thankappan asked.

"Well, there's a thing called common courtesy. I don't know if you're aware of something like that." Lonappan scoffed.

"Ha, you are feisty today. I don't think the conversation we'll be having is gonna be anywhere near productive." Thankappan sighed.

"Hey! Decide on that after hearing me out first." Lonappan spoke.

"Sure. If that's what you want. But I'm warning you man, I don't believe it's gonna be any good." Thankappan replied.

"Maybe." Lonappan took a deep breath and stared at Thankappan. "The Crimson Robber? Do you know them?" He asked.