Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

It's getting late, I thought to myself. The red-orange glow of the sun was half under the horizon, and the air was cooling down steadily. The thick crowds of Paris were clearing out at a similarly steady rate, lowering the noise pollution by a great deal.

While the quieter atmosphere was nice, I wasn't very keen on being out on the streets of Paris after sundown. I hadn't been living there long enough to know if the streets were safe when it was dark. I felt like I would be an easy target for thugs, so I was trying to simply not make myself one and stay in once it got dark.

I stuck my phone into my pocket and got up, deciding to head home then, since I didn't have much of an actual reason not to. I'd just been sitting in the local park for some fresh air so I could say that I hadn't spent all day inside. I took a moment to stretch my legs and swish out my tail before heading towards the park exit. I made sure to keep my back straight and head up, trying to look more confident and dangerous than I actually was. It probably didn't do much in reality, but it made me feel that I looked like less of a target, and that eased my anxiety about being out alone.

I'd only been on my route home for ten minutes at the most, when I noticed a junction of firetrucks, police cars, and ambulences that were cutting off my usual path. Looked like there'd been a car accident with a mack truck and some probably drunk drivers. They had police tape up and everything...

"Gotta go around, I guess," I mumbled to myself in annoyance. I hated taking detours, being that I had no natural sense of direction at all. It was a miracle that I'd memorized a path between the park and my apartment.

I headed down a different side street, sighing to myself. I thought I knew where the street would lead and that I wouldn't get lost; I remembered someone giving me directions when I'd first moved to Paris that involved this street. It would take a little longer to get home, but it would get me there.

I, however, did not remember that in order for that road to lead me home, I'd have to walk through a few seedy looking backalleys. Oh great, I thought, as my anxiety spiked higher. I walked faster, trying to put on a more serious and threatening appearance, as if I meant business in those backalleys.

Thankfully for me, it looked like no one was there, though in the dark it was hard to be entirely sure. The looming closeness of the buildings and lack of street lights made it seem like the sun had already gone down long ago. I was starting to relax my posture and feel calmer after a while, though, because I could see the well-lit main road ahead of me. ...But that was when I head two very unfriendly sounding voices from the alley exactly to my right.

"Stealing those Clockwerk parts was a piece of cake! Like taking candy from a baby! Now my money-printing is going up up!" a strange accented male voice cheered, very over enthusiastically.

Before the two were entirely in the alleyway, where they definately would have seen me, I scrambled to crouch behind a trash dumpster, trying to keep my breathing quiet. I'm not religious, but in that moment, you can bet that I was praying to god they wouldn't notice me.

"Yes, it was." a very gruff voice replied. "However. Now that you have the Clockwerk tail feathers, you have to promise to hold up your end of the deal, Dimitri," this man sounded very threatening, and it made my fur stand on end.

"Yes of course, I hear you loud and clear. Distributing the spice to the patrons of Paris is the least I can do for a smoove clique of people like the Klaww Gang. Consider it done, yeah?" the strange accented man, who the other called Dimitri, responded. I heard a ciggarette be lit up and Dimitri took a drag off it.

"Good. I don't want it to have been a mistake letting you in on this," the rough-sounding man warned.

I was struggling to not make strangled panicked sounds. This had to have been one of the most tense and scary things I'd experienced up to that point in my life. I couldn't even believe what I was hearing. I was listening to criminals talking about their crime rings! I was going to be in so much trouble if they saw me! They'd probably kill me!

That thought was enough to make me scared enough that I started to panic and lost my balence, resulting in me falling against the dumpster, making a loud clanging noise as I hit it. Paralyzed with fear, I suddenly couldn't breathe because oh god they definately heard that and they would find me and do god knows what to me!

"What was that?!" the unidentified man snapped. I heard fast footsteps coming my way (while the man called Dimitri said something I didn't hear), and in a panicked moment of adreneline and self-preservation, I booked it back down the alley I'd come from, hoping to god that I could reach the main streets and get help before I was caught.

But I'd barely made it around the first turn when I felt a strong and large hand grabbing my arm and throwing me against the wall.

I squeaked out a small scream and squeezed my eyes shut at the blow of the wall against my back. As I opened my eyes I couldn't think of words to say to try and make these people leave me alone.

A large tiger man was the one who had me pinned to the wall, looking angry. "How much did you hear?" he demanded. This was the other man who'd made the warning remarks, not the strange accented Dimitri.

"I promise I'm not going to tell anyone! I don't even know what you're talking about!" I was frantic and on the verge of a full-out panic attack and I was definately almost crying. I was so terrified that this man was going to kill me for overhearing his criminal plans.

"Promises do not mean anything," the man replied. "They are only spoken words amongst strangers,"

"Please don't hurt me!! I don't even know who you are, there's nothing I can do to you!" I begged loudly, hoping that someone would hear me and come to the rescue or call the cops or just freaking anything! I didn't want to die like this!

"There is no place for mercy in the Klaww Gang, little girl. I am afraid there are few other ways to take care of this problem," the tiger growled.

"Wow, that's really cruel," a male voice (that was not the other man called Dimitri), said from someplace I couldn't imediately locate. A figure then swiftly (and expertly) jumped down from the rooftops, holding what appeared to be a fancy cane. His featues were hard to make out in the dark, but he had a bushy tail that appeared to be striped.

"What?" the tiger whipped his head over to look at the figure. "You! The Cooper Raccoon!" he growled loudly.

"Oh, so you've heard of me? I feel so flattered. Would you like an autograph?" the bushy tailed man (who was apparantly a raccoon?) sounded so cocky and sure of himself. He didn't show an ounce of fear. "Here, I've got a pen,"

I involuntarily flinched as the man jumped forward with great speed and precision, and knocked the tiger man back with his strange-looking cane, pulling him off of me in the process.

Without the weight of the tiger's arms holding me to the wall, my legs gave out and I hit the cold floor, shaking and trying to not panic and cry.

The tiger growled, baring his claws. He pounced towards the smaller raccoon, who simply darted to the side to avoid the leap. He then grinned mischievously. "Sorry to cut this date off so short, but it's getting late. We really should be going before it gets too dark," then he knocked his cane against the floor, releasing a smoke bomb that clouded up my vision imediately and made me start to cough. As if I couldn't breathe before...

I suddenly felt myself being swept up into the arms of the raccoon, who then ran down the alleyway, away from the enraged tiger man. I let out a weak scream at being picked up, but refrained from screaming more, knowing that this guy was trying to save me.

"Hang on tight!" the raccoon said as a warning, and then jumped up onto the rooftops. I squeaked a little and choked on my breaths as I realized that we were airborne, and wrapped my arms tightly around his neck.

As soon as his feet touched the roof, he was sprinting across it. Guards had been called to chase us, and were yelling in the alleyways, trying to figure out where we went.

I closed my eyes tight as the man jumped off of the roof and down to the ground, continuing to sprint. He darted around a few buildings, before running up the steps to one of them and opening the door, quickly stepping inside. The clean air-conditioned air was very welcome in my lungs, and so was the quietness of the room we were in.

"Ah, Sly, you're ba- Oh... Who's this? Is she okay?" there's a nassally voiced turtle speaking to the guy holding me.

"I don't entirely know," the raccoon says, setting me down into a wooden chair. "Another assumed Klaww Gang member was threatening her. Guess she overheard their plans or something," now that there was proper light, I could see that this man was indeed a gray raccoon. He wore a blue shirt with gold trim around the neck, a blue hat on his head, and blue boots. His eyes were brown, and he wore a black mask over his face (though I wasn't sure why? Wouldn't his raccoon markings be the same underneath?). He looked entirely too calm for someone who had just rescued a girl from a man twice both their sizes. Coupled with the expert moves he'd pulled off, I was starting to suspect that he wasn't just a good samaritan.

"Oh, my. That sounds like a very traumatic experience for a civilian. Miss, are you okay?" the turtle asked. I nodded out of habit, though I most certainly was not okay. That was the most terrifying thing I'd ever experienced. I'd never had anything like a near-death experience before, and good god was it mortifying. I was fighting to stave off a panic attack, and was steadily losing.

"I think she's in shock," the raccoon says. He pulled the turtle away, out of earshot to say something to him. I could have listened in if I tried, but by then I was so freaked out I was getting dizzy and couldn't concentrate. A third man, who was a pink hippo, joined the huddle to listen to the raccoon.

I heard a third voice (that I later realized was the hippo) say something, but everything suddenly sounded very far away and I couldn't focus on what they'd said. My senses felt like they weren't working; I'd zoned out and everything was getting fuzzy and blurry.

And that's the last thing I remembered.

When I woke up, I was on a slightly uncomfortable couch. Something cold and fabric was on my forehead, and I could only assume it was a washcloth.

I whined and rolled over, holding the cloth to my head. The coldness felt nice. I sat up just enough to see the room I was in. I didn't exactly remember what had happened, but I felt like I definately should have.

"Oh, you're awake, that's good," I turned my head to the right to see the turtle sitting at a table with a computer before him. "Are you okay?"

After seeing the turtle, my recollection of my near-death experience returned to me, and that definately did not help me stay any kind of calm. "I think so..." I muttered despite that, sitting up entirely. "What happened?"

"After Sly, the raccoon who saved you, brought you here, you passed out from the shock," the turtle explained.

"Oh. That's kind of scary," I said, slowly standing myself up. I'd never passed out before and it was certainly not something I wanted to experience again. I stretched out my legs and arms, finding that everything was kind of sore. With the force the tiger had used to pin me to the wall, I wasn't surprised.

"I can imagine it must have been," the turtle nodded, a look of understanding on his face. "My name's Bentley. What's yours?"

"Nyx," I replied. I sat down catty-corner to the turtle at the table he was at, hoping that I wouldn't be invading his personal space or something. It just felt easier to talk to someone when they weren't across the room from you.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Nyx. We... Think that you might be in danger if you overheard any of the Klaww Gang plans. I don't want to have to bring this up but... Can you tell me what happened back there?" Bentley looked really sorry about having to ask, but I understood that it was important. He said I might be in danger. Though I was very, very confused about why these guys didn't just take me to the police so I could file a report. But I didn't feel like I couldn't trust them, so I started to explain.

"There was this guy who I guess is Dimitri, I didn't get a chance to see him, and this other tiger guy. The tiger was telling Dimitri that he had to hold up his end of the deal and distribute some kind of spice to Paris patrons, now that they'd stolen uh... They stole something, what was it called?" I lightly bit my lip as I tried to remember. It was on the tip of my tongue but it was something so obscure sounding that I couldn't quite recall what it was, considering the panicked haze I was in when I'd heard it. Bentley patiently waited to see if I would remember.

"Something about... Something about the parts of something... They especially mentioned... Tail feathers? Whatever that might mean..." I muttered this more to myself than to Bentley. Thinking aloud always helped me straighten out my thoughts.

"Clockwerk tail feathers, perhaps?" Bentley offered, seeming geninuely interested.

That sounded right. Clockwerk, whatever that was. "Yeah! Yeah, that's it," I said. "I got really scared and lost my balence after that, and made a lot of noise. I tried to run away... But that tiger grabbed me really fast. I tried to tell him that I didn't understand what he'd been talking about, and that I had no idea who he was so I couldn't report him, but he said that promises didn't mean anything..." I started getting a little worked up again recalling the incident. "...I thought he was gonna kill me... And then your friend, Sly showed up..." I took a really deep breath to keep myself calm. I was alive, I reminded myself. It had been scary but I was alive.

Bentley smiled gently and pat my arm reassuringly. "Mm. I'm afraid you just walked into a very vicious crime circle," he said sympathetically. "Once Sly and our other teammate, Murray get back, we'll think of the best way to keep the Klaww Gang from finding you,"

"Uh. Why don't you just take me to the police?" I asked slowly. I remembered my previous thoughts about how Sly wasn't a normal citizen, and hoped I wasn't opening another can of worms by asking.

"That's sort of complicated..." Bentley began. "But to begin, in short, the three of us are a gang of thieves, known as the Cooper Gang, and we have some business with the Clockwerk tail feathers that Dimitri has stolen,"

Thieves? So one group of criminals had saved me from another group of even worse criminals? "Oh. Uh. Okay..." I really didn't know what to say. They didn't seem like bad people, but Bentley had just admitted to being a criminal.

"That's probably unnerving to you, isn't it?" Bentley asked. I made a sort of "Yes kind of I don't know I'm confused" face at him in response. "Don't worry, we're not the sorts of thieves you might be thinking of. Uh, think of it like Robin Hood? Have you read that?"

"Robin Hood? Sooo like. You guys steal from people who are evil, to help innocents or something?" I asked. I'd never actually read the story of Robin Hood, but everyone was familar with the "Steal from the rich, give to the needy," thing.

"Sort of. Our goals are much more personal, but in essence, yes. We steal from criminals who are actually hurting people to put them out of business," Bentley nodded. "It's Sly's family tradition,"

"I see..." I nodded. "That actually sounds kind of heroic if you think about it the right way," I decided to save any questions about the family tradition thing for later.

Bentley laughed. "You're one of few people who might see it that way,"

"But um. That doesn't explain why you can't take me to the cops?" I had to bring the subject back to that before I got distracted. "I get that you're thieves who have business with this Dimitri guy, but the cops wouldn't have to know that you saved me from his people, right?"

"The Klaww Gang is a vicious group with selfish and criminal goals. If my psychological profiling skills are accurate, which they usually are, I don't think they'll hesitate to break into police headquarters to find you if they think you're a threat to any of their operations," Bentley explained, shaking his head in obvious disapproval.

"...And considering what that tiger guy said to me before Sly showed up... They're probably looking for me already, huh?" I asked, feeling very intimidated by the thought that there were hitmen or something after me.

"Most likely. We're good at not being found, we sort of have to be, so if you stick with us until the Klaww Gang is eliminated, the chances of them finding you are slim," Bentley said. "But you're going to have to trust us, and we entirely understand if you don't,"

I thought about it a moment. Sly had saved my life once already, when he most certainly didn't have to. And he and his friends didn't seem bad at all, even if I'd only really spoken to Bentley. Sure, they did bad things, but they were working towards a good goal, it seemed. That made them okay to me. And I figured that considering their "jobs" consisted of not being detected or noticed, perhaps my best bet to stay alive would be tagging along with them. It was probably flawed logic, but at that moment, traveling with thieves sounded a lot safer than whatever atempts the police might make.

"Yeah. I think I trust you,"

Chapter Text

Murray, the pink hippo whom I'd only caught a blurry glimpse of before I'd passed out, had returned to what I now knew was a safehouse, not long after I had agreed to 'run' with the Cooper Gang. Murray told Bentley that some recon photos would be arriving soon. While curious, I didn't ask about the photos; It wasn't my business.

Murray and I exchanged sort of akward greetings (apparantly neither of us know what social skills are) before he dissapeared into the kitchen.

I had been trying to fall back asleep because it was practically midnight, but my mind was still racing, mulling over the multitude of things that had happened in what felt like such a short time, rendering that idea impossible. Maybe having been unconcious for almost four hours had something to do with it, too.

So, Murray and I ended up sitting on the safehouse floor, eating mint chocolate chip ice cream and playing Uno. I found myself feeling comfortable there with the pink hippo. He's friendly and easy to be around.

Bentley continued his computer work, occassionally talking to Sly about his jobs, via what he called a 'binocucom'. I decided to also not ask about that, even though I was curious about it, too. Being that Bentley was less than ten feet away from me, and didn't seem to be trying to be quiet, I couldn't help overhearing him telling Sly to bug Dimitri's office with a painting, and how to get into said office via an air vent. It wasn't my business at all, and I felt like I was eavesdropping, so I just tried to focus on playing cards with Murray.

"You don't sound like you're from France, do you come from somewhere else?" Murray asked as he placed down a blue seven onto the stack of discarded Uno cards.

"Yup, I'm from America. I moved down here last year when I turned eighteen," I replied, laying a blue four over the seven. I had six green cards, and one yellow, now. The blue four was the only blue card I had.

"America's cool, we've been there a few times! What part do you come from?" Murray put a red four over my blue four.

Darn it, I didn't have any red cards. I drew another card; A yellow eight. I added it to my hand and motioned for Murray to go again. "Well, I was born in Oklahoma, and grew up there. And when I was ten, my mom and I moved to Florida,"

"Florida is where the beaches are, right?" Murray seemed excited by that idea as he put down down a red two.

I mentally cheered and laid out one of my green twos. "Yup. Florida is what they call the 'Sunshine State'. Personally, I liked Oklahoma and it's snow better. I'm not a beach person," I laughed.

"Beaches are pretty fun, if you can swim," Murray nodded. He put down a draw four wild card. "Red. Sorry,"

I narrowed my eyes at him in mock anger, though I was trying to not laugh as I drew four cards. Thankfully, there was a red nine, and I put that down. " If you can swim. Which I cannot,"

"Don't feel bad, none of us can, either," Murray said, playing a red three.

I laughed a bit. "I can dog paddle in like three feet of water, but that's pretty much it. It's not enough to consider it swimming," I put down my yellow three, getting that out of my hand.

"Swimming is hard," Murray nodded in agreement. He played another red three, leaving him with only one card left. "Uno,"

I gave the hippo a fake look of harsh judgement, but couldn't hold it long before smiling. "Yeah. Swimming is very hard and Florida people don't understand," I put down a green three.

Murray gave a big smile and placed down his last card; A green nine. "Uno! 'The Murray' wins again!" he cheered, nearly knocking over his empty ice cream bowl.

I couldn't help but laugh at his excitement. "Two in row. And I thought I used to be good at this game,"

"No one can triumph over 'The Murray'," he announced proudly, as I started rounding up all the cards.

Bentley started talking to Sly again, this time about ringing a bell to get Dimitri outside and then following him through the city. I purposely tuned out my hearing from Bentley's voice, and focused on the sound the cards made as I gathered them all up.

"Want more ice cream?" Murray asked as he stood up.

"Sure," I replied, grabbing the worn rubber band the cards had been wrapped in when we found them off the coffee table. I caught a glance of the clock on the wall and realized that it was two in the morning, now. I should have been tired but unfortunately for my sleeping schedule, I wasn't.

Murray picked up both our empty bowls and headed back into the kitchen. Thankfully by then, Bentley had finished talking to Sly and was back to typing, so I could stop trying to not hear anything.

I wrapped up the cards in the rubber band, being careful not to snap the old thing. Once they were wrapped up suffiently, I put them on the coffee table. Murray returned momentarily and handed me another bowl of ice cream. "Thanks," I said as I carefully set the bowl in my lap.

"So why'd you come to France?" Murray asked through a mouthful of ice cream.

"I needed a fresh start to my life. To get away from all the bad memories associated with Florida and open up roads to new and better places to take myself. I heard that France is a good place for artists, so I figured why not give it a try?" I explained with a casual shrug.

"Do you like it here?" was Murray's next question.

I nodded. "Yeah. It's nice here. Feels kind of weird living alone, not knowing any one, and not knowing how to speak French, but I think I might find what I'm looking for here,"

"Well, I hope you do. It would suck to move down here and find out that what you want is elsewhere," Murray said, adjusting his goggles with his wrist (I idly wondered why he was wearing driving goggles all the time).

I laughed to hide the fact that I was legitimately worried about that. "Yeah, that would definately suck,"

"You said you came down here 'cause you're an artist?" Murray moved to this next question without much of a segway.

"Not in the 'painting gorgeous landscapes and pretty women' sense, but yeah. Drawing and art in general has been my passion since I was little," I said. "I wanna try to get a job involving something along those lines,"

"I think I've got some paper around here, we should totally draw some stuff!" Murray suggested excitedly.

"Yeah, that sounds great right now!" I agreed. Drawing was always relaxing, and that was definately what I needed at that moment.

Murray got up and went down the hall, heading into a room that I assumed was his. I heard him start shuffling through things.

"Oh great, there's going to be crayons everywhere again," Bentley rolled his eyes and tried to not laugh.

"I'll try to clean them up, I swear," I laughed. To that, Bentley made an exagerated 'Mhm' sound, as if he did not trust that I would keep my word.

Murray re-emerged from his room a moment later, carrying a whole bunch of art supplies in his large arms. He dumped them onto the floor between the two of us, in a very disorganized heap. I saw Bentley sigh and shake his head out of the corner of my eye.

"Let's be crafty!" Murray announced.

I laughed and grabbed a sheet of paper and laid it out in front of me. Murray handed me a pencil. "Thanks," I said as I took it from him. I wasn't sure what to draw, so I stared at the paper for a moment, before deciding to just start designing random characters for the fun of it. Kept my mind busy, focusing on what to make the character look like.

Murray and I continued to idly talk about ourselves and our similarities while we drew. Through this, I learned that he likes fast food and fast cars, and that he's an expert driver. He talked about how he started off as the Cooper Gang getaway driver, but evolved into someone emotionally stronger, and thus became 'The Murray' as the strongman of the gang. That actually surprised me, because he'd been nothing but gentle and kind during our whole conversation, I hadn't seen him as someone who enjoyed a physical fight. Can't judge a book by it's cover, I suppose.

I can't say how Murray interpreted the things I told him about myself, but I talked about how I was sort of just a normal teenager who played way too many video games and was glued to the internet too much. I talked some more about my love for art, and also the kinds of music I liked. We connected over the enjoyment of unhealthy fast food, as well, which led on to a conversation about resturaunts in Paris.

Bentley started talking to Sly again at almost three in the morning. While I once again tried to not listen and instead talk to Murray (who was telling me about a great resturaunt in town that I should check out sometime), I heard something about a waterpump that might come in handy.

Murray and I had both used a heck of a lot of drawing paper, and had aquainted ourselves with each other quite well, by the time the door creaked open. I looked over my shoulder to see that Sly had returned.

Sly looked at Murray and I, and then the messy pile of art between us, with an amused smile. "Glad to see you two getting along,"

"Yeah! Nyx is really cool!" Murray proclaimed, making me nervously laugh. I wasn't exactly used to being complimented so directly. That's not to say that it wasn't nice, but I wasn't sure how to react to it.

"She wouldn't be here if she wasn't," Sly chuckled. "You doing okay?" he pointed this next question at me.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Still kinda shaken up, but Murray's company is really helping me calm down," I replied.

"'The Murray' is glad to be of assistance," Murray beamed.

"Good to hear," Sly nodded, setting down his weird cane onto the table that Bentley was sat at. This seemed to be Bentley's cue to start talking.

No one else spoke, so I couldn't really avoid hearing what Bentley was saying. "I've analyzed that waterpump room you followed Dimitri to, Sly. And I think it will prove to be very crucial to our plans. Murray," the pink hippo looked up eagerly at the mention of his name. "I'm going to need you to head down to the waterpump, and put it out of commission,"

"'The Murray' is on it. Prepare to be un-commissioned, waterpump!" Murray got up from the floor and headed out the safehouse door, while I thought to myself about how I was sure 'un-commission' was not a word. He had a sort of superhero air to him, and it made him that much more fun to be around.

"Looks like you're stuck dealing with me," Sly chuckled as he came over and crouched across from me, where Murray had been previously sitting. "I haven't gotten the chance to properly introduce myself," he held out a blue-gloved hand towards me. "I'm Sly Cooper,"

I took his hand and shook it, smiling. "I kind of already guessed. I'm Nyx,"

"Your name definately seems to suit you," Sly nodded to himself, picking up my stack of doodles from next to me. Normally I would have complained, but those doodles were nothing important, just random characters, so I let him look at them without fuss.

"You must be very smug to make that judgement when we've only just met," I joked.

"You'll learn that he is always smug," Bentley commented dryly. I snorted and tried to not laugh.

"Wow, Bentley. If I didn't know you better, I would say that you're hitting on me," Sly was sort of stifling his own laughter as he said that.

I pursed my lips to try and smother my laughs, but I wasn't doing very well at it. I pressed a fist to my mouth to at least try and hide my ridiculous smile.

"Oh, ha ha, Sly. Very funny," Bentley was doing better than me at hiding it, but he had actually found that funny, too.

I turned to Sly who was hiding his grinning face behind the drawings he was still looking through. "I think I'm going to like you,"

" Now look who's being smug..." Bentley shook his head.

Sly chuckled and turned to lay on his back, propping his feet up on the coffee table. "Sooo. You're an artist?"

"I suppose. I told Murray that I'm not a 'gorgeous landscape and pretty women' painter artist, but yeah, I draw," I shrugged. I find it a little unfortunate that a lot of people think that unless you paint like the old proffessionals, you won't get anywhere as an artist. As a side-effect of this social idea, I kind of never call myself an actual artist.

"You're pretty good at it. I bet you could get a good job as a sketch artist. I hear it pays pretty well," Sly said as he flipped through my stack of doodles.

I looked at him sort of funny. "Did the criminal just suggest I get a job as a cop?"

Sly laughed and gave me a sidelong glance. "I may be a wanted criminal, but the cops aren't my enemies,"

I blinked twice at him, now very confused. "But it's their job to arrest you and put you 'out of business', isn't it?"

Sly rolled onto his left side to put my drawings back where he'd gotten them from. "How much did Bentley tell you about our gang?"

"He said that you guys are kinda like Robin Hood? And that it's your family tradition?" I actually couldn't remember many of Bentley's exact words, I had probably still been a little more shaken up than I had thought I was at the time.

"I thought I ought to let you properly explain it, since it's your family line," Bentley interjected.

Sly gave a one-shouldered shrug (considering he was laying on the other) that implied he agreed with or approved of Bentley's decision. "Well, comparing us to Robin Hood isn't too far off. The Cooper family line goes as far back as anyone can remember, and it's always been the family business to be a thief," Sly got this look on his face and I got the feeling that storytime with Sly was something that was about to happen.

"But stealing from common people who've done you no harm is no way to create a respectable legacy and prove yourself a master thief. So the Cooper clan prided themselves on stealing from even bigger criminals who actually used their power to do harm and abuse. A Cooper knew that he or she was a master thief when they stole from a master criminal," Sly seemed to study my face, probably looking for any signs of me being confused. Upon seeing none, he continued.

"So, while Interpol might be trying to arrest me for breaking the law, they're only doing their jobs and what they think is right and justified. It doesn't make them my enemies just because we do good in our own ways," he gave another one-shouldered shrug that was more indifferent than the previous one.

I didn't really know what to say at first. "Well now it sounds heroic no matter which way I look at it," I laughed, after a moment of just staring at Sly.

"You're already corrupting her, Sly. You need to stop talking," I could hear the almost joking accusation in Bentley's voice, even without having to look at him.

"Aw, c'mon Bentley. I'm not corrupting her, just telling it like it is. She's forming her own opinions," Sly was laughing and smiling up at Bentley from his spot on the floor, in a very clearly guilty manner.

Bentley returned this childish look with an unamused stare that could only have been practiced and learned over time.

Looking from Bentley to Sly and back again, I found their odd staring contest to be infinitely funny for some reason, and I started laughing sort of really hard.

My inability to not laugh caused Sly to start laughing, too. And with both of us laughing our heads off, I ended up sort of choking on my laughter and started coughing a little. Which then prompted me to try and stop laughing, which then only made me cough more.

Bentley sighed, shook his head, and turned back to his computer, trying to not look amused as I atempted to remember what breathing is.

Sly snorted back another laugh and turned to look at me. "You okay?"

"Yes. Storytime with Sly is amusing," I sighed as I finally stopped laughing and choking, wiping a few tears from my eyes.

"I aim to please," Sly chuckled.

Sly gave me a moment to catch my breath before he started talking again. "Okay, it's your turn to talk about yourself, now. Your accent says you're American?" he asked as soon as I'd composed myself.

"That's the first thing Murray asked me about, too," I made a mental note to point out that none of them had French accents, either. "Yeah, I'm American. I was born in Oklahoma, and moved to Florida with my mom when I was ten. Came here last year by myself when I turned eighteen, to look for a job in the art field somewhere,"

"See, that sketch artist suggestion might actually work," Sly joked.

"Yeah, sure . I might like watching crime shows and all the cool ways they catch scumbags, but I'm definately not cut out for anything like that," I shook my head. "I'm looking for something a lot more creative. Like maybe doing character design for a video game?"

"That is a much better place to apply your skills," Bentley offered his opinion without turning to look at us. "Don't ever listen to anything Sly says you should do,"

I snorted and tried to not all-out laugh again. "Note taken," I eyed the raccoon with joking suspicion. He returned the look with very obviously guilty puppy eyes that he couldn't hold long before laughing.

"You are the most goofy thief I've ever heard of," I shook my head.

"Now see, Bentley? Media has corrupted this one, not me," Sly chuckled. "I might be a master thief who's sneaky and skillful, but it doesn't mean I don't know how to have fun," he gave a wry grin.

"The problem is that your definition of 'fun' is very twisted," Bentley let out an exasperated sigh as he appeared to be remembering something awful.

"To each his own?" it sounded like less of a question and more like a peace offering. "At least I only shot myself out of a cannon that one time,"

My face went blank and I stared at Sly. "You... Shot yourself out of a cannon?"

Sly laughed at my expression. "Yeah, two years ago, taking down this guy called Sir Raleigh the Frog. The only way up to his huge weather machine blimp was a cannon,"

"Which you were entirely too enthusiastic to shoot yourself out of," Bentley had pretty much deadpanned by now. Apparantly things like that were common with Sly, and Bentley was more than done with them.

"Adreneline junkie or lack of self-preservation?" I pointed this towards Bentley. Sly snorted and rolled his eyes.

"Both. Also he's just really stupid sometimes," Bentley stared behind me at the raccoon who was trying hard to not grin and instead pretend that Bentley's words had insulted him.

"I think that comes with the lack of self-preservation," I postulated.

"Self-preservation sounds boring," Sly scoffed. He'd given up trying to look offended and was openly smirking now.

"I'll be the first to say that sometimes, it actually kind of is," that comment earned me a slightly betrayed look from Bentley. "I'm not saying that everyone should shoot themselves out of cannons, but there's a lot of people who are entirely too scared to do anything, and they kinda just box themselves in. Sometimes being fearless is a good thing," I shrugged. I was one of those people who'd boxed themselves in, and I was well aware of this huge mistake I'd made.

"And with self-preservation comes logic. Which you clearly know how to manipulate..." Bentley sighed. "You two are going to be dangerous, I can tell,"

Sly and I laughed and exchanged mischievous looks, just to make Bentley suspicious.

I didn't even think about the fact that it was past five AM, until Murray returned to the safehouse only a few moments later. After taking care of the waterpump, he'd been tasked with destroying some local alarms. He announced that the alarms were history, and then excused himself to go to bed, bidding us all a good night.

"Y'know, Nyx, maybe you should get some sleep, too. You look pretty beat," Sly suggested. "It's five in the morning, I'm surprised you managed to stay awake this long,"

"To be honest, I haven't been on a proper AM/PM sleeping schedule since I was fifteen. I am more than aquainted with five in the morning," I said. Five in the morning was probably the only thing I was aquainted with at that point. "But, I suppose you're right,"

"I wish our safehouse was set up for more than three people sleeping in it, but I'm afraid it isn't," Bentley said, closing his laptop and getting out of his chair.

"Don't worry about it," I waved off his concerns. "I'm sure we can make the couch comfortable enough,"

"You sure? I wouldn't mind taking the couch and letting you sleep in my room," Sly offered. He was being so sweet and considerate and that was definately not something I was used to. In all honesty, I wasn't much used to people in general.

"No, no, it's fine. I'm sure I've slept in worse places," I assured them.

"If you insist," Sly shrugged. "Let me know if you change your mind,"

While I cleaned up the paper, crayons and other art supplies like I'd promised, Sly and Bentley rounded up a fair amount of blankets from around the safehouse. I proceeded to then layer them accordingly to make the couch more soft and comfortable. Didn't seem like it'd be so bad, really. And it wasn't like my back and neck didn't always hurt from my awful posture, anyways, so what would it matter?

Sly handed me a pillow and turned out the lights in the room. "See you in the PM,"

Chapter Text

When I became aware of the world existing again, I did not want to be awake. I wanted to just lay there where it was warm, and pretend like nothing else existed.

Unfortunately, I can never stay in that blissful half-concious world for long before my brain tells my body to start paying attention and reacting to things around me.

Things such as what initially sounded like a two year old abusing a set of drum cymbals. I twitched my ears a few times, trying to ignore the sound. But no, I was awake now, so I sat up to investigate, lowering my ears away from the harsh sounds.

I rubbed my eyes to get them to focus on the safehouse. It was light outside of the windows, early evening light by the look of it. I saw Bentley to my right, at the same table as yesterday, still doing computer work. The sounds of the cymbals seemed to be coming somewhere from that direction, too.

"Murray doesn't know how to cook quietly," Sly's voice came from my left, and I turned to see him sitting in a chair off to the side of the couch. His incredibly messy hair and half-focused eyes said that he'd just woken up somewhat recently, as well. He had a mug of what I assumed was coffee (it looked too dark and thick to be tea) in his left hand, and I made the subconcious observation about him that it appeared he was left-handed.

I moved to sit cris-cross and blinked a few times, feeling like parts of me (such as my eyes) were still asleep. "Sounds like he's abusing a cymbal set,"

"You unfortunately get used to it," Bentley stated, a hint of amusement in his voice.

"I take that it's a common thing, then?" I asked.

"Murray is the only one of us who really knows how to cook, so yeah," Sly chuckled, sipping from his mug. "There's coffee in the kitchen if you want any," he added, motioning towards the kitchen door.

"No, thanks," I shook my head. "I can't stand coffee,"

"Suit yourself," Sly shrugged. "There's soda in the fridge if you want, help yourself,"

"Thanks," I got up and sauntered on my stiff legs into the kitchen. Or as I jokingly called it in my head, the 'Cymbal Torture Chamber'.

"Mornin', Murray," I said to the hippo, who was cooking an insane amount of bacon and pancakes.

"Good morning, citizen!" Murray responded enthusiastically. "'The Murray' is working on preparing nourishment!"

"Who even makes that many pancakes?" I asked as I opened the fridge to assess my drink options. Murray had two boxes of pancake mix on the counter, and I figured that at least a fourth of one was scattered all over said counter (I couldn't blame him for the mess, I wouldn't have done it much cleaner, myself). I didn't even attempt to count how many pancakes he'd made so far.

"You can never have too much of a good thing," Murray responded, as though it was a scientifically proven fact that everyone should know.

I shrugged and grabbed a can of pepsi off the top shelf of the fridge. "True, very true," I agreed as I headed back for the kitchen door. I dramatically turned and pointed a finger at Murray. "Don't burn the house down,"

"Have faith that 'The Murray' knows how to cook!" Murray boasted as I walked back into the living room to sit back on the couch.

"So, how'd you sleep?" Sly asked as I braced the soda can on my left knee and opened it carefully.

"Not bad. I've definately slept in worse places," I said. Such as underneath a coffee table in my own bedroom, or with my head flopped over the backrest of my desk chair, to name a few.

"Good, I felt kinda bad with you being stuck on the couch. That's why I offered to take it last night," Sly said through a yawn. His left ear twitched a bit and he switched his coffee mug into his right hand so he could use his left to scratch it.

"Nah, it's fine. It really wasn't bad at all. I've never had an issue with sleeping on couches, honestly," I shrugged.

"Maybe because you're a cat?" Sly suggested jokingly.

" Maybe because I'm a cat," I agreed, shrugging. "I'm not sure how true the 'cats can sleep anywhere' stereotype is,"

"If you're looking for an actual answer; It's both true and not true. While some felines exhibit the ability to sleep under otherwise difficult circumstances, not all felines can. It's a matter of individual ability, really. It just seems to appear most in felines," Bentley supplied this science fact without even looking over at us.

"Bentley is a walking textbook, you learn something new every day when he's around," Sly chuckled.

"Why thank you, Sly, I'm flattered," Bentley said, very overdramatically.

"You really might wanna go see a doctor about that, could be serious," Sly laughed into his coffee, and I sort of watched to see if he might choke on it.

Bentley looked like he had something smart he was about to say, when Murray burst into the room, cheerfully announcing that dinner was ready. Bentley decided to save his smart comment for later, and got up to remove his computer from the table, so that Murray could set the table with the overabundance of pancakes and bacon.

"It's good to know that I'm not the only backwards person who does breakfast for dinner when they get up in the evening," I joked as I pulled myself off of the couch.

"We do breakfast for dinner a lot," Sly said, pulling out a chair and motioning for me to sit down. "No one compains because Murray is good at making pancakes,"

I sat down in the chair Sly had pulled out for me. "Y'know. I honestly cannot remember the last time I had pancakes..."

"That's really sad," Murray said, shaking his head as if it were the most awful thing he'd ever heard.

"Is it really? My dad was the only one who knew how to make pancakes, my mom could never figure it out, and neither could I," I laughed, accepting the plate that was handed to me. "So it was probably like eight years ago..."

"That is really sad," Murray ammeded his previous statement. "'The Murray' shall re-introduce you to the wonders of pancakes!"

"I have no objections," I laughed.

After breakfast for dinner was over, Murray committed himself to a racing video game, Bentley continued his computer work, and Sly and I watched Murray play his racing game (which he was really good at, I might add). I decided that while there was a quiet moment, I might as well take the opportunity to ask a few questions I'd been thinking about.

"So, if it's not top secret thief stuff, can I ask who this Dimitri guy is?" I asked.

"Yeah, of course" Sly looked off to his side as he recalled what he knew about Dimitri. "Dimitri Lousteau was a young, frustrated artist. He came up with his own art style, called 'Kinetic Aesthetic' that involved him swinging from a rope while he painted. The art world wasn't very accepting, so he got bitter, decided to give them what they wanted, and turned to forging old masterpieces. These days, he runs that seedy nightclub down the street, and he's been using the Clockwerk tail feathers that we're after to print forged money,"

"Is he a good forger?" I asked. If I knew anything about economics, I knew that if forged money got circulating and wasn't discovered soon enough, the entire economy could crash and burn.

"We can't say. We havent seen any of it, yet," Bentley replied.

"Let's hope that means that he hasn't started circulating it, then. Otherwise there might be an impending economic crisis," I laughed, only half-joking.

"I've been concerned about that, too," Bentley said, nodding to himself.

"Just another reason to take Dimitri down," Sly shrugged, then got up and grabbed his coffee cup to head into the kitchen.

Bentley didn't say anything, so the silence gave me a moment to start thinking about more things. For starters, what were these Clockwerk tail feathers that Dimitri had stolen? I was thinking maybe some kind of ancient artifact? Whatever they were, they sounded important, if the Cooper Gang wanted to steal them back.

Secondly, why and how was Dimitri using these Clockwerk tail feathers as counterfeit printing plates? What reasons did he have for stealing something valuable to use as printing plates instead of just buying actual printing plates? And what about that tiger who'd been in the alleyway with Dimitri? It sounded like he had been in on it, too. What was his role in all this?

The more I thought about it, the more confusing it all became. While I liked to keep my thoughts 'straightened out' to prevent confusion, I decided that maybe it was best to leave that group of thoughts all tangled up for now. It wasn't even any of my business, so I supposed it didn't matter much if I didn't understand any of it. But, you know what they say about cats and curiosity...

I was glad when Sly returned, having refilled his cup of coffee, so that hopefully we could talk about something else that wouldn't further confuse me, or spark my curiosity for things that weren't my business.

I was expecting Sly to say something and start a new conversation as he sat back down, but instead Bentley began talking, addressing me.

"Nyx? Would you mind if we talked about something a bit more serious for a moment?" he'd stopped typing and had turned in his chair to face my location.

I looked over at him curiously. I never liked it when people asked me to talk about serious things, it usually meant something bad. But I swallowed down that fear for the time being, before responding. "Yeah, sure,"

"I probably should have mentioned this and talked to you about it before you decided to come with us, so I appologise for any distress this may cause," Bentley began. I took in a deep breath as inconspicuously as I could and let it out quietly, not exactly liking where it felt like this conversation might go. I nodded so that Bentley would continue talking.

"You're aware that Dimitri isn't the only Klaww Gang member; The other man who grabbed you is assumed to be one. In order to retrieve all the Clockwerk parts that we're looking for, and in the process keep you out of harm's way, we'll have to track down all of them. And chances are, Dimitri is the only one who's here in France," Bentley explained, pausing to give me a moment to process that.

I started putting two and two together on my own. "We're going to have to travel to locate them all?"

Bentley nodded. "Yes. And there's no saying where we might have to go. Not to mention that once we aquire the Clockwerk tail feathers, Dimitri will most likely be arrested, and we can't stay here afterwards. Interpol will be combing the streets looking for us,"

"I guess you're all pretty well-known?" I asked jokingly, trying to keep things from being too serious.

"That and a certain Interpol officer personally has it out for Sly..." Bentley gave Sly a look that implied something romantic between the two. Sly returned the look with a toothy grin.

Bentley rolled his eyes and continued talking to me. "I want to make sure that you're willing to come with us, wherever our travels may take us,"

I thought about it a moment. The idea of travelling possibly worldwide was immensely scary. But the thought of the Klaww Gang finding me was even more scary, because that would probably result in death. Self-preservation told me to stay where it was familiar, but logic said that it wasn't safe where it was familiar. I took a deep breath and nodded. "I understand. I already agreed to stay with you, because I'd be safer, and if that means travelling god-knows-where, then... I guess that's how it'll be,"

I really felt like I was going out on a limb. I was agreeing to do something that under any other circumstance I would never have done. Travelling worldwide really wasn't my cup of tea. Moving from Florida to Paris on my own accord was one thing. But knowing that I'd be travelling to an unknown number of unknown places, in an unknown amount of time... That was sort of scary. What made it worse is that it felt like I really didn't have much of a choice.

This was one of those times where I had to be brave and do a few frightening things, in order to do what's best for myself. Just like when I moved to Paris. I'd been scared to uproot my entire life again and start over someplace new and far away. But I wanted to be an artist, and Paris sounded like the best place for it. So I had to be brave and do something scary to get to where I wanted to be. I tried to think of the two situations as being more similar than different. I had moved to Paris, I had made it through that, I was okay. I could do this, too.

Bentley nodded. "Good to hear it. Do you have a passport?"

"Mhm, yeah," I replied. "It's at home, though,"

"I anticipated that. You'll need to pack some of your things to bring with you, anyways. Sly and Murray can take you back to your house before it gets dark so you can do that," Bentley motioned over to the raccoon and hippo, who'd both been pretty quiet through this discussion.

"We're ready to go when you are," Sly said. Murray nodded his agreement, having paused his game.

I shrugged as I stood up. "No time like the present, I guess,"

The first thing I learned about the Cooper van was that Murray was insanely proud of it. The second was that there are only two seats; Driver's and passenger's. Which meant that at least one poor sod was left to bounce around the back.

For our ride to my apartment, it was Sly. Because he's a gentleman, and he said he was used to it. I got the feeling that it wouldn't be long however, before I was stuck in the back with another unlucky soul. Probably during a getaway drive, knowing my luck.

I gave Murray the address for my apartment complex, and then we were off.

"You live in an apartment?" Sly asked curiously, leaning over the passenger's seat.

"Yeah. It's all I could afford, really. Besides, I'm not sure if I'm ready to deal with all the stuff that comes with owning property," I shook my head. "I'm not mature enough for that. I actually can't believe I talked my mom into letting me move here alone, and that I've made it this far by myself,"

"You moved here when you turned eighteen, right? How old are you now?" Sly asked.

"Still eighteen. My birthday was back in October," I replied.

"You're pretty brave to have moved here all alone, if you ask me," Sly said, then snorted a laugh. "I remember when I was eighteen. We were just getting started as a gang,"

"Yeah, things were kinda hard back then," Murray nodded to himself. "But the memories are good ones,"

"Things were kind of stressful back then," Sly agreed.

"But things got a lot easier once you took down Clockwerk and got your family's Thievius Raccoonus back," Murray added.

My brain stopped and did a double-take. And I turned to get both Murray and Sly into my vision. " Wait . Clockwerk... Was a person?"

"Sorry Sly, should I have not said that?" Murray asked, looking a bit concerned that he may have said the wrong thing.

"No, pal, you're alright. It's not a huge secret really, I just wasn't sure how to bring it up," Sly said, and then turned towards me. "I'll tell you when we get back to the safehouse, okay? We're here," he pointed ahead of us to show me that we were pulling into the parking lot of my apartment complex.

"Uh. Okay," I couldn't think of anything else to say. The unexpected knowledge that Clockwerk was a person made me rework a lot of the questions in my head. Were the Clockwerk tail feathers actually body parts from this Clockwerk person? Or were they something he'd created? The thought of the first scenario was insanely creepy, so I decided for my own sanity to believe that the tail feathers were something Clockwerk had made, until Sly explained and made everything make sense. Either way, it sounded like Clockwerk had been someone important...

I chose to push that out of my mind and not overthink it. Sly would explain when we got back to the safehouse, and then hopefully everything would make sense. So I directed my thoughts towards a more casual question, as Sly and I both got out of the van.

"Hey hold on. If you started this gang when you were eighteen, how old are you now?" I asked.

"Little over twenty," Sly replied.

"Huh. I almost thought you were older," I mused.

"Does the view from down there really make me look that good?" Sly teased.

I narrowed my eyes at him. "Just for that remark, no. The lighting down here is awful and it makes you look like an old hag,"

"You're not that much taller than me anyways..." I added lowly, starting off for the stairs to the second floor of my apartment building.

Sly said something to Murray, whom was going to wait in the van, just in case any of Dimitri's people saw and followed us, and then caught up to me. "How tall are you?"

"Five feet, two inches," I replied, fishing my keys out of my pockets.

"Yeaah, you're kind of short. I'm six feet, even," Sly replied, very arrogantly.

I glared up at him. "Tall people are awful,"

"Don't let Murray hear you say that, he's like six feet, six inches tall," Sly laughed.

I kept glaring at Sly as I unlocked my front door. "Tall people are awful with the exception of Murray,"

Sly snickered to himself and followed me as I entered my dark apartment. Said apartment was just how I'd left it the day before. But with everything that had happened, it really felt like more than a day ago that I'd been sitting at the park, minding my own business.

I flicked on the lightswitch. "I'll warn you now, this place is a wreck,"

"I can see that, but I'm not judging, Murray and I are no better," Sly laughed.

"That doesn't surprise me. Three guys living alone together. They're bound to be slobs to some degree," I snorted and walked down the hall to my bedroom, and turned the lights on.

"Wow, way to be stereotypical," Sly said with feigned offense as he followed me down the hall.

"But you already admitted to it being true, did you not?" I asked, stepping into my room and kicking a few things out of the way.

"Yeah, but you should really stop making assumptions about people based on reality TV shows," Sly replied in a jokingly condenscending tone.

I snorted and rolled my eyes. "Anything in particular that I should bring?"

Sly shrugged. "Passport and photo ID, for starters. Otherwise, I'd say just pack like you're going on a long vacation,"

"Alright, sounds easy enough," I said, and then headed towards the closet to see what suitcases and other travel bags I had.

In theory, packing for a long trip did sound easy. But I had actually never packed for a trip that was more than a weekend long since I was nine. And I don't even remember actually packing for that, my mom probably did it for me. The last time I packed to go anywhere was moving to Paris, and I was packing everything I owned, so there wasn't really a dillema of 'What do I bring?'

Not to mention the fact that my room was an absolute mess. I was probably in no position to call Sly a slob, because I was sure the state of my room trumped his, and I'd never even seen his before. Being that nothing had a place, finding what I wanted to pack was a nightmare. There was also the anxiety that came with knowing that if I forgot something, I couldn't come back to get it, and I had no idea how long I'd be gone.

I'm also no good at all at organizing. So my packing system was pretty much just putting clothes in a suitcase, and personal possessions (like books, drawing supplies, my phone charger, my iPad, things like that) in a backpack. Upon seeing my collection of cosplay materials, Sly requested that I bring some, in case we had to use disguises at some point.

I probably looked like a chicken with my head cut off, running about my room, trying to make sure that I had everything I would want on a daily basis. Sly offered to help, but even I didn't know where half the things I was looking for were, so I politely declined.

It took a lot longer than I had expected it to for me to pack everything I would need (or hoped I would need), and apparantly Murray started getting concerned. He contacted Sly through that binocucom thing (that I still needed to ask about eventually) twice while I was trying to find things. Sly seemed to find it amusing as he told Murray that I didn't know where half of my belongings were.

It was just past nine-thirty when I was comfortable with saying that I had everything, and was ready to go. Considering that I wouldn't be there for a while, I unplugged as many electronic things as I could, and then we headed back down to the van.

"I'll have to call the office in the morning, let them know that I'm going on a 'vacation', and figure out how to set up automatic rental payments..." I mused as I climbed into the passenger's seat.

"Bentley can probably help with the automatic payments. He's a computer whizz, in case you hadn't figured," Sly suggested.

"That makes things easier for me, I suppose. I have no idea what it means to be an adult," I said.

Sly laughed. "Does anyone ?"

I set my bags down by the couch when we returned to the safehouse, pulled my shoes off, and then sat down. Sly leaned over the table where Bentley was still doing computer work. "So what's our schedule for tonight?"

"Well," Bentley began, tapping a few keyboard keys. "We need to eliminate the security measures in the printing press room, if we're going to get anywhere near those tail feathers. Luckily for us, that can be done from the theatre, which has an unguarded roof access,"

"Sounds like fun. When do you want me out there?" Sly asked.

"Around elleven-thirty," Bentley replied. "The nightclub will still be closed then, and there won't be too many people on the streets,"

"Got it," Sly nodded, and then came over to return to the chair he'd been sitting in previously. "I suppose I have another story to tell you, don't I?" he motioned towards me as he spoke.

"Yeah, I'm really kind of confused," I nodded, pulling my legs up to sit criss-cross.

"Okay, well. You already know about my family line of master thieves, so I guess I should start with Clockwerk... At one point, Clockwerk was a person. He was an owl, and he was insanely jealous of the Cooper family's thieving reputation," the tone of voice that Sly began to adopt was not unlike the one he'd used the night before when he told me about his family. But it was also different, more somber, as if the story he was telling was going to be sad.

"And so, consumed by his hate and jealousy, he replaced all of his mortal body parts with soulless machinery, so that he could live and survive throughout the millennia, with the sole intent of wiping out my family line so that he would be the only master thief," Sly paused, looking almost as if telling this story was painful for him. I was going to interupt, and say that if it was personal, he didn't have to tell me, but he continued on before I could open my mouth.

"Clockwerk caught up with my father on the night of my eighth birthday, when I was supposed to inherit the Thievus Raccoonus, our family book of thief techniques. He brought his gang with him, The Fiendish Five, and they ambushed us. My father hid me in a closet, and from there I watched the bloodshed, and as Clockwerk's gang ransacked the house until they found the Thievus Raccoonus. They split it up amongst themselves, and that was that. I ended up in an orphanage, and that's where the three of us met," he gestured to Murray and Bentley with a look that was both happy and sad.

It took a moment for me to realize what Sly meant by bloodshed and ending up in an orphanage. It was really hard to believe that someone as upbeat and friendly as Sly had seen his father killed right in front of him when he was just a kid. Had he not told me, I may have never guessed. But the look on his face as he told the story said that he was indeed hurt by the incidents in his past, but I guessed that he'd chosen to work past them, instead of brooding and seething like some people might.

There was just a slight pause before Sly continued talking. "When I turned eighteen, the three of us set off to find The Fiendish Five, take them down to get the Thievius Raccoonus back, and avenge the death of my father. And that's exactly what we did. I thought that I'd put an end to Clockwerk then; I'd dumped him into an active volcano, after all. But it was naive of me to think that I could destroy something like Clockwerk so easily ," he shook his head. "Interpol recovered the parts just recently, and put them on display in a museum in Cairo. We travelled there to steal them, so we could finally put an end to Clockwerk, but when we arrived, we discovered that the Klaww Gang had beat us to it. Dimitri is the local Klaww Gang operative, so we decided to start with him,"

"So. The tail feathers can be used as printing plates... Because they're metal?" I asked slowly, still trying to process everything that I'd just been told.

"Yeah. They're made from some rare metal alloy, and they'll probably never wear out," Sly replied. "Which means Dimitri can make as much forged money as he wants to,"

"Do money forgers even understand that they're practically lighting a fire under themselves? If the economy crashes because of their fake money, they're going to feel the repercussions of it, too," I said. "Even if they aren't caught as the forger,"

"Finally, someone with sense!" Bentley cheered.

"Well, if we have anything to say about it, Dimitri won't have time to start spending the forged cash, before he's behind bars," Sly chuckled, and then stood up to start walking across the room, presumably to grab his cane that was sitting on the table.

"Wait," I stood up and stopped him before he could get there. "Permission to hug?"

Sly looked confused for a moment, but then laughed. "Sure,"

I wrapped my arms around him and hugged tightly. "I'm sorry about your dad... No one should have to go through that..."

I felt the air tickle my ear as Sly snorted. "Thanks. Don't worry about it, though. I've come a long way since then,"

I detatched myself from the raccoon and smiled at him, not sure what else I should say.

Sly smiled back, very mischieviously, and headed to the table to grab his cane, then glanced over at the clock on the wall. "Time to get started. Be back later, don't wait up," and then he was out the door.

I sat back down on the couch, and started thinking about, well... About everything. Most of my questions had been answered, now; I knew what the Clockwerk tail feathers were, how and why Dimitri was using them as printing plates, and why the Cooper Gang wanted to steal them back.

But now I also had the added knowledge that Clockwerk had been a living person who was insanely jealous of the Cooper family. He'd gone so far as to turn himself into a robot and kill Sly's father, just to get what he wanted... It was a scary kind of amazing to think that such a malicious person could exist.

As I contemplated the existance of someone like Clockwerk, I started thinking about how, in comparison to him, Sly and his gang were actually really heroic. I never would have thought that I'd find myself beginning to admire and respect a gang of thieves. But, as I thought about it more, that was exactly what was happening.

I sighed to myself. I had the feeling that this 'adventure' was definately going to be... Interesting.

Chapter Text

"How do they not notice you taking things from their pockets?"

Sly gave a breathy snicker, and pocketed the key he'd just lifted from the nightclub guard in front of him, whom was sleeping in front of a television. A television that wasn't getting any reception, at that. The guy looked dead asleep, so Sly decided to not bother with knocking him unconcious, he pretty much already was.

"I'll have to show you sometime," Sly replied once he was away from the sleeping guard, just to be safe.

"Sly, no," Bentley's voice was faint and sort of muffled, he obviously wasn't in front of the computer like Nyx was, but Sly could still hear the exasperated annoyance in his tone. "She's not here so you can corrupt her,"

"I thought we already went over the fact that media has corrupted her? I'd be doing a civic duty by enlightening her on how criminal activity really works," Sly teased. With all six keys now in his possession, he began making his way back to the control panel they belonged to.

"A simple explanation will do, y'know. I don't need a hands on lesson," Nyx said plaintively. She'd probably said or thought something similar when she'd asked about the binocucom system, and Bentley had invited her over to see for herself. That's how she'd ended up watching Sly collect the fan control keys. She'd been pretty nervous about it at first, but once Sly and Bentley had both insisted that it was fine if she watched, she seemed to loosen up a little.

Sly honestly didn't mind Nyx watching him, he wasn't the sort of person to get nervous when observed, and he didn't mind if she was curious, either. He wasn't exactly used to being around someone who was a virgin to the world of crime, though, and he figured that Nyx was probably sort of nervous about getting involved somehow. She'd most likely been taught that crime was a dark and dangerous thing to get caught up in and that the people were ruthless and immoral (like the Klaww Gang). With that in mind, she might even have been scared of various aspects of the Cooper Gang's work...

"The problem with you, Sly, is that you'll make committing crime sound fun in hopes of turning her," Bentley sighed, sounding closer to the microphone this time.

"Is being a criminal like being a vampire? Like, you become infected and then you transform painfully?" Nyx sounded so downright honest about the question, that Sly had to choke back laughter as he started unlocking the control panel. At least she wasn't too nervous or scared to make jokes, that was a good thing. And she obviously had to trust them if she'd agreed to stay, right? Hopefully she was just conflicted about their line of work and how much she was allowed to know, and not scared of them. Sly honestly wouldn't know what to do with that problem, if it became one.

There was silence on the other side of the binocucom line for just a moment, and if Sly knew anything about how Bentley reacted to awful jokes, he was probably staring at Nyx with a deadpan look. Then Bentley gave a long sigh that seemed to fade off, and Sly guessed that the turtle had probably just walked away.

Sly contemplated his next words a moment before saying, "I vant to steal your goods!" in a horrible impersonation of Dracula.

Nyx sounded like she almost spit soda and instead choked on it, as she tried to not laugh. And behind her coughs and wheezing giggles, Sly could just barely make out Bentley's groan of, "Oh my god, Sly ,"

"Has anyone ever told you that you are a dork?" Nyx asked through her choking.

"Yes, I'm well aware," Sly grinned and turned away from the control panel, having slowed the fans down so that he could now walk on them to climb atop the main chandelier.

Sly assessed the positions of the fans, and decided that the easiest way on top of one was from the tarps on the left and right of the walkway. The raccoon made a careful and precise leap onto the nearest one, and then turned to look towards the fan. As he did so, Nyx spoke up, having stopped choking so that she could ask another question. "So... You're actually going to walk on those fans? And not fall?"

"Yup. Watch and be amazed," Sly secured his cane in his hand and then leapt from the tarp (which he was glad was pinned down quite taught) to land on a blade of the nearest fan, perching on it's edge without tipping it more than slightly. Distributing his weight evenly to balance was practically instinct now, like breathing. It came naturally and he didn't have to think about it.

"Holy crap, how do you do that?" Nyx sounded absolutely mystified. "I didn't think real people could actually do stuff like that..."

"Lots of practice and skill. I'll add it to the list of things I might teach you someday," Sly chuckled. As he sprung to the next fan and hooked his cane on it's suspending rope, he heard Bentley give another 'Sly no ' in protest.

"Sly yes ," the smug raccoon replied. "There's no harm in showing her how things are done. There's a difference between knowing how to do something and actually doing it," he purred as he climbed the rope and then dropped down onto the chandelier.

Bentley groaned again. "Just insert the splice clip, Sly..."

Sly grinned to himself and introduced the splice clip to the spotlight security gun, and then stepped back to watch the show.

Bentley politely asked Nyx to get up so he could use his computer, and then there were a few clicks and whirrs as the spotlight gun began to move. And then it began to rapid-fire, as Bentley pretty much went crazy aiming at the two generators bolted to the walls.

" Woah ,"

Over the sound of the gun blowing the generators to the printing press room (and anything else in their path) to bits, Sly just barely heard Nyx's proclaimation of amazement.

"That should do it. No more security in the printing press room!" Bentley declared as he stopped shooting.

There were a few beats of silence as Sly hopped off the chandelier, before Nyx spoke again. "What kind of idiot puts generators to his printing press room in the theater?"

Bentley sighed, an overexagerated, dreamy-like sigh. "Finally, your logic returns to you,"

Sly was taking his time getting back to the safehouse, looping around the streets looking for guards to pickpocket for cash. Nyx had gotten bored of watching, and had decided to sit and draw. So the binocucom line had been pretty quiet, and Sly was off in his own personal world of pickpocketing.

Therefore, when a magenta figure dropped down in front of him, Sly was certainly a bit startled, and almost dropped into a battle stance.

"Hold it, Cooper!" the tigeress demanded. Upon hearing her voice, Sly knew who this was, and he stood back up straight, and relaxed.

"Constable Neyla, another police woman hot on my tail," Sly slipped into a flirtatious tone nearly instantly, almost entirely letting his guard down. He couldn't feel all that threatened around law-inforcement officers, especially ones as attractive as Neyla (though she wasn't as attractive as Inspector Fox).

" Please ," Neyla scoffed. "I led you here,"

"So that Klaww Gang slip was a clue... Why are you helping me out?" Sly asked. This was a new sort of concept for him, but an interesting one.

"I'm not as black and white as Carmelita," Neyla crossed her arms and shook her head. "I know what a menace those Clockwerk parts are, and I don't want the likes of the Klaww Gang putting them to use,"

" Soo , what? It takes a thief to catch a thief?" Sly found it almost flattering that a law inforcement officer was practically asking for his help.

Neyla nodded. "Something like that," then she met Sly's eyes with a serious look. "But if I'm going to trust you in this case, I need to know if you can keep up. Literally ,"

"Literally?" Sly questioned.

"Don't fall behind," Neyla warned.

And then she was sprinting across the roof and jumping down into the streets. A second later, and Sly was following her.

"Sly, forget about being quiet and not alerting the guards, and just sprint. You're going to need to if you want to keep up with Constable Neyla!" Bentley's voice came over the binocucom line as soon as he noticed what was going on. Neyla was quick, but Sly was pretty sure he could easily keep up.

"Is he chasing a police officer?" Nyx sounded so bemused by the concept that Sly had to smirk.

"Yes. Yes he is," Bentley replied, before shutting off the binocucom line so that Sly could focus.

Neyla probably wouldn't have wasted any time waiting for Sly had he fallen behind, but she didn't need to, because the thief was pretty much right behind her the whole way. The Constable was fast and nimble with quick reflexes, but so was Sly, and he kept up with her every step.

But Neyla wasn't impressed quite yet. So she began taking a scenic route, leading Sly on the most roundabout way to their destination. Not to mention using various methods to go from the streets to the rooftops, visa versa, and roof to roof, with no discernible pattern to her path.

When Neyla reached Dimitri's back door, she turned to find Sly right there behind her. Now, maybe she was a little impressed. "Well done, Sly. We should work well together,"

"Glad you approve," Sly returned the compliment with a cocky grin.

"Now, legally I can't enter Dimitri's nightclub without a warrant... But I happen to have obtained a key to his back door..." Neyla gestured to the large double doors they stood at. "...Which a person such as yourself can use however he pleases," Neyla held said key out towards Sly.

Sly smiled almost ear to ear as he took the key. "Oh, we are absolutely going to work well together,"

I turned towards the door when Sly walked back into the safehouse, looking very pleased with himself. He'd not contacted Bentley since taking off after that Constable Neyla woman, but Bentley was confident that Sly would be fine. And he'd been right, which I got the feeling was something that happened often.

"So, how was your date with Constable Neyla?" Bentley asked, not sounding enough like he was joking.

"Wonderful. I think a second date might be in order," Sly replied smoothly, and then held up a shiny key. "She gave me this key to Dimitri's back door," he twirled it around and then set the key by Bentley's keyboard.

Bentley regarded the key, and then began typing into his computer. "Hmm. This is a fortunate turn of events. That key unlocks the door to the discotheque, which is exactly where we need to go!" and then he reached for... A crossbow? That was totally a crossbow!

Bentley hopped out of his chair, and headed for the door, strapping the crossbow to his back. "Wish me luck," he said, sounding awfully nervous.

"Good luck!" Sly called after him, and then slid into the chair where the turtle had previously been sitting. He started clicking and doing things with Bentley's computer as he relaxed into the chair.

"Does he know that you play with his computer while he's gone?" I asked, glacing up at him from over my glasses.

"Of course. I would never purposely invoke the wrath of Bentley," Sly very sarcastially proclaimed. "I've got to monitor him on the binocucom, like he does when I'm out there. Just to make sure nothing awful happens,"

"Ah. Makes sense," I nodded.

"So, are you having fun getting a look into the life of a criminal?" Sly asked, very, very smugly, as if he expected a wholehearted 'yes'.

"If I say yes, then you'll never shut up about it. But if I say no, you'll also never shut up about it, right?" I asked, looking at him skeptically. I'd spent enough time with him to safely make that conclusion.

"Oh no , I've got to stop leaving you with Bentley, he's turning you against me," Sly gasped dramatically, feigning offense.

"Mhm, sure ," I couldn't help but snort a small laugh at the dorky look on his face. "If I'm being honest, though, it is pretty interesting. You've already proven wrong many criminal sterotypes, and we've barely known each other two days," I casually gestured at him with the pencil I was holding (Drawing hadn't exactly been as fruitful as I'd hoped).

"Well, then I'm happy to be the one to open your eyes," Sly beamed. I couldn't tell if he was legitimately that full of himself, or if he was just making awful jokes. There was also the possibility that he was making jokes about being full of himself, because he actually was.

I snorted and shook my head. "I also can't believe that someone as dorky as you hasn't got arrested yet," Perhaps it was the rest of my 'brainwashing' via media that was talking, but Sly was such a dork who didn't seem to take much of anything all that seriously. How was he a master thief who ran a gang of internationally wanted criminals who'd aparantly evaded the cops for years? How could he be so carefree, yet so skilled? I really didn't think that such a combination was even possible, but yet here he was, grinning at me like an idiot.

"Skilled doesn't mean uptight, y'know," Sly said, and then turned his attention to Bentley's computer, because said turtle was now inside the discotheque (which was a word I really didn't know how to say..).

Sly turned on the microphone and leaned towards it. "Hey Bentley, how're you holding up out there in the field?"

"Fine, fine, I'm just fine," Bentley did not at all sound fine. He sounded quite nervous, actually. "I just need to bomb all the pillars supporting that disco ball and I can get out of here!"

"So, what's with taking out the disco ball?" Sly asked, glancing at some blueprints on the table that neither of us could read.

"It's impact will shake the Nightclub's front peacock sign loose from it's moorings... Look I can't talk now, I've got to keep moving, keep safe!" and with that very panicked sounding statement, Bentley cut the binocucom feed.

"Yoouu sure he's gonna be okay out there?" I asked. "He sounded like he was about to have a panic attack..."

"Yeah," Sly replied, sounding not at all concerned, and entirely casual. "Bentley might be scared about being in the field, but he's brave and smart, he'll be just fine," and then Sly moved the laptop so that I could also see it, and moved his chair around to sit next to me.

"M'kay, I'll trust your judgement," I shrugged and then went quiet as we watched Bentley begin his job. Unsurprisingly, there were guards about (though I questioned if they were actual 'guards' and not mercenaries or something hired by Dimitri. They obviously weren't cops), and at first I was concerned about how such a small turtle was going to deal with them. Even if he could sneak by, they'd hear it when he started destroying those support pillars, right?

Then he pulled out the crossbow. And shot a very well-aimed dart into the neck of the closest guard. And within seconds, the guard dropped to the floor, out like a light. Then he moved to aim around some security lasers at the only other guard in sight. Once that guy had dropped, Bentley moved back down the ramp he'd come up, and to the right of the opposite ramp that led to the passageway he came in from.

From his pocket, Bentley produced a small round device that began to glow red when Bentley stuck it onto the support pillar there. And then he moved far, far away from it.

I realized just as it exploded, that it was a bomb. "He's good with computers and explosives?" I asked in amazement.

"It's a surprise he hasn't taken over the world yet, I know," Sly laughed.

Bentley regarded the first unconcious guard warily as he blew another pillar nearby, followed by the laser security system. Then he headed down the steps that were now accessible, carefully stepping around the second guard he'd knocked out.

After the third pillar went down, I noticed that the disco ball was really swinging quite a bit, and I suposed that Bentley was lucky that the disco ball had it's own independant support pillars, otherwise the ceiling probably would have come down by now.

When the final support pillar came down, it surprised me that we could feel the impact all the way at the safehouse. It wasn't much, but the ground definately shook as the disco ball crashed down.

Sly checked a few things on the computer before eagerly contacting Bentley. "Wow, Bentley! We felt that all the way at the safehouse! And you were right, the peacock sign had half it's bolts pop off on impact!"

"You know," I stated matter-of-factly. "You're supposed to count down to one before the ball drops,"

Bentley groaned, obviously having heard me over the binocucom, while Sly laughed. "We're not in New York, but I'll remember that next time we drop a disco ball,"

Bentley had returned to the safehouse around 3:30 in the morning, announcing that with the bolts on the peacock sign loosened, they were all set for the big heist; Operation: Thunder Beak.

Bentley put the finishing touches on his slideshow, and then sat Sly and Murray down in front of it. Nyx watched from the table, having put down her pencil for the time being.

"Okay, fellas, the dominos are all in place," Bentley dove into his presentation, but upon seeing that his 'Operation: Thunder Beak' title card was backwards, he gave his projector a glare, fixed the slide, and then proceeded as if it never happened. "Time to pull off the big heist!"

A picture of the water tower was first in the slideshow. "First, Murray will help me break into the old water tower," the turtle drew a square around the tower. "From there, I should be able to shut down the plaza fountain," the slide then changed to one of the fountain, which Bentley quickly scribbled out.

"Dimitri is sure to send someone out to get the repair truck. Sly, you'll pickpocket the truck keys off this guy, once he shows up. Then hand it off to me and Murray in the plaza," a generic photo of one of the larger boar guards was next in the queue, and Bentley highlighted the guy's pocket.

The slide switched to a shot of the peacock sign. "We'll go steal the truck, while you climb to the top of the Nightclub's peacock sign,"

"When you're in position, Murray will fire the truck's winch line up to you, and we'll use it to pull down the sign. If my calculations are correct, the impact should create an entrance to the printing press room. Then, Sly, you jump in, grab the Clockwerk tail feathers, and we all get the heck out of here!" a final series of images plus gesture drawings illustrated how Bentley hoped this heist would go.

"Sounds like a plan, pal. Let's do this!" Sly twirled his cane in his hand, eager to get this heist on the road. The final heist was always the most exciting.

"One more thing," Bentley added, and then turned to their feline guest. "Nyx, I want to make sure you're okay with all this. You can wait for us in the van, and I'll leave my laptop with you so you'll know if anything goes wrong,"

"Yeah, that's fine," Nyx nodded. Waiting in the van sounded like the most logical option, so she had no objections.

Bentley nodded to her, and then turned to Sly and Murray. "Alright, let's move out, guys!"

Bentley and Murray were very cautious about making their way to the water tower. While getting in a fight with the guards wouldn't matter much now, Bentley wanted this to go as smoothly as possible.

Luckily, the coast to the tower was pretty clear, and hopefully none of the guards would hear Bentley bombing open the tower hatch. He looked both ways, as if he were about to cross the street, before tossing a bomb up to the hatch. He and Murray then stepped back and shielded their faces from the blast.

Per usual, Bentley's explosives did the trick perfectly, and the hatch was open.

"Jump into my arms, I'll toss ya up there!" Murray declared, holding his arms open for the turtle. Bentley did not hesitate in doing so, pulling his limbs into his shell. He entirely trusted that Murray would not throw him into the side of the water tower.

There was a brief moment of being airborne for Bentley, and then he was inside the water tower. "I need to focus... Which valves do I turn to divert water pressure from the plaza?"

It took a moment, but Bentley and his brains made quick work of the water tower (apparantly the answer was 'All of the valves'), and the fountain went off seconds later.

"Sucess!!" Bentley cheered, and then hailed Sly on the binocucom. "Sly, the water pressure to the fountain should be disabled!"

"It's off, alright. They're already sending out the repair guy to fix it up," Sly answered quietly as he watched the large boar from his rooftop perch. Two rats were following him, apparantly as some kind of protection detail.

"Pickpocket the keys to his repair truck, without being seen," Bentley instructed. Sly snickered to himself, not being seen was pretty much the cornerstone of his work, if there was one thing he could do, it was not be seen.

Sly vaulted himself off the roof and landed next to the out of commission fountain. He figured this would be pretty easy. All he had to do was eliminate those two rats tailing the repairman, and then take the key. He'd done this all a million times.

And easy it was, as not even twenty minutes later, the clueless guard had been relieved of his truck keys. The raccoon gave a triumphant grin, and pocketed them. He should probably knock out the repairman, he figured. Didn't want him reporting back to Dimitri that that repair truck had been stolen, after all. So with two quick swings of his cane, the much larger guard was rendered unconcious.

Sly looped back around to the fountain to hand off the keys to Murray and Bentley, and then he began climbing atop the wobbly peacock sign to wait for them to arrive.

Bentley and Murray headed back towards Dimitri's back door, where the repair truck was (illegally) parked. "I'll take the wheel. I know how to drive a stick-shift!" Murray announced, climbing into the driver's seat.

Bentley had no argument there, and climbed into the passenger's seat. Murray then started the engine, and pulled a hard left to head to the fountain, very impressively driving between two suitcases that someone had left in the road.

"I'm in position," Sly's voice radioed in over the binocucom just as the truck was turning the corner to plaza.

"Great, we're just driving up right now. Get ready to grab the harpoon!" Murray announced as Sly saw the truck drive up and park on the opposite side of the fountain.

Murray aimed the winch and aligned it with Sly's position, and then shot it off. Sly caught one of the hooks with his cane, and then attatched it to the peacock sign.

"Hook's on!" Sly called. "Pull away!" and then he hopped onto the winch rope, and slid down it.

Before Sly's feet touched the ground, Bentley called to him from the truck. "Sly! The guards are onto us, protect the truck!"

Sly leaped off the rope and landed in front of the truck, taking a battle stance and assessing the odds. The rat guards were numerous, but small. Sly figured that this would be pretty fun. It wasn't often that he got a fight all to himself.

People had the bad habit of underestimating Sly, due to him often being much skinner and smaller than they, but if you asked any one of them, they'd tell you that Sly is a great deal stronger than he looks, and you honestly don't want to pick a fight with him.

Something that those rat guards probably wished they'd been told beforehand... The fight was shortlived, and the score was Sly: 1, Rats: 0. Sly gestured to Murray that the coast was clear, and the hippo whirred the winch into action, bringing the peacock sign down with a loud crunch of concrete.

Sly fliched away from the crash and the debris from it, and then stood to watch the dust clear. Bentley exited the truck to observe as well, and once the dust was gone, it was obvious that his plan had worked, and they had a direct entrance to the printing press room.

"Behold! The wonders of gravity and inertia!" Bentley exclaimed, holding his arms up to the sky.

"That was real subtle, Bentley," Sly chuckled.

"Okay, you jump in, grab the Clockwerk tail feathers, and we're out of here!" Bentley instructed.

With a quick salute to his partners, Sly hopped into the hole and down into the printing press room. His eyes imediately locked onto the tail feathers, but his attention was quickly grabbed by the tall purple iguana who was also standing in the room.

"Gahh! So, raccoonus-doodus... You're like totally bumming my house up and bringing me down, so very uncool. Why can't you let birds and bees be free, bro?" Dimitri seemed more than a little pissed that they'd blown a hole in his roof. Actually, he was probably just pissed at Sly in general. He seemed to have that affect on a lot of people like Dimitri.

"Listen, Dimitri, you have no idea what you're playing with, and it's gonna bring more than your house down," Sly figured that he'd have to fight Dimitri for the tail feathers, but he got points for trying to be civil, right?

"Look, bro, I see you are a tough cowboy. A man with taste, style, vision, a conneseur of finer things, like me. Look, I'm sure that two cats in a bag like us can work something out, yeah? We smoove , yeah?" Dimitri then gestured to the printing press. "Look, seeeeee the money? You like the money? You can take all you want, I can-"

Sly interupted Dimitri before he could finish his proposal. "No deal! You and the rest of the Klaww Gang have to be stopped! Clockwerk will never again see the light of day. Just hand over the tail feathers and we can-"

"What is this with clocks, bro?!" now it was Dimitri's turn to interupt Sly. "Have you no vision? Are you hearing what I beam to you? You think you have juice? Don't show me a little mind when talking about such big things . You think you can swing the bat? Show your bling, and let me shine you!!"

"I have no idea what you're saying..." Sly shook his head. Trying to make sense of what Dimitri had just said would have probably given him a headache. So he added, "And your suit sucks," to his statement, as a last resort to getting this coversation to go anywhere, even if that meant it was going to progress to a fight.

Dimitri let out a high pitched shriek that was not unlike a petrodactyl. " Let's dance!!"

And then Dimitri had sprinted across the room, and was brandishing a shock pistol that was definately some counterfeit off-brand or bootleg.

Sly ducked as a bolt flew over his head, and he moved towards the safety of a support beam. Bootleg or not, he guessed that those bolts would definately hurt if he got hit. So Sly made a mental note to just not do that.

After quickly assessing the room, Sly leapt from behind the support beam, to hide behind a collection of glass containers. Dimitri fired off a few shots at him, but missed. He attempted to fire again, but his gun overheated and refused to fire, protesting by sparking violently.

That's what Dimitri got for using bootleg weapons, Sly figured. He vaulted over the containers he was hiding behind to begin assaulting Dimitri with his cane. He wasn't exactly expecting Dimitri to be good at hand-to-hand combat, as well.

Or rather... Tail-to-body combat... Before he could figure out what was going on, Sly found himself tumbling down the stairs, because Dimitri had decided that he was a dragon, and had whipped the raccoon with his tail.

Sly barely had enough time to regain his bearings before he had to roll out of the way of another bolt from Dimitri's gun, which had apparantly cooled down. Sly was back on his feet in seconds, and taking cover behind another cluster of containers.

Those containers were not going to stand up to being shot forever, though, and Sly made a quick dash for another support beam, lest the exploding glass be allowed to cut him. Dimitri shot off two more bolts, and then his firearm began to spark and protest again.

Sly was more cautious in assaulting Dimitri this time. He kept a bit more distance, and watched out for Dimitri's tail, making sure to jump out of it's way. Dimitri was pretty pissed about getting beat up and not being able to get another hit in, so when his gun cooled down enough, he just angrily shot towards where Sly stood, barely giving the raccoon time to jump out of the way.

Despite the relatively even match, Sly was having fun with this fight. Dimitri was over-enraged, and it was actually pretty comical. Sly was confident that he'd win any fight he got in, and this one was no different.

His current strategy of waiting until Dimitri's gun overheated seemed to be working pretty well, and Dimitri hadn't changed up the formula yet, so Sly decided to stick with it.

They rinsed and repeated a few times, so to say, until Dimitri had had enough of being beaten up, and made an atempt to call for backup. But before he could get anywhere with that plan, Sly delivered a final blow with his cane, sending Dimitri flying... Into his non-functional printing press... Sly chuckled as the lizard struggled to not be crushed by the paper roller, and once he sucessfully climbed out, fell directly into a trash can.

"You take Clockwerk feathers, and my counterfeiting operation... It's past tense!" Dimitri complained.

"I'm doing you a favor. What kind of thief prints money, anyways?" Sly shook his head. "There's no honor in that,"

"You... Cracker box !" Dimitri hissed, and then proceeded to lose conciousness.

Sly could hear the Interpol sirens in the distence slowly getting louder, so he wasted no time grabbing Clockwerk's tail feathers, and locating the proper exit to the printing press room. Once outside, Sly made a beeline for the van. The added weight of the tail feathers was a bit akward to carry, and was definately slowing him down, but he was pretty sure he had enough time to reach the van before Interpol showed up.

The van doors were open when Sly got to it, and he shoved the tail feathers into the back (being careful to not hit the startled-looking Nyx whom was in the corner by the driver's seat), before hoisting himself up inside, and closing the doors behind him.

"Floor it, Murray!" Sly exclaimed. Murray obliged, and the van lurched forward and began it's high-speed dash down the streets.

Sly let out a breathless laugh, and leaned against the side of the van to catch his breath and do a physical inventory of his possible injuries. He felt a bit sore, but nothing was actually hurt. Maybe his side would be bruised where Dimitri's tail hit him, but nothing was fractured or broken.

"That was great work, Sly!" Bentley commended, leaning over the passenger's seat with his hand open for a high five.

Sly leaned forward to clap their hands together. His attention then turned to Nyx, who wore an odd expression that was somewhere between startled and relieved. "So what'dya think?"

"That was uh... Really amazing. Nothing like what's in the movies," Nyx shook her head. She was probably having a hard time processing the whole thing she'd just witnessed. Sly hoped that she'd get used to it, for her own sake.

"Aw, thanks," Sly teased. "We know we're awesome,"

Nyx laughed and shook her head again. "You are so full of yourself,"

"Nothing wrong with flaunting what I've got, now is there?" perhaps the kind of flirtatious look Sly tried to give didn't look quite so much so when he was sweating and still trying to catch his breath, but he made an atempt nonetheless.

Bentley rolled his eyes, embarassed for having to listen to this whole exchange. And Nyx practically choked on her own spit as she tried to not laugh.

True to Bentley's word, Interpol showed up practically instantly, after Sly had taken down Dimitri. The gang was lucky that they hadn't been caught. Actually, we were lucky that we hadn't been caught. Because I figured that if I was caught with a gang of criminals while they were pulling a huge heist, it would be 'arrest now, ask questions later,'. And even if they believed me when I said 'This one gang of violent criminals wanted me dead, so another less-violent criminal gang offered to protect me, and I said yes,' that probably wouldn't be very good for my criminal record, I realized.

Also. My previous assumption about the back of the van and a getaway drive? That had held true, and maybe I'd even jinxed myself by thinking about it. Even though we weren't be chased, Murray was driving way above the speed limit, probably trying to get as far away from the commotion as possible. I just hoped that no cops along the road saw him driving that fast.

I was not at all familiar with where Murray was driving, so I couldn't say exactly where we were, nor where we were in relation to Paris. But the more we drove, I realized the farther away Paris was.

And with this, I realized that there was no going back now. I was comitting to this 'running with the Cooper Gang' plan, for better or for worse. I supposed that somehow getting arrested definately wouldn't be as bad as getting killed, and I was actually slowly becoming convinced that Sly's gang wasn't going to get arrested any time soon.

But there was still that inherant fear of the unknown. I had no idea what sorts of things might happen while I travelled with the Cooper Gang, and all I could do was hope that it was going to be good things.

Bentley leaned around the passenger's seat to look at Sly. "So, I was thinking about a vacation in Monaco. How does that sound?"

Sly laughed. "You just want an excuse to try out that new card counting formula of yours,"

"So what if I do? Monaco is a beautiful place," Bentley retorted.

I couldn't help but snicker. Looking on the bright side of things, I could definately have been in that situation with less pleasant people. And for the fact that I wasn't, I was thankful.

Chapter Text

I missed Monaco already...

While Monaco had been crowded and loud, and I'm really not a people person, it had also been sort of fun. I'd never been there before, and it was indeed beautiful. Sure, everyone spoke French, and I didn't know a lick of it (so Sly had to play translator between me and literally everyone), but it wasn't that bad. I honestly tried to just train myself to ignore the people, and look at the pretty stuff.

Sly playfully got on my case many times about living in Paris and not knowing French, and vowed that one day he'd teach me. I tried telling him that wouldn't be necessary, but Sly is probably more stubborn than a mule, so that was a battle I shamefully lost.

I had really hoped that I was still too young to enter the casino that was right near our hotel (I suspect that Bentley chose that hotel specifically for it's location), but unfortunately, I wasn't. I did not at all want to go into that casino, but like I mentioned before, Sly's stubborn as a mule and there was no use arguing with him. So, I reluctantly went into the casino, after Sly practically dragged me across the street to it's door.

Watching a game of poker when you can't understand a word that's being said is... Frustrating, to say the least. I don't know the first thing about poker, and having to listen to everything in French wasn't helping the confusion. All I could really gather on my own was that Bentley was winning, by the way he was grinning and everyone else was scowling at him. Sly tried to explain to me what was going on, but even in English, I didn't understand it.

I got the feeling that if Murray hadn't been there, some of those other players would have definitely tried to jump Bentley, the looks they were all giving him screamed 'murder'. I didn't even need to know French to figure out when someone had cussed him out.

I was honestly confused about how Bentley didn't seem at all afraid of these burly cigar smokers who were probably threatening him; I know I was definitely afraid of them. That was actually the whole reason I didn't want to go into the casino in the first place. I was a five foot, one inch teenager with social anxiety, who'd never won a fight in her life, and probably never would. I didn't want to assume that any of the guys in the casino were bad people who would try anything, but paranoia and past experience left me sort of restless.

Sly eventually picked up on my nervousness, and decided to finally let me leave. I would have been entirely okay with going back to the hotel and staying there while they gambled, but no. Sly is apparantly an extreme extrovert with too much energy, and whisked me off to go sight-seeing, insisting that I come tour the city and see the culture. I still really didn't like all the people, but the bright streets were a lot better than the casino and the intimidating people inside it.

Half of me regretted all this tourism by the time the day was over with, as I was in a sort of snappy mood from being drug around the whole city practically all day. But, looking back on it, it wasn't so bad. Though it did make me realize that being an introvert sucks, sometimes.

Bentley is apparantly a deity of poker, as I learned that he cleaned out literally everyone he played that day. I wondered for a moment if maybe he'd cheated, but I quickly dismissed that idea; Bentley is definitely smart enough to dominate poker without needing to be under-handed.

I found it more than a little humorous that Bentley had only stopped gambling because no one else would play him. Any new people who came in were immediately advised to not challenge him, and apparantly the messengers were very convincing. Bentley seemed pretty pleased with the money he'd aquired, and it was indeed an impressive amount. I wondered how they managed to afford travelling so much, and now I was getting a slight idea.

I could probably go on for hours about weird French cuisine, but I'm honestly wondering if Sly made up some of the things he'd said were on the menus. The language barrier means that we might never know, but I wouldn't put it past him at all. So, I'm just going to say thank god for McDonald's being a world-wide phenomenon. Though it did make Sly tease me for being a 'hopeless American', but oh well.

And while all the people and the loudness of Monaco really wasn't my thing, when we got to India I would've given anything to go back to Monaco for even a day. Because India? India was hot and muggy, and I did not like it. There were also venomous snakes and locals that spoke languges even Sly and Bentley didn't know. Bentley had to get a translation book before we even got on the plane.

The plane. The plane was awful. We had to deal with body and luggage searches, luggage check-in, the TSA in general, the slow lines, the noisy and annoying people, and waiting for the plane to arrive.

I don't even want to know how Bentley got the van onto that plane, nor how he got it off.

The flight itself was awful, as well. Flying is sort of one of those things that I just downright abhor. We lucked out and there weren't any annoying passengers to make my headache worse, but there was my ears popping from the pressure change. The only thing that kept me calm and from having a complete panic attack was Sly sitting next to me and distracting me with conversations about random things, and awful jokes that I couldn't help but laugh at.

I wished we could have just driven everywhere. Driving to Monaco had been great. We shared stories, listened to music, and laughed at each other being stupid. It had been like a campfire on wheels. Why did oceans and long distance travel have to exist? Why could we not have the luxury of driving everywhere?

If it weren't for the heat, how tired I was, and the threat of venomous snakes, perhaps I would have been admiring how beautiful India was. But after the flight, I was feeling sort of pessimistic, and did not want to admire anything other than a bed.

So when Bentley decided that we should stop in an Indian town for supplies, I decided to just sit and wait in the van. I did not want to deal with any more foreign streets where the people would speak god-knows what language. In Monaco it was one thing, because Sly knew fluent French. But here in India they were using that translation book, and I did not want to be there when someone said the wrong thing and pissed some local off.

"Are you sure you want to wait here? We might be a while. We're basically grocery shopping," Bentley asked as he read over the translation book one more time.

"Yes, I'm very sure. You guys go have fun with the foreign languages and the snakes," I said, pulling my phone out of my pocket.

"Suit yourself," Sly shrugged. "You're missing out, though, India is pretty exotic,"

"Maybe on our way out. Right now I'm too tired to even care," I yawned.

"That's understandable. We'll try to not be too long," Bentley nodded and then closed the van doors.

I adjusted my position, leaning against the back of the driver's seat and the side of the van, and began browsing my Tumblr dashboard. Taking time to wind down felt really good. However, winding down meant coming down from the adrenaline high the flight gave me. This caused me to realize that I was much more tired than I previously thought. I honestly don't even remember falling asleep, but apparantly I did.

I felt infinintely less pessimistic when I woke up, though I had no idea where we were, nor did I remember falling asleep. But, oh well. Someone had draped a blanket over me and put a pillow under my head, and I sort of assumed that it was probably Sly, considering that he was usually sitting in the back of the van with me.

I rubbed at my eyes as I sat up. The van wasn't moving, but that told me nothing about where we were.

"Good morning, sleepy head," I turned my head towards the van doors, where I could just barely make out Sly's silhouette standing at them.

"It's not actually morning, is it? If it is, I'm going to cry,"

Sly chuckled and climbed into the van to offer me a hand up. "No, it's more like four PM,"

"Okay, yeah, that sounds more reasonable," I reluctantly took his hand, and he pulled me to my feet.

"We're just outside the walls of Rajan's palace, Bentley's found a great place for our safehouse," Sly said, gesturing behind him to somewhere outside the van.

"Wonderful. Please tell me it has air-conditioning," I asked, twisting my neck and massaging it with my right hand to ease some of the tenseness from sleeping in the van.

"Well, it's in a cave, but if it's got plugs for Bentley's tech, then surely it's got A/C," Sly replied.

"It better," I yawned as I scooped up my backpack, the blanket, and pillow, and then followed Sly out of the van and to the cave entrance.

When Sly said that it was a cave with electricity, I wasn't really sure what to expect. And when I climbed up the steps and walked into what basically looked like a small apartment made of stone, I still really didn't know what to think. Someone had apparantly taken quite a while to carve out this place. It had individual rooms, and sure enough, electricity. I couldn't believe that this was an actual stone cave we were standing in, it looked more like those fancy decor themes that are designed to look like nature. But no, the stone that made up the walls was real.

I dropped my backpack into a corner of the room, and then tossed the pillow and blanket onto a chair. Then I went back out to the van (being mindful of any snakes...) to grab my suitcase and bring that in, too. Then I took a moment to actually observe the safehouse. The room that the entrance led to was wide, with couches and chairs off to the right (this was where I'd dumped my stuff), and a large table to the left that Bentley had claimed with his tech and blueprints. Next to this table was a very deliberate and giant hole in the wall, that I guessed was meant to be a window. A very small hallway almost opposite of the entrance led to a small kitchen type of area on the left (where Murray was setting up a microwave and the coffee machine), and a bathroom to the right.

All in all, it wasn't a bad safehouse. After figuring out where everything was, I moved to the 'window' to take a look at the scenery.

We owed this trip to India to a tiger named Rajan, whom was born a poor kid on the streets, and made himself a living by selling the potent spices (that are illegal because of how strong they are) that were common in his area. And now he was trying to pass himself off as royalty by holding a lavish ball at his 'Ancestral Palace'. He had possession of the Clockwerk wings, and was displaying them as a decoration.

It's also worth noting that once I saw a picture of this guy (that Bentley hacked Interpol to get), I immediately recognized him as the other man who'd been in the alleyway with Dimitri. At least that mystery was now solved... Some part of me said that I should totally be concerned, being relatively near someone who tried to kill me, but perhaps I was starting to trust the Cooper Gang a little too much? I wasn't sure if that was bad or good, but not being scared out of my mind sounded like a good thing at the time.

After learning about who Clockwerk was, it was almost cruel to think that so far, the Klaww Gang had just been using the parts to improve their standard of living. I was certain those parts could lend hand to some destructive and dastardly deeds, and yet no one was using them as such. Sure, it was a relief that no one was attempting world domination with them, but it was an odd kind of cruel. A sort of ironic kind.

'Well, this Rajan guy certainly isn't shy...' I thought to myself as I took in the outside view of the palace. Rajan had a huge wall around both his palace, and the marketplace in front of it, implying that he owned the whole thing. The land between the wall, and the cliff face the safehouse was in was grassy, with some tall trees, lots of bushes, and an elephant spotlight patrolling around. There was a river off to both sides of the marketplace, and a small trench leading from it that warranted the need for a drawbridge to the marketplace. Said drawbridge was up, so the guys were probably going to have to find some other way in.

"I told you that India's pretty," suddenly Sly was standing right behind me, and I jumped a little bit.

"Yeah, it really is. Save for the heat and the snakes," I agreed.

"I take it you don't like heat or snakes?" Sly asked teasingly.

"Nope. Especially the snakes," snakes are up there in my top five biggest fears list, and India was probably crawling with venomous ones.

"Sly,"

Said raccoon turned towards Bentley and then gestured for him to say whatever he needed to.

Bentley motioned out the window to the walled marketplace and the palace beyond. "I need you to scope out the palace, and then find a way to break into the ballroom. Let's find out who's at this party,"

"You got it, pal," and then with a saluting wave, Sly was bounding across the room, and out the door. Though there... Actually wasn't a door. It was just a stone tunnel of steps leading from outside.

...I hoped no snakes tried to come inside...

"How are you holding up, Nyx? With all the travelling and everything?" Bentley asked as he set up his laptop and all his tech.

"I'm doing okay. I'm really out of my element right now, but I'm sure I'll get used to it. The sights have been pretty nice so far," I replied.

"Minus the snakes, right?" Bentley teased.

"Exactly! As long as the snakes stay far away from me, all will be well!" I said with exagerated cheer.

I continued to look out the window while we waited for Sly to reach the palace. Despite being around only four o'clock, the tree coverage made it look a bit darker. At least around the drawbridge, anyways.

I turned to look at Bentley as he made a humming noise that implied deep thinking. A moment later, and he turned on the microphone and started talking. "I figured out how to sneak in above the ballroom, without being detected. The only problem is there's no way to climb up to that balcony door,"

"Not a problem," Sly's voice came over a moment later. "There seem to be plenty of branches for me to walk on. I'll figure it out,"

I pulled up a chair and sat down next to Bentley. "I take it I'm still allowed to watch?"

"Of course," Bentley replied, turning the laptop towards me a bit.

I propped my elbows up on the edge of the table and used my hands to prop my head up, and watched as Sly crossed a bunch of tree branches, and entered the ballroom through the second floor balcony window.

"Easy does it, Sly," Bentley advised the raccoon. "Just don't go out onto that balcony, and you should remain undetected,"

The most noticeable thing in the ballroom was the gold Indian goddess statue that the Clockwerk wings were somehow attatched to. And woah. Those wings were huge .

"Bentley...? How big was Clockwerk?" I asked incredously.

"Very. You're lucky you'll never have to see him," Bentley replied, before turning his attention to the detail shots of the wings that Sly had just taken.

The concept of someone like Clockwerk still sounded so surreal to me, but seeing those giant wings really made me realize just how powerful he must've been. ...How had Sly taken down such a huge owl?

"Looks like the wings have been welded onto to that statue... They look heavy. Getting the wings out of here will be a real challenge..." Bentley mused, drawing my attention back to reality.

The next picture Sly took was of some kind of winch or pulley that was in the ceiling. "An electronic winch... That could be useful," was Bentley's comment on it.

"Hm. Think you'll be able to lower someone down to detatch the wings with that thing?" I asked.

"If I can access it's controls, yes, we should be able to. Though that'll just be the groundwork of the plan," Bentley answered.

Sly snapped another picture, this time of Rajan himself. "That's him," Bentley said. "Rajan's really pulled out all the stops to impress people with this party,"

"And I thought you were full of yourself, Sly," I teased. Sly snorted just loud enough for me to hear it.

"'Full of himself' doesn't even begin to describe Rajan," Bentley agreed. "Sly, maybe you should get some shots of the guests?"

The first guest Sly located was a red-furred guy, holding some kind of wooden staff. "Jean Bison," Bentley supplied us with his name. "A member of the Klaww Gang, and Canadian shipping baron. He owns half the trains in Canada!"

"Does this mean that at some point, we might be going to Canada?" I asked hopefully.

"Yes. Yes it does,"

I couldn't keep back the giant grin on my face. "Okay, I'm really looking forward to that one because snow," I said eagerly. "I really like snow,"

Bentley laughed. "As long as you promise to not start a snowball fight with Sly,"

"I cannot garantee anything," I snickered.

Another picture then arrived of a small bird (maybe a parrot? I couldn't tell) in some kind of fancy mechanical perch cage. "Another Klaww Gang member. Arpeggio specializes in exotic technology,"

"Exotic technology sounds vaguely threatening..." I mumbled, trying to think of what sorts of things might be considered 'exotic technology'.

Bentley nodded in agreement, and then sort of gawked at a photo of a spider woman in a red dress. "That's the Contessa ! A high-ranking prison warden for Interpol. ...She must be working undercover to expose Rajan's spice ring!"

I looked over at Bentley with a 'well that's an inconvience' type of look. "I assume that makes your job a lot harder, huh?"

"Indeed," Bentley sighed in reply.

Next up was a picture of a fox in a black dress. "Carmelita's here, too! She must be undercover with the Contessa to help bust Rajan!" Bentley exclaimed. Then he rolled his eyes as Sly hummed suggestively at her outfit.

"Soo is there actually anything between the two of them, ooorr??" I leaned towards Bentley to nudge his shoulder, probing for gossip.

"Carmelita's been chasing us - or specifically, Sly - for as long as we can remember. Sly keeps flirting with her, and even escaped getting arrested by kissing her back at that volcano he dumped Clockwerk in," Bentley said, sounding amused at the memories. "While she's never actively responded to his flirting, and has only relentlessly tried to arrest him, I definitely think there's something between them,"

"Mmmm, forbidden love," I purred exageratedly. " Juicy ,"

Bentley snickered a little, and then examined another photo, this time of a small-framed tigeress with magenta fur. "Neyla. Another officer undercover! Watch yourself, Sly, this party is crawling with cops!"

Bentley clicked around and checked a few things on his laptop, before deciding that apparantly that was enough photos. "That's all the photos I need. Come on back to the safehouse, and we'll start building a game plan,"

"Sorry, Sly. I somehow entirely overlooked the need for formal wear. That guy's not going to let you in without a tuxedo,"

I stared at Bentley's laptop with a blank look. How was it that none of us had thought of this minor roadblock? It was a fancy party being hosted by a guy with an ego the size of the Michelin man! Of course you couldn't go in wearing street clothes.

"Don't beat yourself up, Bentley. At a party this ritzy, there has to be a spare penguin suit around here somewhere," Sly replied.

"Try the guest house, someone may have overpacked," Bentley suggested with a shrug.

Sly nodded and headed off towards the guest house. He lucked out a little, and there were no guards currently in the area, so he just went straight into the guest house through the front doors.

"Okay Bentley, I'm in position inside the guest house, have any intel for me?"

"Uh, well, I'd recommend searching all the rooms. It's statistically probable that each should hold at least one portion of a tuxedo," Bentley suggested. This plan had been pretty short notice so he probably didn't have much time to find any other information.

"What do I look for inside the rooms?" Sly asked next.

Bentley shook his head. "This isn't an exact science; Ransack the place until you find part of a tuxedo,"

"Any plan which involves ransacking is okay with me," Sly purred, and then he was off, slinking around the hallways of the guest house.

"Sooo. Even if he does find an entire tuxedo... What's the chances of finding one that fits?" I asked slowly.

"About fifty. But we're going to have to bet on it," Bentley replied.

I shrugged. "Hm. Well, if worst comes to worst, I have general knowledge of sewing,"

"I'll keep that in mind,"

While Sly was ransacking the guest house, Bentley switched windows to speak with Murray, who had finally reached that old turret atop one of the buildings. I seriously hoped that he knew how to operate it, and that he was a good shot. Because getting in a firefight with a trained security chopper sounded possibly life threatening.

"That chopper is a menace to all future aerial operations while on this job," Bentley declared.

"Yeah, it's all covered in missiles and guns and stuff!" Murray agreed. All things considered, he should have sounded more scared of this job than he did. And I figured that he was either incredibly brave, or didn't realize that this was incredibly dangerous.

"Now, be a team player and take it out with that rusty, pre-war turret,"

I bit back a comment about how that turrent looked like it hadn't been used in years, and might not even work anymore. I also wondered why a modern town had a pre-war turret on it's rooftops...

Murray nodded eagerly. "Okay, I had a potato gun once; I bet it works just the same,"

"Uh..." I couldn't quite figure out how to put into words that a pre-war turret and a potato gun probably had nothing in common. And so I was just looking at Bentley with a very confused look.

"I know," Bentley said, seeming to be getting at what I was thinking. "But he'll figure it out,"

I sighed, and really hoped that he did. We watched as Murray hefted up a huge lever that had something to do with the turret, and then climbed into the seat of it. He took a moment to aquaint himself with the controls, before lining up his crosshairs, and beginning to fire at the chopper.

"Be careful, Murray! If you fire too quickly, that turret is likely to overheat!" Bentley warned. "Try firing in shorter bursts,"

Murray took Bentley's advice and did just that. He was actually a pretty good shot, though being that the chopper could move around and the turret couldn't, it seemed like he might be at a slight disadvantage... I tried to just not think about that.

It was a bit hard not to, though, because that chopper wasted no time in beginning to fire back at Murray. And it's firepower definitely looked a lot more powerful than whatever that turret was firing. And Murray couldn't move the turret to avoid them...

Thankfully, Bentley had an answer to this. "Shoot down the enemy missiles before they hit you!"

However, shooting at missiles that are heading right for you is apparantly a lot harder than it looks. Especially when said missiles travel in a spiraling pattern. And while Murray was trying his best to get some hits in on the chopper, as well as shoot down it's missiles, he was having some issues with that second part, being that the missiles were constantly moving.

Therefore, Bentley and I sort of both had miniature heart attacks when one of the missiles connected with the front of the turret with a sickening bang and crunch, sending up a huge smoke cloud.

Murray coughed a few times, but didn't stop firing. "I'm okay, guys! But I'm not sure if this turret will hold up if it keeps getting hit!"

"Keep trying, Murray! You've got this!" Bentley encouraged his teammate.

Meanwhile, I started studying the missiles, thinking that there must be some way to know where to fire. I soon noticed a pattern in the way they spiraled, and came up with an idea... "Bentley?"

"Yes?"

"Look at the smoke trails those missiles are leaving... They're spiraling, and it looks like a pretty even pattern. Do you think if Murray aimed at the up/down axis one of those trails was on, he could hit the missile when it crossed back over that point, only closer?"

Bentley hummed as he considered this idea. "Yes, I believe that should work!" he then turned on the microphone. "Murray, Nyx had an idea. Aim over the smoke trails the missiles leave, they should cross back over that same point once they get closer!"

"You got it, pal!"

We then watched with baited breath as Murray gave my idea a shot. Literally. Actually, it was more than one shot. I lost count of how many missiles he shot down. That chopper had no shortage of ammunition...

But my idea was working, and none of the other missiles came anywhere close to hitting Murray, or any part of the turret. I couldn't help but be silently proud of myself for the idea, though I didn't doubt that Bentley would have figured it out had I not. Sometimes you just have to appreciate your little victories.

When the chopper's engines finally gave out, it sputtered into an erratic dive, and then crashed into the river off to the side of the palace, leaving a glorious cloud of smoke in it's wake. We all let out sighs of relief, and I leaned back into my chair. That had been quite the adrenaline rush, and it would probably take me a while to come down from it.

With the life threatening job over with, I got up to walk off some of the jittery energy from the adrenaline, and grab a can of soda while I was at it. As I opened the lid of the can and took a sip, an especially confused thought began to suddenly bounce around my head...

I had just helped a criminal gang, hadn't I? And why in the world did I feel some form of pride for that?

Chapter Text

"You do realize that this counts as aiding criminal endeavours, right?"

I didn't even turn around to look at him. "No, Sly, no it does not. Shut up if you want pants that fit tonight,"

I'd totally jinxed myself by offering my sewing skills if they were needed. ...Not like my sewing skills are good enough to be considered actual skills. All I really know is how to do simple hemming, and sew two things together. Every day sewing, honestly.

Thankfully, the only thing that Sly couldn't find in his size was pants. Well, they fit around his waist pretty okay, nothing a belt wouldn't fix, but they were insanely long. I seriously wondered what species they were tailored for...

I didn't really mind having to do the sewing, it gave me something proactive to do with myself. What I did mind was Sly perching on the back of my chair like some kind of ninja, supplying snarky comments whenever he saw fit. I was tempted to stab him with a pin to maybe ward him off, but with my luck, he'd fall off my chair, and take both me and it with him. So I resisted the urge.

"Are you sure? You're willingly doing something that's actively helping a criminal. Are you sure that doesn't count? Bentley?" Sly looked over towards the turtle, sounding more than a little childish. "Does this count?"

Bentley heaved a sigh. "Sly, shut up and be grateful that she's willing to help you,"

"Thank you, Bentley, for not encouraging him..." I looked back at Sly to give him an unamused look. He just grinned wider in response, and I sighed. "Here, they're done. Try them on, you giant pain in the butt," I put my needle back into it's case, and then just tossed the pants behind me onto Sly's head.

Sly sputtered out a surprised yelp as the pants made contact with his face, and Bentley and I shared an amused smile. Sly removed the pants from his face and finally hopped off the back of my chair.

"Thanks," he said, trying to keep the smile off his face and instead sound insulted that I'd tossed pants on his head. And then he was off to the bathroom to change, taking the rest of the suit with him.

I laughed to myself and shook my head. "How even do you live with him?"

"Well, we grew up together, we're all used to each other," Bentley replied. "You'll get used to him, too, eventually,"

I snorted and laughed. "That's what I'm scared of,"

Sly soon emerged from the bathroom, and. Wow. He actually looked really good in that tuxedo. He'd combed his hair back into a sophisticated style, and he honestly looked like an entirely different person. "So, how do I look?" he asked as he walked over to the table and struck a bit of a pose.

"Charming," Bentley replied dryly, refusing to feed Sly's ego.

I gave an indifferent shrug. As if to agree, but also not to, as I refused to feed his ego as well. If we let it get any bigger it would eventually start rivaling Rajan's... "Lemme take a look at my work, make sure they're even..."

I got out of my chair and crouched down to examine my sewing work at eye-level, looking mostly for the edges of the pants being uneven. For once, it looked like I'd done a pretty good job, which was kind of impressive considering that I'd had to do them in like forty-five minutes, because the gang was on a time schedule. Sly patiently stood still as I did my quality check.

"Looks straight enough to me. It's kinda obvious that an eighteen year old hemmed them, but unless someone is down there on the floor, no one should notice. Hopefully," I said as I stood back up and sat back down, rounding up all the sewing stuff that Bentley had dug up from seemingly nowhere.

"I'm sure no one will, they'll all be too busy focusing on my handsome good looks," Sly purred in response. I wasn't sure if he'd said that to assure me that my work was fine, or just to be egotistical. Maybe both.

I rolled my eyes and laughed at him. "Yes, sure. But the real question is; Do you know how to dance? No matter how attractive you look, you're not going to woo anyone if you're stumbling about like a drunk bear,"

Sly grinned and then held his hand out to me with a gentlemanly bow. "Would you like to find out?"

"No, because I'm well aware of the fact that I can't dance," I replied firmly. Dancing was one of those things that I really admired, but knew that I was not destined to do, and tried to avoid like the plague. Because if anyone stumbled about like a drunk bear, it was me.

"Oh, come on, I could use a warm-up. All you have to do is follow my lead," and then the raccoon was grabbing my hand and pulling me off my chair and into his arms.

If he was doing this to any other girl, they would probably melt in his arms, and I wondered if that's what he actually expected me to do. I was really more concerned with possibly breaking my ankle, because I have two left feet. "...Sly. I seriously don't know how to dance. I don't know how to follow someone's lead,"

"It's easy, watch," Sly took my right hand and put it in his left, holding both our arms off to the sides of us. He put my left hand on his right shoulder, rested his right hand on my waist, and then he started trying to guide me around the room. I tried to resist at first, because this probably looked ridiculous, but Sly absolutely refused to let me go, despite not actually trying to hold me there. So I gave up and made some kind of attempt to follow his lead.

"See? You're doing fine," Sly laughed.

I vaguely glared up at him. "Yeah, sure. I feel like a fish out of water,"

"What even did you do at prom, if you hate dancing this much?" Sly teased.

"I never went to prom," I replied smugly.

Sly snickered. "Hm. Couldn't get a date, ooorr??"

"I would say you're being horribly rude, but I probably couldn't have," I laughed. "I never finished high school, actually; Dropped out in nineth grade,"

"Ooh, high school drop out," Sly jested. "What was your reason? Too cool for school?"

"I thought that saying died out in 2010, and I just realized why. It sounds really goofy," I snorted. "No. I got bullied a lot and got fed up with it by nineth grade, so I just kinda quit. Best decision I ever made,"

"And your parents just let you do that?" Sly asked curiously.

"Well. My parents divorced when I was ten and I haven't seen my dad since. But my mom and I kinda never communicated much, I guess? We just did our own things, really, so if dropping out is what I wanted, mom let me," I shrugged.

"Family is complicated sometimes," Sly said. And the way he said it reminded me that I was talking family with a guy who'd lost his at a young age, and that caused a certain kind of melancholy feeling to settle into my chest.

"Yeah... Yeah they are," I replied quietly, not knowing what else to say. I couldn't imagine what it must've been like for Sly. To lose his family so brutally, when he was so young. I couldn't fathom how much pain it must've caused him. But at least he had Bentley and Murray, now. I got the feeling that there was a deep sort of brotherhood between them.

"Sly, have you warmed up enough, yet? You need to get into that ballroom and secure yourself a dance with Carmelita for the heist," and then there was Bentley, drawing this odd conversation to an end.

Sly hummed, and then let go of my waist, and gently spun me around with the hand that still had mine, before finally letting me go. "Thanks for the warm-up. You weren't half bad,"

"Sure I wasn't," I laughed, gently shoving him with my shoulder. "Now get going,"

"Aye aye, Captain," Sly saluted us very playfully, and then strutted out of the safehouse.

I laughed to myself at his dorkiness, and sauntered to the window to watch him enter the marketplace, trying to shove all those melancholy thoughts out of my head for the time being. With his tuxedo 'disguise' on, Sly could just walk right through the place, and no one would think anything of it. So that's exactly what he did.

Once I lost sight of Sly, I returned to putting away all the sewing supplies that Bentley had come up with. And then once that was done, we just sort of waited for Sly to reach the ballroom. There really wasn't all that much else for me to do, and observing the thief stuff was pretty fun, anyways.

Eventually, Bentley shifted in his chair, and stared talking. "Your tuxedo disguise is working perfectly, no one will recognize you in that outfit. Now, during the heist you'll need to dance with Carmelita to keep both her and the crowd distracted. The only problem is, she's picky about dance partners, so you'll need to impress her first,"

I leaned over to see the screen, and was going to ask how Sly was meant to do that, when he replied. "Alright, I know just the girl for the job," and then he began to approach... Neyla? Was that Constable Neyla from the recon photos? And also from back in Paris? Was this a good idea?

"Constable Neyla, you look lovely this evening," Sly greeted her quietly, not wanting to break her cover, but apparantly wanting her to know that he knew who she was.

"I'm sorry, do I know you?" Neyla questioned, looking Sly over, up and down.

"I used to chase after you back in Paris," Sly replied smoothly.

"Paris?" Neyla's eyes then widened and she lowered her voice a bit. "...Sly Cooper?! You aren't by any chance here to turn yourself in? Old Ironsides would fall out of her dress,"

"As good as that sounds, how about a dance first?" Sly held his hand out to her, and while I couldn't see his face, the tone of his voice was enough to imply the charming look he must've had.

Neyla placed her hand in his, smiling back at him. " Enchante ,"

I resisted the urge to hiss because apparantly everyone knew French except for me. At least... I assumed that was French. I had no idea of what Constable Neyla had just said, but apparantly she accepted the dance, as she moved into Sly's arms, and they began moving around the ballrom, practically moving in sync. But they weren't just stepping around rythmatically in a circle, like Sly had with me. He and Neyla were pulling off all kinds of complicated and graceful dance moves, and it definitely was a certain kind of captivating.

Neyla eventually pulled away from Sly to look him in the eye. "Are you using me to get at Old Ironsides?"

"Yes, I am... Do you mind?" Sly asked quietly.

Neyla shook her head. "Not at all,"

Sly was lucky he wasn't dancing with anyone else, because I was sure if he'd admitted to any other woman that he was using them, he would probably have been smacked. I wasn't sure if he knew that Neyla wouldn't be offended, or if he was just incredibly lucky (and also a little bit stupid).

The raccoon and tigeress duo pretty much had the whole ballroom transfixed, and the muffed voice of Rajan complimenting them could just barely be heard over the binocucom feed, followed by another guy saying something I couldn't quite make out that caused Rajan to growl in response. I couldn't see to tell who the other guy was, but I figured he was probably one of those other Klaww Gang members...

Eventually, the music drew to a close, and Sly and Neyla stopped dancing with a final graceful and showy move. Neyla then pulled back, blushing ever so slightly.

"Thank you," she said, pushing back a lock of her dark hair. "That was delightful,"

"Thank you , Constable Neyla. After all... It takes two to tango," Sly purred.

"Yes," Neyla agreed, and then turned her attention to Carmelita, whom was approaching the two. "And three is always a crowd,"

"Neyla, your friend here is quite an acomplished dancer," Carmelita said. In contrast to Neyla's English accent, she had one that was noticably Spanish, but I couldn't exactly place what her Nationality might be.

Neyla crossed her arms and smiled. "I tried to make him look good,"

" Please , Neyla, his skills far surpass you," Carmelita rolled her eyes, and the slight venom in her voice earned her a slight glare in return from her fellow officer. Apparantly these two didn't quite get along?

Sly turned to Carmelita. "Perhaps later you and I might share a dance, Miss...?"

Carmelita smiled sweetly at him. "Miss Fox... Carmelita Fox. And I accept,"

"There's only one entrance to the boardroom that's not locked down, and that's through a drain pipe behind the ballroom. Murray's rotund features prevent him from fitting through this drain pipe, so Sly, you'll have to go in alone and unlock the vault room from the inside to let in me and Murray," Bentley explained to his teammates as he strapped on his crossbow.

"Oooh, does that mean I get the safehouse all to myself?" Nyx asked enthusiastically.

"Yes, I trust you won't cause armageddon while we're gone?" Bentley asked.

"Yeah, of course not! ...Maaayybe a few catastrophies here and there, but life shall go on," Nyx replied mischivously.

Bentley sighed and rolled his eyes, then turned to Sly and Murray. "Come on, guys, let's head out,"

"You got it pal, we're right behind you," Sly then turned to Nyx with a devious grin. "Don't hog all the fun, okay?"

"Wouldn't dream of it!" Nyx replied as the trio made their way out.

Once inside the palace grounds, the gang split up; Sly headed off to the side of the ballroom to locate the drain pipe, while Bentley and Murray headed to the vault room door to wait for Sly to unlock it.

The drain pipe that Bentley had mentioned was off to the side of the ballroom, where it could dump directly into the water below. Therefore, there was no walkway or any conventional means of reaching it. But, there were a serious of window sills and overgrown vines that would work just as well. Sly wasted no time in crossing the gap to reach the drain pipe, but he did certainly hesitate before crawling in.

...Because drain pipes aren't really pleasant things to go crawling in, even when they're relatively clean. The entire front of Sly's shirt was soaked by the time he got into the boardroom, and he was not at all happy about it. He grumbled to himself as he pulled out his binocucom.

"I've heard through a reliable source that the guards keep the vault combination written beneath one of their break tables," Bentley said, speaking in a hushed tone to avoid any nearby guards hearing them at the doors.

"So you want me to crawl under each 'till I find it?" Sly inquired.

Bentley nodded. "That's the idea,"

Sly put away his binocucom, and surveyed the area. A rhino guard with a flashlight was patrolling by the first break table, and Sly waited until that guy turned his back, and then ducked under said table. There was no code that he could see, and so Sly slipped out from under it as soon as the coast was clear, and darted across the empty space before him, passing by the door to the vault room on his right.

The raccoon then slid under another table, while the second guard near it wasn't looking. Didn't seem that there was any code here, either. The second guard was continuing his walk down towards the last two tables, so Sly quickly crawled from his current table, vaulted over a railing, and slid under the second-to-last table before the guard could turn around.

Nope, the code wasn't under that one, either. It had to be under the last one, then. Providing that Bentley's 'reliable source' was actually reliable. After waiting for the guard to turn around, Sly ducked under the last table, which was placed at a weird catty-corner to the others.

"This is it!" the code was written in very sloppy handwriting on the underside of this table, in white chalk. Good thing Sly knew how to read things upside down.

"Fantastic!" Bentley replied. "Now, type the code into the vault's laser door entrance,"

Sly crawled out from under the table, and made his way to the vault door he'd passed before. He typed the code into the keypad on the wall, and the lasers guarding the entrance retreated. However, there were still the moving lasers on the floor to contend with.

"Nice work! Make your way to the security lockdown switch, and let in me and Murray." Bentley instructed.

Sly took a moment to observe the pattern of the moving floor lasers, and once he had it memorized, he began crossing the floor, making perfectly timed jumps over each laser that dared come near him.

Once on the other side, Sly carefully stepped between some empty pots that were left on the floor, and pulled the switch on the far left side of the wall.

With the switch off, the lock to the upstairs door was rendered useless, and allowed Bentley and Murray to enter without being detected (It also happened to turn off the floor lasers). Sly climbed up to meet them in this upsairs room that was probably a conferance room, if the table with the hologram of the Earth in the middle was any indication.

"Thanks for breaking us in, pal. 'The Murray' approves!" Murray greeted his friend loudly.

"Let's get down to brass tacks," Bentley announced. "I need to hack both the vault room computers to get control of the electronic winch above the ballroom,"

"So, what're me and Sly here for?" Murray questioned.

"The second I enter their servers, they'll be onto us. You guys need to work together to keep the thugs off my back," Bentley answered, gesturing to the computers, and then to himself.

Sly looked up at Murray with a devious smile. "You and me, pal, side by side,"

Murray flexed his muscles. "'The Murray' knows no fear!"

Bentley nodded to his teammates, and began to hack the first computer. Sly and Murray waited, poised for battle, for their adversaries to arrive.

"Okay, I'm in. Hacking the level six barrier,"

And with that statement, guards began sprinting into the room, brandishing their weapons. Their target was clear; The turtle hacking their boss' servers, but they were going to have to go through Sly and Murray first.

And neither of them intended to let that happen. It was a wordless decision that Sly would handle things to Bentley's right, and Murray would handle things to Bentley's left. They found that the best strategy to keep the thugs from getting anywhere near Bentley was to clobber them before they could even cross the room. So Sly and Murray positioned themselves close to the doors, and focused on keeping the guards in that relative area.

Hits from Murray often knocked guards back into each other, incapacitating more than one without having to throw extra punches. Sly wasn't quite as strong with his cane, but he was faster, and could move about to reach guards that got up quicker. What one lacked the other excelled in, and that was one of the reasons why they all worked so well together.

With six levels of security to hack through, two computers to go between, and the goons trying to get to him, this was probably the most nervewrecking hacking job Bentley had ever been on. It felt like an eternity later when there was only one more level of encryption to get through. "Almost! Almost have it! Going for level one access!"

And if getting through barriers six through two took an eternity, getting through level one's barrier was taking twice that. Bentley bit his lip anxiously."This is tense! I can taste it!"

An unmeasurable amount of time later, and Bentley finally broke through the final security barrier. Murray punched the last guard in the face, sending him flying downstairs with an upper-cut to his jaw.

"I'm unstoppable!" Bentley exclaimed, throwing his arms up into the air. "I've got control of the winch! Thanks for the backup, guys,"

Sly smirked. "No problem, me and the big guy had it covered,"

"Murray, let's hook up the direct feed, and get out of here while the coast is clear," Bentley looked around warily, expecting more guards to come pouring in any second, which was a real possibility.

Once the direct feed had been established, the trio quickly made their leave via the door that Bentley and Murray had come in from. They were now one huge step closer to getting at those wings. Just a few more things to take care of, then.

" Woo-oah , these things are gorgeous. How much are they worth?"

"Considering Rajan's taste for the expensive; I'd say a lot. Five, maybe six grand a piece?" Sly replied, amusedly smiling at Nyx who was gawking at the jewels he'd just returned from prying off the headdresses of Rajan's prized elephants. Apparantly they were really strong and were perfect for a sawblade to cut the wings off the statue in the ballroom.

Nyx's eyes widened. "If I could whistle right now, I would. I cannot believe that you guys are gonna use something so expensive as a sawblade,"

Sly laughed, and actually almost choked. Nyx's reactions to everything were so amusing to him. He'd never really talked this extensively with a civilian, let alone about his work. Nyx's mystification with the whole concept was sort of refreshing to be around.

"Well, even if they're damaged, I'm sure we could find a buyer. But if those are gonna stand up to sawing through Clockwerk's wings, I doubt they'll be too damaged to sell for full profit," Sly replied, shrugging lightly.

"If they actually survive that, I will be amazed," Nyx said, running her fingers over the smooth face of one of the gems.

Somewhere outside the safehouse, within Rajan's palace grounds, there was the dull but distinct sound of something exploding and then crashing. Both Sly and Nyx glanced out the window to see a cloud of smoke going up into the air, signifying that Bentley had finished his latest job; Taking out Rajan's ground-to-air defense jeep.

Sly grinned. "Nice flying, partner. That jeep's out of commission, and we'll have clear skies for the heist!"

Nyx lit up her phone screen to check the time. "It's about ten-forty. Are you guys pulling this heist tonight, oor?"

"Yeah, it's gotta be tonight. We usually try to span this stuff out between maybe two or three days, but this ball is for tonight only. It's the only chance we might get," Sly replied.

"Mm. And I suppose Bentley's got another one of those slideshow things for you?" Nyx motioned to the projector and all the slideshow materials that Bentley had been periodically working with.

Sly laughed. "Yeah, he's got a slideshow for everything,"

"Y'know, you'd think someone so high-tech would use something a bit more... Well, high-tech," Nyx said, looking at all the projector pieces. She hadn't seen one of those things since she was ten, and this particular one looked like it had existed long before she was even born.

"Don't insult the projector, it's his favorite toy," Sly leaned towards Nyx to whisper to her, just as Bentley came back inside.

Nyx smothered a laugh in her fist and struggled to compose herself before Bentley suspected that something was up.

Despite her efforts, Bentley certainly did suspect that something was up, but decided to just ignore it. He had a slideshow to present, and they had a heist to pull. So he set his crossbow down, and wheeled the projector to the center of the room.

This was the wordless cue for Sly and Murray to sit down across from the projector to observe the plan. Nyx put her glasses back on so she could at least know what was meant to happen, just in case it went horribly wrong.

"Okay, synchronize your watches, this heist is going to take extreme precision," Bentley fought with this heist's title card as he began the presentation. The slide kept getting stuck, and it took a moment to get it fixed. Once it was properly working, it could be seen that the name of this heist was 'Operation: Hippo Drop'.

"Here's the plan; I'll start things off by demolishing the palace's main bridge. That should cut off reinforcements from the guest house-" Bentley circled the bridge in his slideshow, scribbled it out, and then crossed off the guest house. "-And hopefully distract the ballroom guards standing watch over the Clockwerk wings," then he circled the two guards in the next picture.

"Sly will then take Carmelita up on her offer for a dance, and while the crowd is transfixed by their tango, Murray will lower into the ballroom on the electronic winch," Bentley made gesture drawings over a picture of the winch. "Once down, he'll cut the wings free, and then winch back up for an exit. Murray should then make his way out of the palace, I'll cover him with the RC chopper," he gestured to the chopper sitting on the table as the slide switched to an aerial view of the palace.

"Once he's past the drawbridge, we're home free," the last slide was of the drawbridge, and Bentley drew an arrow to signify them getting the hell out of there.

With the slideshow for 'Operation: Hippo Drop' now concluded, Sly headed for the bathroom to clean up and change into his tuxedo again, and Murray started helping Bentley pack up all his equipment to load it into the van.

The plan sounded a lot less complex than Nyx figured it actually was. And she decided to just not question it, and instead help Bentley and Murray get everything back into the van. She felt weird just sitting there when she could be helping, and there was no harm in helping pack things up.

Nyx also decided to not ask when Bentley and/or Murray had found the time to mount the Clockwerk tail feathers to the inside roof of the van. But she certainly did stare at them for a moment, and made a mental note to ask later, when there was time. Because that was definately one of the weirdest things she'd ever seen.

Once everything had been loaded into the van (they triple checked to make sure they had everything ), and Sly was in his tuxedo disguise, Sly and Murray headed out for the ballroom, while Bentley set off for the bridge to the guesthouse. And Nyx waited within the safety of the van, albeit not very patiently.

"Okay Bentley, Murray and I are moving into position... You still think you can demolish something that large?" Sly asked once Bentley had made it to the bridge.

"It doesn't take an enginerr to figure out how to blow up a bridge," Bentley shook his head. "I'll start by placing charges on all of the lower cleats. Once the structure destabilizes, those retainer rings on the upper cleats should pop right off. That should enable me to bomb all of the upper cleats... Which will bring it all crashing down,"

"Just watch your head when that thing gets unstable..." Sly advised. "We need that brain of yours in one piece,"

Bentley tucked his binocucom back into it's pouch, and then climbed down onto the lower support for the bridge. It was a really long way down to the water below, and he couldn't swim, so he really hoped that he didn't fall.

Bentley was thankful for the trigger bombs he'd invented, as they kept the blasts as far away from him as possible. That was one less danger to worry about. However, as soon as the first cleat was off, debris and rocks from above began to rain down, and Bentley had to be very, very careful as he made his way around the bridge; He couldn't stay in one spot for too long, lest he risk being crushed.

The more cleats that went down, the more unstable things got, and Bentley felt like he was playing a very lethal arcade game of some kind. He could even feel the beams under his feet shaking and moving, threatening to drop at any second.

Bentley ducked under a rock in the nick of time to place the bomb that would destroy cleat number nine, and then ran as fast as he could to get to the upper cleats, before detonating the bomb. The upper section shook as the lower crumbled away, and Bentley tried to not think about how it was now an even farther fall down.

"That's it for the lower section!" Bentley said to no one in particular. "Now for the main support beams!"

Bentley was glad for being a small turtle, because that meant he didn't weigh as much as his teammates. He was pretty sure that if anyone but him were on that bridge, the added weight would have already caused the beams he walked on to give out. As it was, the rocks raining down were causing them to bend at the impact points.

There were only eight cleats on the upper sector, but it felt like it was taking a whole lot longer to get to them all, because Bentley had to dodge between the rocks and wait for a clear path to get where he needed to go. By the time he placed the last bomb and made a mad dash for solid ground, Bentley was pretty sure he'd had at least two heart attacks.

Bentley took a moment to breathe, while the bridge came crumbling down, and then let Sly know that the job was done and he was alive. "Okay, Sly, the bridge is down. I'll warm up the van and get ready with the RC chopper. Good luck,"

It didn't take long for Rajan to find out about the bridge having been blown up. "What!?" he hissed angrily at his guards, trying but sort of failing to keep his voice down. "The bridge is destroyed? Take all the man power you need and look into it! "

The two rhino guards who had been standing vigil at the wings nodded, and then set off to gather reinforcements to check out the damage. ...And probably figure out how to rescue all the people stuck in the guest house.

From the shadows of the ballroom, Sly observed the guards leave. "Murray, you in position?"

"Check!" Murray replied as quietly as he could, giving Sly a thumbs up when he looked up at him.

"It looks like Bentley's little distraction did the trick," Sly chuckled. "Initiate phase two - I'll take care of Carmelita and the crowd, you handle the heavy lifting,"

Sly straightened his tie, and then made his way towards Carmelita. "Miss Fox, I believe you owe me a dance?"

"About time," Carmelita said. "I thought you had left,"

Sly held out his hand. "Just waiting for the perfect moment,"

Carmelita smiled and put her hand in his. He pulled her closer, and the two fell into step for their dance.

Dancing with Carmelita wasn't like dancing with Neyla at all. Neyla was graceful, but there was a kind of dominant rigidness to her. Carmelita was somehow softer, making each move so fluid and naturally. Sly almost didn't want it to end.

As the whole crowd, one by one, were transfixed by Sly and Carmelita, Murray slowly lowered down towards the wings, gem sawblade in hand. Sly made sure to try and keep Carmelita from looking over in that direction as much as he could.

At one point, Carmelita paused, and looked Sly in the eyes. "You look familiar to me, are you in law enforcement?"

Sly smiled. "I often deal with police while on the job," and then he pulled her close again, continuing their dance.

Murray was soon behind the statue, and by that point even Rajan was entranced, so Murray began to saw away at the points where the wings and statue met.

Even the other undercover cops at the party, whom were trained to observe everything, found themselves mesmerized by Carmelita and Sly, and didn't notice as Murray detatched the Clockwerk wings, and began his upwards exit.

Sly kept a very close eye on Murray, because the song would be ending soon, and as soon as Rajan noticed that the wings were gone, Sly had to get out of there as fast as he could.

Murray had just barely made it out of the ballroom with the wings, when the song ended, and Sly and Carmelita spun around one final time.

"Tell me stranger, what's your name?" Carmelita asked softly.

"Why ruin the moment?" Sly replied.

"Huh? I... I don't understand..." Carmelita was going to further question Sly, but that's when Rajan turned around and noticed that the wings were missing.

"The wings!" the large tiger yelled. "What happened to the Clockwerk wings?!"

Carmelita spun around to look at the statue the wings had been attatched to not ten minutes before. "What! How? Who could have... What?" she couldn't believe that this had happened right under her nose! She turned towards the stranger she'd been dancing with... Only to find him not there. Then Carmelita became aware of something pressed behind her ear, and she pulled it out to look at it.

" Cooper! " she shrieked, glaring daggers at the rose and calling card that he'd left behind.

Sly just barely heard Carmelita's enraged shriek as he raced back for the van, as fast as he could, and he smirked. When he got to the van, Sly hauled the passenger's side door open, and vaulted himself inside, panting a greeting to Nyx. Guards were already thick in the streets, having located Murray and taken chase.

But there was nothing to worry about, because Bentley was positioned outside the van, and began getting to work with his RC chopper. "Murray, I'll cover your escape with the RC chopper. Let me worry about the guards, you just keep moving!"

"These things are heavy!" Murray complained. He had the wings hefted up above his head, because that was the only way he could carry them by himself and get anywhere with them. They were a whole lot bigger in person. He hoped they would fit in the van...

Thanks to Bentley's fantastic RC chopper work, Murray wasn't slowed down too much on his way to the drawbridge. None of them were worried about getting caught by the guards, because those guys worked for Rajan and were easy to handle. It was Interpol they were worried about...

From the van, Nyx and Sly watched Murray's progress via Bentley's laptop. And as Murray entered the home stretch for the van, Nyx threw the back doors open and then moved to the side, just barely avoiding being smacked in the face by a wing tip as Murray shoved them in and then ran around the side of the van to get into the driver's seat and buckle up.

Bentley hauled himself into the back of the van with Nyx, and she closed the doors behind him, and then leaned back against the wall, bracing herself for a rough getaway.

The tires of the van spun in the mud a few times, before finding traction, and they sped away down the narrow trail that could barely be considered a road. Nyx squeezed her eyes shut and tried to not yelp at every bump the van drove over. Getaway drives were definitely her least favorite thing ever...

The van hit a hard bump in the road, and for a little more than a second, they were slightly airborne. Nyx squeezed her eyes tighter as the van reunited with the earth, and Murray immediately took a very harsh right turn...

"Nyx!"

Before Bentley had even opened his mouth, the sound of screetching metal had reached Nyx's ears, and she had a major sinking feeling of what it was. She snapped her eyes open, and then shrieked. Because yep, the force of the 'jump' and subsequent turn was making the Clockwerk wings rapidly slide towards her and Bentley.

Nyx barely had the time to register what was happening and figure out something to do about it, but she managed to catch the wings using both of her hands and knees to keep the parts from entirely coming down on them.

"Sorry!" Murray called as he tried to take the next turn more carefully.

"You two okay back there?" Sly demanded, leaning over to look back at them.

Nyx looked equally panicked and pissed off, and didn't look capable of forming words quite yet, so Bentley replied. "Yeah, I think we're okay,"

Nyx heaved a very deliberate sigh, and began trying to push the wings up and off of her. "Speak for yourself, you're not the one who just had these things barrel into you," she panted, scrambling to get some traction with her feet. She finally managed to get herself relatively upright, and and started shoving the wings back to the other side of the van. It took pretty much every muscle in her body, because yeah, those things were really heavy.

She almost had the wings back on the right side of the van... But that was when Murray took another hard right, and gravity flung Nyx back to the floor. She shrieked again, and scrambled to continue keeping the wings from falling on her. As it was, they had roughly banged into her knees a few times, now.

"Are we going straight yet?" Nyx demanded, glaring at the huge metal wings that were trying to kill her and Bentley.

"For now, yeah," Sly replied. "You okay?"

"I'm fine. I'll definitely have some bruises, but nothing's broken, all's cool," Nyx panted, pushing the wings back up again and finally getting them back onto the other side of the van. She put her back to them and grabbed ahold of the passenger's seat head rest, hoping her weight would be enough to hold the wings there, though she highly doubted it.

Nyx took a moment to catch her breath before looking at Bentley and pointing to the tail feathers on the roof. "You are going to strap these up there, too, right?"

Chapter Text

After my harrowing near-death experience with the Clockwerk wings, Sly offered to sit in the back and deal with them until we reached a hotel for the night. You could not have paid me any sum of money to decline this offer. I made sure Bentley knew that once this was all over, and they'd rounded up all the parts and knew how to destroy them, I wanted to be the one to do away with those wings.

Getting to sit in the front was a very welcome change to being thrown around the back of the van. It wasn't so awful back there when Murray was driving within the speed limit and not making turns going at Mach 5. But that's unfortunately what a getaway drive is composed of, and it was much less than pleasant. ...I was totally calling shotgun next getaway drive.

Sly had eagerly decided that while we were in India, we should totally go spend a weekend in Bollywood. I had no idea what was in Bollywood (I didn't even know it was an actual place until then; I'd thought it was made up for children's media or something), but I didn't argue and decided to give it a chance. In reality, I didn't argue mostly because I was half asleep with my face pressed against the cold glass of the passenger's side window when Sly brought the idea up. I don't think I actually even said anything during that conversation, considering that I barely remember it...

I also don't remember getting to the hotel in Bollywood, nor do I remember getting out of the van and walking up to the room. But when I woke up the next day, I was buried under the fluffy covers of a hotel bed.

I rolled over and rubbed my eyes to focus them, trying to make out the details of the room. There were no lights on, but there was faint sunlight seeping in from under the drapes. As soon as my eyes adjusted to the dim lighting, I could see that Sly was curled up in the other bed in the room, and he looked dead asleep. I had no idea how heavy of a sleeper he was; He'd always somehow been awake before me when we were in Monaco. I was therefore hesitant to think about getting up, in case I disturbed him.

I fished my phone out of my pocket (making note of the fact that aside from my shoes I was still entirely dressed from the day before) and ducked under the covers to check the time. It was two-thirty in the afternoon. Well, so much for a proper sleeping schedule... I contemplated trying to get up really quietly to go see if Bentley or Murray were awake, but then it occurred to me that I had literally no idea where we were. I didn't know if we were even in Bollywood yet, and I had no idea what this hotel was, or what room I'd find Bentley and Murray in. And I didn't speak Hindu, so I couldn't go and ask someone to get answers to any of my questions. ...Maybe I'd have to take Sly up on that offer of learning more languages...

So, I supposed it looked like my only real option was to just stay under the warm covers, and wait for Sly to wake up. Which honestly didn't seem like a very bad idea, since the hotel bed was quite comfortable, and I was very aware of the soreness all over my body; A side effect of wrestling with Clockwerk's wings...

So that's what I did. I hibernated underneath the fluffy blankets and read random internet articles for the next hour and a half. It was roughly at four when I heard Sly groan and shift.

I emerged from under the covers, to watch the raccoon drag himself into a sitting position and vigerously rub at his eyes. "Good morning- Err... Afternoon?" I greeted him.

Sly looked over towards me, looking almost as if he didn't understand what I'd said to him. He honestly looked like he was still more than half asleep. After a moment of just staring at me, he raised a hand in greeting, and mumbled something that was most definitely not any word I knew.

Apparently Sly isn't much of a morning person. Who'd have thought?

Sly proceeded to practically roll out of bed, and then headed for the coffee maker on the table at the other side of the room.

I sat up to watch Sly fumble with the coffee maker as he figured out how this particular one functioned. I couldn't help but laugh at him. "So are you one of those people who don't function in the morning without liquid caffeine?"

"Good guess," Sly mumbled, sounding like his tongue was stuck to the roof of his mouth.

"How is it that we spent an entire week in Monaco, in the same hotel room, and I've never got to see you like this until now?" I asked, not even trying to not look amused.

"I'm a pro at keeping my condition a secret," Sly tiredly chuckled, leaning back against the table as he waited for his coffee to brew.

I tried to supress a laugh that, despite my efforts, still came out as an audible snort. Sly had this dorky way of always making people laugh, even if he wasn't trying to. It was one of the things about him that made him so easy to be around.

"Y'know, you're lucky you've gone this long without seeing me first thing in the morning," Sly laughed, brushing his messy hair away from his face.

"Yeeaah, you do sort of look awful," I teased, pretending to look him up and down with a judgemental gaze.

"Speak for yourself, you should look at your hair," Sly jested in return, turning to the coffee maker as it finished brewing his coffee. He poured a cup, and wasted no time in starting to drink it.

I couldn't keep from laughing. "It took you this long to notice that my hair looks awful in the morning?"

"No, but I wasn't going to point it out at first. I'm not a jerk," Sly replied, looking at me over the rim of his cup, with a smirk on his face.

I snorted and laughed again. "I beg to differ,"

Sly laughed and finished his cup of liquid caffeine, and then went to search through his suitcase. He eventually came up with a black tank top and pulled it over his head, and then ran a comb through his hair to make it look a little less like he'd just rolled out of bed. He didn't seem interested in changing out of the gray pants he was still wearing from the day before. "You gonna get out of bed and join me for breakfast or no?"

"Eh, why not?" I'd been awake long enough, time to vacate my fortress. I swung my legs off the side of the bed, and sort of bounced to my feet. I instantly regretted that action, however, as the pain of many pulled muscles throughout both my legs made themselves known. I hissed, and shifted my feet to make standing less painful.

"You alright?" Sly asked as he pulled on his shoes.

"Yeah, I'm fine," I replied, slightly limping over to my suitcase (Which I did not remember bringing in, either). "I feel like I've been hit by a train though..."

"Yeah, I'm still sorry about that. We didn't think that Clockwerk's wings would try to kill you and Bentley," Sly couldn't exactly keep from laughing a little as he spoke.

"Technically, it was gravity that tried to kill us," I said, coming up with shorts and a blue t-shirt with white lettering on it. "But yes, let's say that Clockwerk's wings are at fault here, I like that idea better,"

Sly laughed and tossed me a comb as I headed for the bathroom. If it weren't for Sly's incredibly accurate aim landing the comb right on the pile of clothes I was holding, I probably wouldn't have caught it. "You're going to need that,"

I stuck my tongue out at Sly before closing the bathroom door. I then changed out of yesterday's clothes, and into the shorts and t-shirt I'd picked. I spent a while untangling my hair with the comb, and making it look relatively okay. The heat was making it frizzy, and there was only so much I could do to help that.

Once my hair was presentable, I emerged from the bathroom and tossed my dirty clothes on top of my suitcase, threw the comb back at Sly, and then pulled my shoes on. "Okay. I'm ready to be dragged all over India, let's do this,"

Sly laughed. "Let's start with breakfast, shall we? I know a really good resturaunt not far from here,"

Sly had been right, India was incredibly exotic and beautiful. After taking me to a resturaunt with a complicated Hindu name that there was no chance of me remembering, Sly and I hit the streets of Bollywood. I decided to not resist being drug around under the ruse of tourism; There was no winning against Sly and his insane extroverted personality.

While hot climates and thick fur don't mix, I actually ended up really enjoying all the sights that Bollywood had to offer (Though the snake charmers scared the living daylights out of me). The culture was really amazing to see up close. I don't know what I expected, but it wasn't a bright modern city with movie camera crews around every corner. It felt pretty surreal to actually be there; Under any other circumstance, I would never have been able to.

While the sights were really breathtaking, so was the heat, and I eventually forced Sly to stop at some little shop to try the Indian equivalent of ice cream, called Kulfi. Normally I'd be hesitant to try new foods, especially ones from other countries, but it didn't sound all that much different from American ice cream, so I decided to give it a shot because at the very least it would be cold. That being said, I ended up actually liking the stuff.

Murray and Bentley caught up to us while we were stopped at this shop, and Murray and I conspired together to stay there for as long as we possibly could. We attempted to achieve this by taking our sweet time in trying every flavor available. I wasn't too enthusiastic about going back into the heat to do more sight-seeing just yet, and Murray was more than happy to help me postpone it a little bit.

Sly eventually caught on to our ploy, and proceeded to talk us back into sight-seeing. ...Though he had to promise us that we could come back for more frozen treats later; Something we silently agreed to hold him to.

Later in the day during our sight-seeing adventure, we came across a film set for a musical movie, and paused to watch as everyone worked. Murray made a comment about how being in a musical looked really fun... And that was all it took to get the gears in Sly's head turning.

The next thing I know, Sly is off locking some actor into a broom closet, and Bentley is stealing a copy of the movie's script. Meanwhile, Murray broke into the actor's dressing rooms, and stole the outfit he was going to need to wear.

That left me standing on the bridge that looked down over the movie set, watching as this mini-heist unfolded, and I had to try really hard to not laugh as I stood there by myself. There were moments when these guys were really serious, and they were pulling serious heists in dangerous situations. And then there were apparently times like this, where they were sneaking themselves onto the sets of movies, just for the sake of having done so. It was even more amusing to think about the fact that regardless of what kind of heist he was on, Sly always seemed to have this cocky, sarcastic, and almost carefree attitude towards it. This gang really was something, I thought to myself as I forced back the laughter.

It took a while, but eventually I saw Murray, in some kind of Indian outfit with a fake mustache on, slip onto the set. It was only moments later that Sly and Bentley joined me up on the bridge.

From there we observed as the musical number began on the set below us. Considering that Murray didn't have much time to review the script, it was pretty impressive that he'd memorized it pretty well, as far as I could tell. And it looked like he was having a lot of fun with it, too. I supposed that was why they'd done the whole thing in the first place. Some part of me somehow kept forgetting that despite being a criminal gang, these three were just normal people a lot of the time.

As the sun began to set, Murray and I forced Sly to keep his word about going back for more kulfi. It was cooler out by then, so we sat outside this time. Bentley took the opportunity of this quiet moment to do some research on what had happened at Rajan's palace after we'd left.

Carmelita had - Apparently - furiously blown her cover, and started making arrests 'left and right'. Rajan was not one of those arrests, nor were the other two Klaww Gang members that we'd seen during recon. After a bit more research, Bentley decided that the most logical possibility was that Rajan was now in hiding somewhere deep in the jungle. Exactly where was another subject entirely. But he was still out there, somewhere...

"I don't suppose we can just ignore Rajan and he'll just stop being a problem?" I asked hopefully, biting into some vanilla kulfi.

"No, I'm afraid we can't," Bentley replied, shaking his head.

"Well that sucks," I mumbled, propping my head up with my left arm, making it clear that I was dissapointed.

"I wish we could, too, but it looks like wherever he is, he's got the Clockwerk heart with him," Bentley informed us with a sigh.

I deadpanned and stared at Bentley. "Are you kidding me?"

After doing a lot of 'detective work' (as Sly put it), the gang had discovered where Rajan was hiding. And as the opposite of luck (unluck?) would have it, he was deep in the Indian jungle, in an abandoned temple that he'd converted into his spice production facility. And to top it all off, he was using Clockwerk's heart to produce the illegal spice at breakneck speeds.

I wouldn't have exactly minded this new destination too much (I was slowly getting used to India), if it weren't for the fact that we'd not been on the road an hour when we came to the realization that there was literally no way to get the van through the incredibly dense jungle...

So we packed up everything into backpacks, and set off on a forced death march through the Indian jungle. The Indian jungle that was full of venomous snakes, quicksand, and god knew what else...

These potential dangers, combined with the sticky heat of the jungle, made me hating the trip pretty much unavoidable. Trudging my way through a deadly jungle was the last thing I ever wanted to do with myself. With that thought in mind, another came to me; Why even was I here? I certainly didn't have to be, there wasn't much reason for me to be following the Cooper Gang into the deep Indian Jungle in search of Rajan and the Clockwerk heart he possessed. By now, the Klaww Gang probably knew that I was with Sly's gang and wouldn't be looking elsewhere for me, or had forgotten about me entirely. I figured that it was probably safe to say that I didn't have to worry about them anymore. And therefore, there really wasn't much actual reason for me to continue being with the Cooper Gang.

But then... I also didn't exactly want to leave, either. That was the part that confused me the most. I certainly didn't like marching through the treacherous Indian jungle, miles away from proper civilization, but I didn't dislike being with the gang. They were actually really fun to be around.

Regardless, the fact remained that there was still no logical reason for me to feel like I should follow these wanted criminals to hunt down Rajan. But yet there was certainly some reason for it, or I wouldn't have been there. The issue laid in the fact that even I didn't know what my own reasoning was.

I didn't even know why I had said yes to running with these guys in the first place. In hindsight, I couldn't imagine myself ever making that decision, under any circumstance. But yet somehow I had. I figured that maybe I'd still been shaken up from the whole alleyway incident, and my judgement was clouded. That was the only reason I could think of for why I would have agreed to hanging around criminals. There was also the question of why Bentley had even offered me refuge in the first place; What had been going through his mind at the time that made him think it was a good idea?

I was really starting to confuse myself by trying to pick apart my reasoning, and everyone else's. Analyzing myself and my own choices is always a messy business, and I eventually decided to just leave it alone. For whatever reasons everyone had, I was here with the Cooper Gang, and I wasn't unhappy with that. I was going to try to let that be enough for now, and not think about all the logical reasoning. If I was lucky, it would all make sense eventually.

And so I tried to keep my thoughts elsewhere for the rest of our hike through the jungle. Bentley had his nose in a map literally the whole way, and that didn't make me very convinced that he knew where we were going. Everything looked the same to me, and I had no idea how he could tell where we were.

Let's also not forget that the enviornment was deadly; I already mentioned the snakes and quicksand. I had honestly thought that the snakes would be a bit more of an issue, but instead we ended up contending with quicksand, when Murray lost his balence and fell down a ravine and into a pit of it.

The next twenty minutes or so were very high on adrenaline as Sly, Bentley, and I attempted the task of using a rope to haul Murray out of the quicksand, and away from certain death. It took a lot of work and a little bit of quicksand knowledge from Bentley, but we managed to get Murray out of the quicksand before he entirely sank. I ended up with mild rope burn on my right hand, but we actually managed to free Murray from the quicksand. I wasn't sure what the quicksand survival rate was, but I was pretty sure we'd just acomplished something relatively tricky.

As soon as he was free, Murray promptly drug us all into a giant group hug as thanks for rescuing him. We appreciated the sentiment, but getting covered in quicksand was not something any of us enjoyed too much. I supposed it was a good thing that I thought to bring clean clothes with me.

After our little quicksand encounter, we all elected to take the rest of the trip a little slower, and a million times more carefully. Bentley said he wasn't sure how many more strikes they had before they couldn't cheat death anymore.

When we finally broke through the thick foilage and found Rajan's temple, I practically jumped for joy. I actually would have, if it weren't for the fact that we'd walked literally right into the middle of the temple grounds, and guards were absolutely everywhere .

Therefore, we had to immediately be quiet, stay low, and slip around the edges of the place to find a safehouse. I'd never actually been outside of the safehouse, where all the action happened, and it was then that it struck me; These guys really risked their lives every time they stepped out of the safehouse. And it must take a lot of courage and dedication to keep doing it over and over. This realization only made my respect for them all continue to skyrocket.

Bentley quickly found a safehouse at the edge of the temple grounds and began setting up shop, but. There was... One little snag...

I looked up at the tall tower that housed our safehouse... And then down at the oversized mushroom that Bentley and Murray had just used to bounce themselves up to the tower. I wasn't so sure if I trusted this makeshift trampoline to not kill me, or if I even trusted myself to not somehow mess up.

"Oh, don't tell me you're scared of heights?" Sly teased, though he kept his voice low, lest any guards hear him. They'd already had to take out a few of them that were near the building we were standing on.

"No..." I replied slowly. "I'm just scared of falling..." I added, still studying the tower and the mushroom, trying to decide if I actually wanted to try this.

"It's not that high up," Sly said. "Besides, don't cats always land on their feet?"

I narrowed my eyes and turned to glare at Sly for a moment. And then I sighed. He was right, it wasn't that far up. And I really didn't have much of a choice, I couldn't stay out here with all the guards. One way or the other, I had to get up into that tower.

"Would you like me to carry you?" Sly offered, warily eyeing a guard off to his left that was getting sort of close to us.

I was starting to feel sort of silly, now. Sly risked his life daily, doing things like performing ridicuous acrobatics, going undercover in a room full of police officers, and taking on bad guys twice his size, and he never bat an eyelash at any of it. Then here I was, scared of using a makeshift trampoline. ...Yeah, I was really starting to feel silly, now.

I gave a defeated sigh. "No... No I can do it myself..." If we stood out here any longer, that guard was probably going to see us, and I didn't want to be the reason for that. It really wasn't that high up... And cats do always land on their feet, right?

I stared at the bright red mushroom with something like contempt, before taking a deep breath, setting my jaw, and jumping onto it.

I consider it an achievement that I didn't scream on the way up, and actually managed to land on my feet. ...Sort of... I couldn't manage to keep my balence after my feet found the floor, and so I had to kind of roll onto the ground, but hey! I'd gotten up there on my own, and I didn't manage to injure myself!

Sly followed me up (and landed on his feet, the little showoff), and helped me off the floor. "See? Was that so bad?"

I brushed the dust off my clothes, and pushed my glasses back up to their proper place on my nose. And then sighed. "No, I suppose it wasn't..."

"That's the spirit!" Sly beamed, and then held open the door to this new safehouse.

"What I want to know is what kind of mushroom grows so large that people can use it as a trampoline..." I said as I headed into the safehouse.

Sly shrugged and followed me inside. "I dunno, you'll have to ask Bentley,"

I made a mental note to ask Bentley later, and took a look around the safehouse. It looked like it might have once been an observation tower for the temple. When it was an actual temple, and not being used to produce illegal spice by a criminal maniac, that is. There were windows facing the temple that had once had glass in them, but by then only fragments of it remained. Bentley was in the process of nailing blankets up over the majority of this hole in the wall.

This safehouse was a little less like a house, and more like just a room. Which made sense; It was an old observation tower, people weren't intended to live there. At least there was a seperate bathroom area so I could change out of my sweaty and dirty clothes... Which is exactly what I did, before doing anything else at all.

When I came out of the bathroom, Bentley was busy setting up his laptop and other supplies on a very rickety table, that was surrounded by equally rickety-looking chairs. Aside from these old pieces of furniture, there was really nothing else in the room.

There was also a distinct lack of electricity in this tower. Which unfortunately meant no air-conditioning... Bentley foresaw this lack of power, and thought to bring some kind of battery/charger contraption to keep his laptop from dying. I was pretty sure that he'd made the thing himself, considering it's personalized and complicated design.

I dumped my backpack and dirty clothes into a corner of the room, and then headed to the table to sit down. I didn't exactly trust the chair I'd picked, and I was very careful about testing the stability of it before putting all my weight on it. I wasn't quite in the mood to be dumped on the floor by a chair. Mostly because I knew that Sly would laugh at me...

As soon as I was sure that my chair was not going to break, I let myself relax into it. I did not intend to get up anytime soon. After wrestling with Clockwerk's wings, and then being taken on a death march through the jungle, I was incredibly sore and incredibly tired.

I took my glasses off and rubbed at my eyes. If I was this tired now, I didn't want to imagine how I'd feel after hiking back to the van... Maybe I'd try to take a nap before we left?

"Water?" I looked back up to see Murray offering me a bottle water, which I very graciously took.

"Thank you, praise the lord," I groaned as I opened the bottle, and gulped down as much of it as I could without choking. I generally hate the taste of water, but after over three hours in the horrible jungle, I really just didn't care.

"Okay, Sly," Bentley said as he set up his laptop. "Let's figure out what we're up against, shall we?"

"Recon. I'm on it," Sly took a moment to drink nearly an entire bottle of water, and then headed out of the safehouse. I stared at him in awe as he went. How in the world did he have so much energy after a three hour jungle hike?! I decided to blame all the coffee... There was no other logical explanation for it.

While Sly made his way over to wherever he was going, I rested my head on the table. Apparently I was the only one who was dead tired after that terrible hike...

Resting my head on the table accidentally lead to taking that nap I'd considered, as I later reawoke to the sound of Bentley's voice.

"Check it out!" he was exclaiming. I lifted my head up to look at him. "Rajan's carrying half the Clockwerk heart on that stick!"

I stared at Bentley as I reorganized my brain. Half of the Clockwerk heart? Well, where was the other half?

"Ah, welcome back to the land of the living," Bentley greeted me, as he noticed I was awake again.

"How are you guys not tired after the ordeal of getting here?" I tiredly demanded, rubbing my eyes to make them focus.

"We've been doing this for years, we're all pretty used to the labor," Bentley replied, and then his attention was returned to the pictures Sly was sending in. "Hmm... That crane is keeping half of the heart suspended,"

"So wait. Rajan's got half of the heart on a stick ? And the other is just hanging up? Like a decoration or something?" I was not fully awake and this did not make any sense...

"Yes, and then no. Since the heart is such a strong and tireless pump, Rajan is using the second half to super-irrigate the spice he harvests," Bentley explained.

"Uh. Okay..." I decided not to question how half of a heart could pump anything, let alone super-irrigate spice, and instead opted for cleaning the lenses of my glasses with the rim of my shirt, and just observing.

Bentley's expression changed to one of confusion as Sly took another picture. "There's the entrance to this level..." Bentley clicked a few times and looked at some of the blueprints that were on the table. "...Only I can't figure out how to get in here from the temple's exterior..."

He was quiet a moment, as he shifted through blueprints and clicked on things. "Hmm. Head on back to the safehouse, Sly... We'll really need to think about this one,"

Then Bentley got up, taking some of his notes and blueprints with him, and began working with the ever popular projector, no doubt setting up a slideshow about how this was all supposed to go down.

While he did this, Murray and I shared a bag of chips, and played a few rounds of a game called 'Guess Who?' on my iPad. When Sly returned to the safehouse, he joined us, and we all wasted time waiting for the slideshow to be ready.

When the slideshow was finally done, Bentley cleared his throat to call his friends to attention for it. So we put our game aside, and listened to Bentley's plan.

Said slideshow took off with some of the recon photos of Clockwerk's heart. "The Clockwerk heart is under some serious security. Heck, Rajan is carrying half of it at all times! To get at the goods, I'll need to gather some more information,"

"Sly will plant a bug in Rajan's office, while I lift the spice operation blueprints off the spice lord, while he makes his rounds," the slideshow cycled through various shots of Rajan's office, and the man himself. Rajan looked just as threatening as I remember him being, and I was sort of nervous about the guys going up against him... But they'd robbed him once, they could definitely do it again, couldn't they?

"Unfortunately, while we're collecting intelligence on him, he'll be collecting data on us, with an elephant driven sattelite array," pictures of said device came up, and Bentley drew little radio waves around it for emphasis. "Take it out, or he'll be able to intercept all our communications!" and then he scribbled it out, for even more emphasis.

And then that was that; The slideshow was over. That one had been pretty short compared to the others, probably due to the lack of much information. Phase one of all this was pretty much rectifying that lack of intel. Which didn't really sound too dangerous, in theory.

"I'll start with the sattelite array," Sly decided, already heading for the door. Starting with the sattelite sounded like a pretty good idea; The less time they gave Rajan to watch them, the less he'd know, and the less prepared he'd be.

Bentley put away all the projector equipment, and then returned to his laptop post to tell Sly the plan, once he'd arrived at the sattelite.

"So Rajan can monitor all our communications with this sattellite array, huh? That's pretty grim. You got a plan for shutting it down?" Sly asked. I moved my chair over a little bit, to see that Sly was staring up at the elephant going around in circles to power the array.

"Don't I always?" Bentley replied. "Now, the local spice plants are illegal for good reason. Eat too many and you'll go into a fit of uncontrolled rage,"

"Keep that stuff away from Murray..." Sly chuckled. "Oh wait, wait ! I get it. I put some spice plants in the elephant's feed bag, he chows down, gets all... Crazy , and then presto ! The satellite's in pieces," he sounded way too enthusiastic about destroying things. Was that even healthy?

Bentley nodded. "A crude interpretation of the plan, but accurate. The trick here is harvesting the spice plants. You'll have to do some serious climbing, as they only grow high up in the jungle canopy,"

Sly looked up towards the incredibly high tree tops, where the spice plants thrived, and then set off towards the nearest one, not seeming worried at all by how high up he'd have to climb.

While Sly ran around the whole temple, playing Tarzan, Murray and I attempted to build a house of Uno cards. This didn't exactly work, because neither of us knew anything about making strucurally sound... Structures... Nor how physics work. Bentley seemed personally offended by this, and so we took pity on him, and instead decided to go back to playing mindless games on my iPad.

Perhaps forty-five minutes later, Sly's voice came in over the binocucom again. "Sayonara, sattellite array!" and then there was the sound of a very angry elephant breaking out of it's restraints, and the wooden sattelite array splintering into pieces. This was followed by the sounds of the elephant rampaging away to god knew where.

I silently wondered to myself if that elephant coming back to cause trouble was something that we'd have to worry about... I decided not to mention it, because the last thing I wanted to do was jinx it.

I was initially waiting for Sly to return to the safehouse, but instead, Bentley started talking to him again after a while, as he was apparently taking on his next job now. I contemplated forcing Sly to sit down and take a break when he got back, because at this point I was starting to get a little concerned about him working too hard. Though he probably wouldn't listen to me if I tried; It's been established that Sly is stubborn as a mule...

"Sly, the insect in that pool is a rare Indian Water Bug. If you can carry it into Rajan's office, it's wings will transmit local soundwaves at a frequency I can monitor!" Bentley explained, as Sly looked down at the weird-looking bug that was happily sitting in a pool of water. Let it also be known that this pool of water was situated on some kind of stone platform that was just barely held up by a decrepid stone tower. The whole thing was swaying back and forth, and it was a literal miracle that it hadn't fallen down yet.

"Let me get this straight..." Sly said slowly, sounding amused. "We're going to bug Rajan's office... With a bug ?" I shared his amused, yet confused, outlook on this plan. The English language had evolved in just the right way to allow for this little pun.

Bentley smiled and nodded, apparently finding the pun a bit humorous as well. "It is an elegant plan, I agree. Now, pay attention. That water bug can only survive in stagnant pools... If kept out of water too long, it'll become unhappy and likely draw the attention of nearby guards,"

There's always a catch, isn't there? Sly didn't really seem to mind it much, though. "Hmm. Looks like there's a few pools along the way to Rajan's office. A short swim every now and then should keep our little friend quiet,"

With the plan established, Sly picked up the bug, and began making his way towards Rajan's office. As he did, I started to think about how these three were absolutely nothing like how movies portrayed thieves... And if Hollyood ever made a movie with dorky thieves who came up with ridiculous plans like this, I would totally watch it.

After Sly had successfully bugged Rajan's office, I actually managed to get him to sit down and take a break. During this time, Bentley got out in the field, with the goal of pickpocketing Rajan's spice operation blueprints off of him. The brainy turtle acomplished this by using sound and watermelons to lure and subdue the giant tiger. I thought Bentley might be a bit crazy for getting that close to Rajan, but he pulled the job off without a hitch.

However, apparently getting into Rajan's personal space like that had crossed quite the line. As a result, the now paranoid tiger had decided to go into hiding somewhere in the temple. If the gang wanted to get at his half of the Clockwerk heart, they'd have to force him to come back out.

Bentley decided that the best way to do this was to piss Rajan off. Which did not sound like a very good idea from my perspective, but I had to trust that Bentley knew what he was doing.

In order to pull off the feat of pissing off Rajan, Bentley put together a little list of things that had to happen. First, destroy his spice grinder to ruin his operations, and then destroy the dam above the temple to see if flooding him out might work.

And if all that failed, then Bentley had made contact with another group of thieves in the area, who would pay him via some very hefty explosives, if the gang could manage to get them one of the giant flawless rubies that were embedded into the temple walls. Apparently they were going to need it for the big heist...

Unlike the last plan, this one sounded just as dangerous as it probably was, and I was definitely a little bit worried about the guys getting hurt... But I tried to not think about it. They knew what they were doing, and I had to trust that.

While Sly made his way to the spice grinder, Bentley researched ways to take out that dam. His bombs weren't strong enough for the job (and there was no way up there, anyhow), so he was going to need some extra firepower. The question was, where to get it?

"Aha!" the turtle suddenly exclaimed, after quite a while of silence. "This is perfect!"

"Care to enlighten us?" I asked, looking up from my game of digital solitaire.

"Rajan just received a new auto-pilot attack helicopter. If I can get ahold of it, it'll be perfect for blowing the dam!" Bentley explained enthusiastically.

I nodded. "Well, that's one less thing to worry about,"

"I'm going to head out there now, and take care of it, before Rajan sends someone out to pick up the helicopter," Bentley decided, getting out of his chair and arming himself with his crossbow, before heading for the door.

"Hey, hold on, wait !" I called after him. "What if Sly needs help with that spice grinder thing?" I motioned to the laptop. Wasn't he going to need Bentley to tell him the plan once he got there?

"Oh, of course," Bentley moved back to the table, shuffled through his papers, and then handed me a stack of them. "Here's all my notes on the plan, I trust you can read them to him?"

I spit out a series of confused noises as I tried to form words. Bentley expected me to relay the plan to Sly?! My brief speechlessness gave Bentley the chance to leave the safehouse before I could stop him.

I stared at the notes in my hand, and then at Murray, who didn't really seem worried about the fact that Bentley had basically just left me in charge, and just shrugged at me.

I slowly stood up and switched chairs to sit in front of Bentley's laptop. I began flipping through the notes in my hands, almost not believing that this was happening. Bentley had just entrusted me with telling Sly what to do on a job, so that he wouldn't get killed painfully, and I was very incredibly nervous about it. It felt like he was trusting me with a whole lot, and I had no idea what I'd done to deserve it.

Sly's voice broke me out of my confused trance. "Alright, Bentley, what's the plan?"

I took a quick moment to organize my thoughts before trying to say anything. "Uh... Bentley isn't here right now... But he left me his notes..."

"Bentley's not there? Where is he?" Sly asked, sounding mildly concerned, but mostly just curious.

"Well, he discovered a helicopter that's perfect for blowing up the dam, apparently. Aaand he wanted to go do that before Rajan sent anyone out to pick it up," I started explaining, still flipping through the notes. "Sooo, that's what he's doing. And for some reason, he's trusted me with telling you what to do,"

Sly was silent for a moment. But then he didn't question anything I'd just said, and just moved right along. "Well, what do Bentley's notes say?"

Apparently I was the only one who was freaking out about being left in charge of something so important. I sighed. "Um. Welp, it says that if Rajan's blueprints are anything to go by, you're near the spice grinding facility. But then you already knew that, because that's what you're there for..."

"And, as you can see, the passageways are blocked by those laser fence things... And er ," I paused to gawk at Bentley's notes. "...See that TNT barrel there?" I couldn't believe I was about to tell Sly to do this.

"Yeah, looks like they're using it to create these catacombs. ...Maybe I can 'borrow' some to destroy the fences. Do Bentley's notes say anything about that?" Sly asked.

"Unfortunately, yeah. That's exactly what he wants you to do, it seems..." this sounded horribly dangerous and I did not like it. "I guess you've just got to take the TNT to whatever you wanna explode, light the fuse, and then get the hell out of dodge,"

"...Bentley's notes also say to be careful of those floor lasers, 'cause they're set up differently and the TNT won't destroy them... Uh... I think that's... It... For now?" I still wasn't past being weirded out by the job I'd been thrust into, and I honestly had no idea what I was doing. I hoped I was doing it right...

"On it," and then Sly just. Grabbed a barrel of TNT, took it over to the laser wall on his left, lit the fuse, and ran to the other side of the room before it blew the laser wall's curcuits to bits. He did not at all seem bothered by working with explosives. ...Bentley had been right, this raccoon definitely had no self-preservation what-so-ever.

Sly repeated the process with a second laser wall, and then made his way past some floor lasers and pivoting vertical lasers that he could dodge between if he was fast enough. He couldn't get to any TNT to explode the laser wall that was now across from him, so he opted for going right, sneaking past a set of three searchlights that were searching that hallway.

Then he turned left and ducked under two sets of horizontal lasers that moved vertically, and found himself in the spice grinder room. "Uh, okay, let's see here..." I fumbled through Bentley's notes to find the intel I wanted. "So I guess Rajan won't come out of hiding if spice is still being manufactured. So if you blow up that grinder, he'll be out of business, and have no reason to stick around the temple. Y'know, other than you guys being out to get him,"

Sly smirked. "Great, we do the world a favor, and Rajan is forced out into the open,"

"You're obviously going to want some more TNT for this job, and luckily there's some more over there on the floor," Sly looked down and to his right at the TNT barrel that was just barely visable around the corner. "You'll probably have to clear out another tunnel of security to get back up to that walkway, though,"

"Bentley's notes say that if you get a TNT barrel directly into that basin of spice dust, it'll all be blown to bits," I flipped through the notes once more, to make sure I didn't forget anything. There was so much stuff on those sheets of paper, it wouldn't surprise me if I overlooked something. Luckily, it looked like I hadn't.

"Consider it done," and then Sly was off, jumping down in the blind spot of the guard patrol below to snag a barrel of TNT, and then take it to the downstairs hallway, where he blasted through another set of lasers there. This gave him a direct path back upstairs with another TNT barrel. He would just have to get past the searchlights and last two horizontal laser sets.

Both of which proved to not be an issue for someone as quick and experienced as Sly. It wasn't long after that he was slipping past the guards on the upper walkway, and over to the spice grinder. With an audible smirk, Sly lit the fuse on the TNT he was carrying, and dropped it into the basin of spice dust. And then quickly leapt back down to the area below, away from the spice grinder, lest he wanted to get blown up.

Sly looked up as the TNT went off, and the spice grinder exploded into a glorious shower of splinters, sawdust, and spice dust. And with that, spice production came to a screetching halt.

"What's going on down there?" Rajan demanded over a loud speaker somewhere in the room. "It looks like spice production has fallen behind! ... Wait ! It's completely stopped!"

"Great work, Sly! You ignored possible death, and exploded Rajan's spice grinder!" I drawled sarcastically. "And y'know. Come to think of it, you guys demolish stuff way too much,"

"What can I say? We like destruction and mayhem," Sly laughed as he headed for the exit. "I'll see you back at the safehouse,"

I let out a long sigh after the feed cut to silence. Okay . That was over with. I'd advised Sly on how to blow up Rajan's spice facility, and hadn't gotten him killed by giving bad advice.

Wait a moment. I almost physically stopped in my tracks as I realized what this meant. I'd just helped Sly on a job, and didn't once question the fact that it was an incredibly illegal job. Instead, I was more worried about getting him hurt because I didn't know how to properly do the job.

That was certainly something that, had this been happening a little over a month ago, I would not have done. A month ago, I wouldn't have even considered putting myself in any situation that involved wanted criminals.

But like I'd realized on the hike into the temple; I'd still somehow ended up here, in the middle of the Indian jungle, mostly on my own terms, with a gang of wanted criminals. And while I was incredibly confused about the reasons why, I was actually rooting for these criminals now, and maybe even considering myself on their side? But if I was on their side, what exactly did that say about me?

Just over a month ago, I thought that I knew myself, and had myself all figured out. But the more I thought about where I was at the moment, I started to wonder if maybe I'd somehow had myself figured wrong?

Chapter Text

"Didn't you say that chopper was some fancy high-tech attack chopper or something? And a piece of cement from like a hundred or so feet away took it out?"

"It's ridiculous, I know," Bentley replied to the semi-sarcastic query, opening up the first aid kit that he kept constantly stocked with everything under the sun.

"Standards must be pretty low these days, huh?" Nyx asked, probably rhetorically. "Either that, or the chopper was a bootleg or something. What even do they call bootleg equipment like choppers? It feels like there should be a word for that..."

Bentley shook his head and rolled his eyes at the feline as she seemed to ponder what to call counterfeit helicopters. She was probably only doing it to calm her nerves; She'd looked pretty freaked out when Bentley had returned to the safehouse after his helicopter crash. He was pretty lucky he'd crashed into that tower and fallen to the bottom floor of it. He was also lucky that he was a turtle, and that turtle shells are made for protection.

"Anyways," Nyx finally said, giving up on her bootleg choppers. "Does this count as another strike to your near-death counter thing?"

"I'm inclined to say yes," Bentley replied, pulling out an arangement of bandages and anti-septics.

"Do you have an estimated number of how many you've got left, oooorr??" Nyx asked, giving Bentley a playful look with one eyebrow cocked. Now she was just being funny...

"If only life were that straightforward," Bentley replied with sarcastic wishfulness, rolling his eyes at the even more sarcastic feline. This was why she and Sly got along so well, they were both horribly sarcastic.

"Mm, indeed," Nyx agreed. "I'm trying to come up with some analogy for life and death but I'm kinda coming up short..."

Bentley laughed and shook his head. "What a shame. The world is worse off for never having heard your witty analogies,"

"Yeah," Nyx sighed. "I'll think of something eventually," her attention was then drawn to Bentley's laptop, which she was still seated in front of. It appeared that Sly was up to something... Nyx put the headphones back on, and turned up the volume.

"-Soon as this India job is over, why don't you and I go out on the town? We'll dance through Bollywood and eat curry all night long," Sly was saying, very obviously flirting.

Nyx resisted the urge to slap her palm to her face as she realized who the raccoon was flirting with.

"I'll keep it in mind," the Constable nodded thoughtfully. "But first, the task at hand. I've learned of a secret entrance leading to half of the Clockwerk heart. Legally, I can't enter the premises without a warrant. But now, a thief like you..." she trailed off, obviously expecting Sly to pick up on the idea.

Which he did without wasting a precious second. "A thief like me can go wherever he pleases. I read you,"

"Don't fall behind while I lead you to the entrance," Neyla warned, making stern eye contact. "This place is thick with guards and standing still can be lethal,"

Sly nodded. "I hear that, sister,"

And then without any further conversation or banter, Neyla was darting off into the temple grounds, with Sly hot on her tail, just like in Paris. Nyx leaned her elbow onto the table and rested her head in her palm as she watched.

" Sooo Constable Neyla is here and she's leading Sly off on a tigeress chase to the entrance to the room we saw during recon," Nyx announced to Bentley, sounding almost bored with the concept. It occured to her that she totally shouldn't have such a casual outlook on what she was doing... But she just shoved that thought back with the others.

"Hm. If Neyla's here, then Carmelita surely isn't far behind..." Bentley mused. "Let's hope we can be out of here before all of Interpol gets here,"

" Dude , don't jinx it," Nyx hissed playfully, pretending to be utterly disgusted with the turtle.

After what seemed like a lap of the temple, Neyla finally came to a stop beside a stone wall. Through the binocucom screen, Nyx couldn't make out anything special about it. But up close, Sly's trained eyes could pick out the tell-tale seams of a secret door. How had they not found this earlier?

"This is it," Neyla gestured to the door. "And remember, if push comes to shove, I never showed you this door. And..."

"And...?" Sly prompted her to go on, raising an eyebrow expectantly.

"And we're on for that date in Bollywood," Neyla said. And then she was gone, having dissapeared somewhere in the temple.

Sly smiled to himself and opened the secret door, cautiously heading inside. And just like Neyla had said, it lead to the room he'd viewed during recon, with half of Clockwerk's heart suspended above a circular platform. He brought his binocucom up to his eyes, ready to listen to whatever instructions Nyx and/or Bentley had for him.

"Were you actually flirting with her?" Nyx asked, instead of giving instructions. "Honest to god flirting with her?"

"Of course. Why? Are you jealous?" Sly purred.

"Pfft, in your dreams," Nyx replied. "I just seriously don't get why you insist on flirting with someone who is most likely trying to arrest you. Is there something you like about her, or do you just like it when women chase after you with weapons and handcuffs in tow?"

Sly wasn't sure if Nyx was teasing, or being serious. "Oh, wouldn't you like to know?"

Nyx snorted a choked laugh. "Y'know what? Actually no, I don't. Let's keep whatever weird kinks you have to yourself, okay? Let's focus on Clockwerk's heart,"

"Gladly. What can you tell me?"

"Well, not much more than you already know. Half of Clockwerk's heart is being used to irrigate the spices at superhuman speeds - I won't even ask how half of a heart can still pump anything, let alone irrigate spice, curious as I am - It's suspended up there by that winch thingy over there,"

Sly turned his attention to the winch in question. "Looks like it's locked down pretty tight,"

"Mmhmm. It looks like all you've gotta do to get at the heart is get that winch's control panel unlocked so you can drop the heart, though. That won't be a problem for you, will it?" Nyx asked sarcastically, looking up over her glasses as well as Bentley's notes.

Sly smirked. "Nah, of course not," his gaze travelled to the two rhino guards that were on duty. "I'm sure the guards won't mind if I 'borrow' their keys..."

"Hop to it, then. Good luck!" Nyx said, and then went quiet to let Sly get started.

The aforementioned thief studied the first guard whom was patrolling the other end of the walkway he was standing on. The heart was suspended on a platform in the center of the room. The walkway he was on lead to it, but there was another guard on the other side, with his flashlight shone right on the center of the platform. Sly would have to find some way aroud to the other side of the walkway...

Sly waited for the first guard to turn his back to him, and then slipped up behind him to relieve him of both his wallet, and his keys. And once that was done, Sly introduced the guard's head to his cane, swiftly knocking him unconcious.

Now to get around to the other side... Sly took a look at the water wheel that was carrying buckets of water to hydrate the spices below. That would work, it'd get him close enough to the other walkway to jump over to it. He waited for the next bucket to come around, and carefully leapt onto it's edge, staying low and trying to keep his weight even on both sides.

The flashlights of the guards above were inches away from him, and had they been trained Interpol agents, they probably would have seen him. But these were just thugs - Hired guns - And they didn't look in his direction once. Sly hopped off the barrel once he was close enough to the walkway, and made his way around to the other guard. He emptied the guy's pockets, and then knocked him out just like his buddy.

With both keys now his, Sly turned to the control panel, unlocked it, and released the heart. The metal organ fell to the walkway below with a loud bang, and Sly felt the ground underneath him shake with the impact. He bounded over to the heart, and picked it up to regard it.

"So there's half of the heart... Okay y'know, forget what I said earlier, I really wanna know how half of a mechanical heart could irrigate spice!" Nyx exclaimed, making Sly chuckle. "Why the hell does a robot even need a heart?"

"Your guess is as good as mine," Sly said, shrugging as he headed for the exit. Nyx huffed, seemingly annoyed by the lack of logic and explantion she was presented with.

When Sly returned to the safehouse, Bentley had finally reclaimed his computer, and Nyx was staring at him over the rim of a can of soda, looking both shocked and unamused. "Bentley, are you sure that's a good idea?"

"What's a good idea?" Sly asked, setting the heart onto the table and then leaning on the rickety furniture, making Nyx eye it warily. "Are you two conspiring against me?"

"No, Sly. Noo , why would we ever do such a thing?" Nyx drawled sarcastically. "Actually, we're talking about Bentley's ridiculous need for volatile explosives," she glanced at the turtle in question.

"Aw, but explosions are fun," Sly said in a mix of sarcasm and mock dissapointment.

"Yeah, it's all fun and games until someone gets blown up," Nyx stated, putting her can down and pointing at Sly. "And I'd rather that someone not be you,"

"Aww, look at that. She cares about me!" Sly swooned exaggeratedly, placing his hands over his heart for dramatic emphasis.

"Don't get the wrong idea. Else I might just change my mind and blow you up myself," Nyx countered, looking at Sly with a look that tried to be serious, but failed, as she couldn't keep the smile off her face.

"Your words," Sly sighed whimsically. "They wound me to my core,"

"Alright, you two, if you're done flirting," Bentley intterupted, earning himself a glare from Nyx for using the word 'flirting'. "We have a job to do, you know,"

"Alright, pal, I'm all ears," Sly abandoned his banter with Nyx, and sat down into a chair to listen to the plan. Nyx reached across the table to drag the one half of Clockwerk's heart to her, and started examining it with something like disgust and curiousity on her face. Sly watched her amusedly from the corner of his eye.

"We've been contracted to acquire that huge ruby embedded in Rajan's temple walls for a local crime ring. In exchange for the goods, they'll set us up with a Cherry Bomb 500 for the heist," Bentley explained, pulling up a few images of the ruby in question.

"A Cherry Bomb 500?!" Sly questioned, looking a bit shocked. "That's a lot of kick,"

"See? Now you understand my concern," Nyx commented, just barely glancing up at him from her investigation of the heart.

"Trust me... We'll need it," Bentley nodded seriously.

"It's the fact that you 'need it' that scares me most," Nyx shook her head, trying really hard not to smile.

"Oh, don't worry, if anyone knows explosives, it's Bentley," Sly said. "I promise I won't get blown up," then the raccoon got up and gave the feline a playful salute and smirk to match, and headed for the door.

"Does he ever just sit down and take a break?" Nyx asked, once the raccoon was gone.

"Sure he does, what do you think our times in Monaco and Bollywood were?" Bentley replied. "He's just incredibly dedicated when he's on a job. Not to mention raccoons are nocturnal, after all,"

Nyx gave a hum of recognition, not having anything else to say.

Bentley was quiet a moment, a look of thought on his face. Then he looked back over to the cat examining Clockwerk's heart. "Nyx?"

"Hm?" The cat in question looked up, with an attentive expression; Ready to hear whatever Bentley had to say.

"Did I cross a line when I left you in charge of the binocucom station?"

Nyx looked taken aback by his question at first, she wasn't expecting a question like that. But then she nervously laughed. "No, no, Bentley. I didn't... Don't mind helping you guys out," she paused, looking conflicted. "I'm just kinda... Confused, I guess?"

Bentley wasn't sure how to respond to that. He was a lot better with technical speak than emotional speak. But if he'd learned anything about Nyx, it was that she was the same way. "Well," the turtle began. "I don't want to put you in any situations you're not comfortable with,"

Nyx shook her head. "It's not that I'm uncomfortable with it. The exact opposite, actually. I really love the work you guys do, and I liked helping 'cause I know that I'm helping good guys do something good..." another thoughtful and conflicted pause. "But I'm confused because you guys are thieves. You rob people, you break the law, you're criminals. And I was raised to think poorly of those kinds of people, to see them as bad,"

"But you clearly don't think of us that way,"

"Exactly! And I'm just really confused about my own morals cause. I like helping, I guess? I like helping people I care about, and I like helping them work towards good goals... I'm just not sure about the specifics of this new cause I've found myself supporting, if that makes sense? I don't exactly know what it says about me, oorr if it's even really right," Nyx didn't make eye contact as she spoke, almost as if she felt guilty for suddenly dropping all of this onto Bentley. And really, she hadn't meant to. It'd just been bottled up so long that it had sort of come spilling out when it got the chance.

"I entirely understand," Bentley said, nodding. Nyx looked up at him finally, looking a bit surprised. "I was actually the same way, when Sly started really telling us about his family line, and that he wanted to continue it,"

"Really?" Nyx asked. Bentley seemed so devoted to the cause now, she couldn't imagine him ever not loving it.

"Really," Bentley confirmed, laughing a bit. "We'd pulled all kinds of heists when we were little, but it was all just rebelious kid stuff, really. Things like stealing cookies. When Sly started talking about big heists like robbing people, I had the same issues with it as you, I'd been raised to believe that criminals were awful people. We were in middle school, seventh grade I believe. I was a 'goody-two-shoes', as Sly put it, and he was a delinquant, really,"

Nyx snickered. "Why does that not surprise me?" she mumbled in amusement.

Bentley laughed at that, too. "I wanted to support my friend, but I didn't quite understand what that would make me if I did. Until one day when Sly got revenge on a bully who had taken some personal belongings of mine. He'd stolen everything back without being noticed. Though maybe he stole the guy's wallet, too," Bentley smirked at the memory. "And that's when I realized that Sly might have wanted to be a thief, but he didn't want to hurt people just for the sake of being powerful. He wanted to protect people in his own way. And I've been on board with him ever since,"

Nyx blinked a few times, processing all that information. "And you don't regret it?"

"Not at all," Bentley shook his head. "Sly and Murray are the best friends I've ever had, and there's nothing I'd rather do than work beside them to try and make some small change in the world. And if we get rich off of it, too, then that's just a plus,"

"Illegal doesn't mean bad, and legal doesn't mean good, I suppose?" Nyx proposed.

"Exactly. Some of the worst people are the ones who know how to bend the law to their will, and sometimes even work inside of it," Bentley agreed. "Those are the people that we aim to take down, because the law can't touch them,"

"It takes a thief to catch a thief," Nyx said, almost laughing at the cliche line.

Bentley nodded. "Pretty much,"

And then the binocucom beeped, signaling that Sly had reached the ruby mounted into the wall of the temple. Bentley pressed the microphone button to begin giving instructions. "Okay, Sly, to get that ruby free from it's moorings, you might-"

Nyx's hearing tuned out as she idly examined Clockwerk's heart. That was a lot of information to take in and add to the equations in her head... Equations that she was very slowly solving...

"Partial flooding didn't work, so it's time to go the distance!" Bentley exclaimed, firing up the slideshow for 'Operation: Wet Tiger'. "Blowing up the temple's elephant mouth should turn this grotto into a swimming pool,"

"I'll cover Murray from the chopper's gun turret, while he pries the mouth open. Once that's done, Sly will need to take the Cherry Bomb 500 into the throat, then get to high ground as fast as you can!" a series of images and drawn emphasis from Bentley indicated just how this series of events was intended to go down. For some reason, Nyx had the feeling that it wasn't going to entirely work out that way.

Next up was a picture of Rajan, where Bentley circled the half of the Clockwerk heart he had mounted on his staff. "Rajan is sure to show up and be extra angry. Jump him, snag his half of the Clockwerk heart, and we're out of here,"

With the slideshow now concluded, the gang began moving around the safehouse, preparing for this heist. Nyx watched nervously, finding some part of the plan to be unnerving. Perhaps it was because they were using volatile explosives to cause a flood? And none of them could swim? Or maybe it was the 'pissing off Rajan' part of it, considering how strong the tiger looked.

Whatever it was that was bothering her, Nyx was incredibly horrible at not letting it show. Something that Sly noticed pretty quickly.

The raccoon gave her a gentle bump with his shoulder, and flashed a reassuring smile at her. "Stop looking so worried, it'll be fine. We've faced worse and come out alive,"

Nyx snorted. "According to you," she shook her head. "I'll take your word for it, though. But mark my words, if anything happens, you're all going to be sorry for it,"

"Got it, your words have been marked and I will keep them in mind," Sly laughed. While her words were a playful threat, he could tell that she was probably saying them to reassure herself more than threaten him. She was still scared for them, and that left Sly feeling a bit confused as to why...

"Let's head out for the turret, Murray," Bentley's words brought everyone's attentions back to the heist at hand. He and Murray had geared up, and were ready to head out.

Sly shot one more smile at Nyx. "See you when we get back," and then followed his teammates as they headed out.

Bentley and Murray headed off for the tower that the chopper now called home, and Sly moved into position by the bomb to wait for the mouth to be open. Nyx anxiously sat in the safehouse, watching the whole thing from Bentley's laptop.

"Alright, I'll set up shop here, and provide covering fire while you try to pry open the elephant's mouth for Sly," Bentley said, pointing up to the tower they stood by.

Murray nodded. "Check!" and then set off for the mouth while Bentley climbed back up inside the tower to reach the chopper. It really was a miracle that it's turret still worked...

A few guards caught on to what Murray was trying to do as he reached the mouth, and began making an attempt to stop him.

"Clear out those guards, before you take a crack at opening the mouth!" Sly advised his friend.

The fight was short-lived. Those guards never stood a chance against someone that was three times their size, but they got points for trying. "Nice work, now put those muscles to the test, and pry that thing open!"

Murray grabbed the lever, and got to work trying to lift it up. Of course, that was when Rajan tried some heavier fire power.

"Gadzooks! Rajan is raining down a bunch of hunter-seeker bombs on Murray!" Bentley exclaimed to himself. "He'll never be able to get that mouth open unless I destroy all of them!"

Bentley took aim at the slowly falling bombs, and proceeded to shoot down every last one of them. There was no shortage of them, but they weren't much of an issue for someone with aim as good as Bentley's.

"All clear from my position! How are you coming with that lever, Murray?"

"I'm working on it!" Murray groaned, having gotten the lever somewhere up over his head. A few moments later and it reached the top, clicking into position and holding there.

"The mouth is open, you're all clear to bring in the Cherry Bomb 500!"

Down in the temple grotto, Sly lifted up the barrel that contained the hefty explosive, and began making his way up to the mouth. Bentley had charted a route that had few guards on it, and Sly only encountered one on his way up, whom was easy to navigate around.

Once inside the mouth, Sly took the Cherry Bomb 500 to the door that was practically leaking water, and lit the fuse. Time felt as if it were going in slow motion as he and Murray booked it towards high ground, just barely making it up to a broken bridge.

Rajan came storming out of the entrance at the other side of this bridge, and then leapt up onto a space above the door. "Black Clouds and Thunder Bolts! My spice temple... Ruined ! I will no longer hide while you villains destroy my hard won empire! This place is mine!" he growled lowly.

"Here I am King! Come, face me, Cooper! With Clockwerk's black heart, I will show you true power! You are nothing! Come, face the mighty Rajan, lord of these hills!" Rajan dramatically leaned back and opened his arms to the sky as he screamed.

"Boy, when we try to tick someone off, we really do the job," Sly chuckled, regarding Rajan with an amused look.

"Yes... You do seem to have quite a talent for it,"

Sly turned towards the tigress who'd just appeared next to them. "Constable Neyla," he said, a smirk forming on his lips. "Slumming it with the thieves, again?"

"That man is an illegal spice trader," Neyla said firmly, pointing up at Rajan, whom was using Clockwerk's heart to summon bolts of lightning. "He should be brought to justice,"

"All I'm after is the Clockwerk part... You help me take him down and the bust is all yours," Sly offered, getting ready to leap into action.

Neyla's lips turned up into the slightest ghost of a smile. "Just try to keep up,"

Neyla leapt up onto the upper levels of the bridge, and began to leap across a serious of poles that had probably once held up an entire covering for the bridge. She dodged the bolts of lightning that Rajan tried to fry her with, and safely reached the other side, where she stayed low and awaited Sly.

Sly wasted no time in following Neyla's footsteps, crossing the spire jump bridge with the grace that only a Cooper could. He reached the other side where Neyla waited, and positioned himself on the other side of Rajan.

"Neyla, NOW!"

But Neyla simply didn't do anything. The smile on her lips almost turned into a sneer. "Sorry,"

"What are you doing?!" Sly demanded as Neyla leapt off the bridge to somewhere below, leaving Sly there. No sooner than the sentence had left the raccoon's mouth, Rajan caught on to him, and sent a bolt of lightning aimed right for Sly's face.

Even someone with the reflexes of a Cooper couldn't dodge something that fast when it was so close. Sly's unconcious body went flying as he was struck, his cane slipping from his limp fingers. From over the binocucom feed, both Bentley and Murray heard the terrified shrieking of Nyx in their ears.

"Wha-?" Murray spun around at the sound of Nyx shrieking, just in time to see Sly land in the bottom of a drained water basin, not moving and very clearly hurt. "SLY!"

Murray did not hesitate as he leapt into the basin after his friend. "I'm coming, buddy!" but before he could reach Sly's limp form, Rajan dropped into the basin as well, with a glare that could cut steel. Murray wasn't phased by this showoff, though, and stood his ground.

"This is it?" Rajan sneered. " This is the Cooper Gang I've heard so much about and feared these long hours?"

"'The Murray' will renew your fear!" Murray replied, raising his fists to invite Rajan to battle.

"Who's 'The Murray'? All I see is a fat, pathetic weakling!" Rajan bellowed, pointing a sharp claw at Murray.

"I might be big, and not as smart as the other guys..." Murray admitted, but then looked up at Rajan with a rivaling glare. "But one thing I'm not... Is WEAK!"

Rajan had nothing more to say, and thus began the battle. It started off as a seemingly even match as the two judged each other's abilities. Each were confident that they would win, and the odds were certainly up in the air.

From high up in the tower that the chopper perched upon, Bentley anxiously watched the whole ordeal. Sly wasn't moving, and Bentley could only hope that he was alive. The turtle was confident that Murray could best Rajan, but... Could Sly survive being electrocuted at point blank range?

Bentley shook those thoughts from his head, and instead settled on being very confused and alarmed as he saw a relatively familiar brown figure sprinting at full force towards the basin.

"Nyx!" Bentley hissed in nothing short of panic. Unfortunately, he knew she couldn't hear him from so far away, and she didn't have a binocucom earpiece; Something he was now cursing himself for. What in the name of god was Nyx doing?!

The feline in question didn't have an answer to that herself. And she wasn't interested in coming up with one just yet. She'd found a rope ladder in the safehouse, and went sprinting out of it, heading straight for the basin. Her goal? Getting Sly the hell out of there. When she reached the basin, she dropped the ladder down, secured it, and then decended as quick as she could.

"Sly?" Nyx almost mumbled, terrified to find out if he was alive or not. She turned him onto his back as best she could, and started shaking him. "Sly! Hey, c'mon, Sly! Wake up! Come on !"

It took a few moments of shaking and gently slapping his face, but Sly finally came to, groaning as he tried to focus his eyes. "Wh... Nyx?"

"Thank god, you're alive... Yeah, hi. You just got electrocuted, and we need to get the hell out of here. Can you walk? Or... Rather, climb?" Nyx was so nervous she was talking at the speed of sound, stumbling over her words. She pointed up to the ladder she'd dropped down, warily eyeing Rajan as he brawled with Murray.

The feline had spoken so fast that Sly's frazzled brain couldn't comprehend most of what she'd said. But he'd caught her question; Could he climb? He looked up at the ladder, and took a physical inventory. He felt like hell, but... "Yeah," he replied, starting to pull himself up. "I can climb,"

"Great!" Nyx exclaimed. "Hop to it, then. I'll be right behind you,"

Sly took a moment to find his balence, and then began climbing up the ladder. His limbs all felt like lead, and the movement was making him dizzy (which in turn made him nauseous), but he fought back the feelings and focused on not falling. Once he was at the top, Nyx wasted no time in scampering up after him.

"Okay, okay," Nyx panted, taking a moment to compose herself. She gave Sly a thorough once-over with her eyes; He didn't look good. He could barely stand up... "We've gotta get back to Bentley, c'mon," and then Nyx ducked under Sly's right arm, slinging it over her shoulder, hoping that it would give him balence, despite how short she was compared to him.

"Nyx-" Sly started, but she cut him off.

"Don't argue, just c'mon. Lean on me if you have to," Nyx hissed, starting to lead Sly towards the safehouse as fast as she dared to make him go.

Behind them, they both heard the sound of Rajan collapsing, having finally been bested by Murray. That gave them both momentary peace of mind.

But this was a very, very short moment, as no sooner than Murray had retrieved the second piece of the Clockwerk heart from Rajan... "Hold it right there, Cooper!"

Sly and Nyx froze, and the latter forced back a growl. Neyla... They turned to watch as the tigeress grinned venomously at them, and kicked down the ladder that Nyx had put in the basin, leaving Murray with no quick way out.

And as if things weren't bad enough, two figures emerged from the bushes to stand beside Constable Neyla; Inspector Fox to her right, and Contessa to her left.

"Here they are, Contessa," Neyla purred. "Just like I promised. The Cooper Gang and Rajan, all incapacitated," she picked Sly's cane up from off the ground, and cocked it behind her shoulder, mocking the way that Sly would do the same.

Nyx resisted the urge to growl again. Even if she wasn't incapacitated, she wasn't sure if she would be any help in a fight against trained Interpol agents. But... There had to be something she could do... She had to get Sly out of there, with how injured he was.

Nyx scanned her eyes over the three cops before her. While Neyla and Contessa were surely brutal and unforgiving, Inspector Fox had a look of worry about her as she looked at Sly.

And that was all the leverage Nyx felt she needed to give this a chance at working. It was a stupid plan, but it was all she had... "Sly," she said quietly, but firmly. " Run ,"

"Wh-"

"Don't argue with me, Sly," Nyx turned to glare at the raccoon as hard as she could, begging that it would be enough to make him listen to her. "Just go !"

And then in one sudden moment, Nyx had ducked out from under the raccoon's arm, shoved him the way he needed to go, and charged towards Neyla.

Neyla barely had the time to react before Nyx had pounced on top of her with feline precision, sending both of them tumbling down to the ground. "You stupid brat!" Neyla hissed, wasting no time in connecting her fist with the younger girl's face.

Nyx hissed at the pain, and was momentarily stunned as she hit the ground. But she refused to give up so easily, and blindly leapt back towards Neyla, her claws bared. They found purchase on Neyla's shoulder, and she clung fast.

"Inspector Fox!" Contessa snapped somewhere in the background. "Don't just stand there, Cooper is getting away!"

Carmelita obeyed the order to chase after Sly, but Nyx really hoped that he'd be able to get away from her. Or that she'd let him go... She'd looked genuinely worried about his poor condition, and Nyx was hoping that she could use Carmelita's empathy as leverage. She was also incredibly relieved that Sly had listened to her, instead of being his usual stubborn self.

Neyla growled low in her throat, and kicked Nyx off of her. While the latter was certainly heavier than Neyla, the Constable was stronger and faster. Nyx resisted the urge to cry out as she hit the ground yet again. She was disoriented, and her vision was taking too long to refocus.

When Nyx finally made out the vague purple shape of Neyla, she lunged back at the tigress, but was caught by her shoulders, and promptly wrestled down to the ground via some very fancy police disarming moves. Neyla shoved the other's face into the ground as she procured a pair of handcuffs. "Don't move, you're under arrest,"

Nyx hissed and growled, struggling to escape. She had to buy him more time... Without much of another option, she tried to flip herself over, and throw Neyla off. It was a partial success, and it at least let her get her arms free and away from the handcuffs.

But as she rolled over to try kicking Neyla in the face, someone else was suddenly holding her down with hands that were much stronger than Neyla's. Nyx shrieked in surprise and looked up to see two very burly Interpol agents staring her down. A glance towards the basin revealed at least five more of them wrestling Murray out of it.

Nyx gave a defiant cry that was half growl as she tried to wrench herself away from the two men. But as something nearly popped in her right shoulder, she realized that she'd probably sooner dislocate her shoulder than escape. So she finally gave up, and stopped resisting.

Neyla smirked, and Nyx returned it with a fierce glare as she was forced back down, and finally into handcuffs. ...She only hoped that she'd given Sly enough time to escape...

The two agents hauled Nyx to her feet once she was in handcuffs, and she became aware of a throbbing pain in her right ankle, as well. She could still walk on it, so at least it wasn't sprained.

Nyx watched from the grip of the Interpol agents, as the other five of them atempted to subdue Murray. At first, Nyx thought that maybe he'd be able to fight them off and escape; Murray was incredibly strong, he'd just beaten the crap out of Rajan, his odds were pretty even here.

But then Nyx became incredibly horrified as a sixth agent appeared, and used a fancy dart gun to nail Murray in the shoulder with a sedative. Nyx resisted the urge to yell as the hippo went down; Not quite unconcious, but unable to resist. She bit her lip hard enough to draw blood as Murray was then hauled out of the basin, and handcuffed.

Nyx glared at the pleased Interpol agents around her, growling very low in her throat. She was still riding an adrenaline high, and the realization of the situation hadn't quite kicked in.

Carmelita soon returned, looking incredibly put off. Nyx stared at Neyla, smiling smugly upon seeing that Sly was not with the vixen. ...He'd actually gotten away.

"I lost him in the foilage," Carmelita admitted shamefully. "He knew the area too well,"

"What a dissapointment, Inspector Fox. You can't even catch one injured criminal," Contessa shook her head like a dissapointed mother.

"Actually, Contessa, there's a good reason Carmelita never caught the Cooper Gang..." Neyla interupted, a venomous smile playing on her lips for just a split second. "She's been in leauge with them the whole time!"

"Liar!" Carmelita snapped, narrowing her eyes. "Prove it!"

"This is a photo of Carmelita dancing with Sly Cooper on the night the Clockwerk wings were stolen," Neyla said, handing Contessa a candid photo of Carmelita and Sly from Rajan's ball barely two weeks prior.

"But I didn't know I was dancing with Cooper !" Carmelita protested, knowing full-well that she was telling the truth.

Contessa seemed to regard the photo for a moment, before looking back up at Carmelita. "You two certainly seem very... Familiar in this picture..." she hummed almost thoughtfully. "Men, place Inspector Fox under arrest!"

Nyx watched in disbelief as two agents disarmed Carmelita and forced her into handcuffs. "I'll get you for this, Neyla!" the vixen growled. "Don't think I won't!"

"Such a shame when an officer falls from the light," Contessa sighed in a much too practiced manner.

"Yes... Indeed," Neyla agreed, and then turned to her prisoners.

Atop the rickety tower where Bentley had watched the whole fiasco unfold, said turtle had no idea what to make of the events that had just transpired. Everything had most certainly gone wrong, and he was angry at Constable Neyla for stabbing them in the back like this. But then he was also incredibly bamboozled at the stunt that Nyx had pulled...

But he didn't have any time to muse about any of this. Sly had escaped, and they needed to find each other, and get the hell out of there before the squad of Interpol officers entirely covered the temple.

Sly would go for the safehouse, Bentley knew that for a fact. So that was where the turtle headed. And sure enough, no sooner than he'd arrived and began preparing their gear for a getaway, Sly came through the door, looking incredibly weak and out of breath.

"Are you alright?" Bentley asked. If Sly was too injured, getting out of there was going to be a problem.

Sly waved off Bentley's concerns, despite feeling incredibly exhausted and weak. "I'm fine," he pointed back outside. "Is there anything we can do?"

Bentley solomnly shook his head. "No, Sly. Not in your current state. We need to get out of here,"

Sly looked hurt; Conflicted. He couldn't just leave his friends behind. Bentley understood the feeling, but he knew there was nothing that could be done. "Sly, I know this is hard, but they'll be fine. They're going to need us to get them out of jail, and we can't do that if we're arrested, too,"

Sly sighed and then nodded. Bentley was right. "Okay... Let's go,"

The two rounded up their equipment, and then fled the safehouse as fast as they could, dissapearing into the thick foilage and beginning their hike back to the Cooper van.

On the other side of the temple, Nyx, Murray, and Carmelita were chained together in a line, and being led away towards whatever Indian headquarters Interpol had there.

But despite the grim situation, Nyx was feeling pretty acomplished.

Chapter Text

I heaved a sigh as I stared up at the prison ceiling. There were so many things going through my mind that I honestly couldn't pick just one to think about. My fingers idly poked the bruise around my left eye from where Constable Neyla had punched me. It still hurt, and I figured that it would for a while more; Neyla had a really strong right hook.

After Rajan's temple had been scoured top to bottom, and no sign of Bentley or Sly had been found, Neyla had been pretty pissed off. She'd angrily chained the three of us together, and marched us off through the woods, to destinations unknown to us.

And I had thought the hike into the temple had been bad... I would have honestly given anything to just do that again - Quicksand and all. Anything was better than being forced through the woods by a two-faced cop; Especially when you're pretty sure something isn't quite right with your ankle. At least I knew it wasn't sprained, I could still walk on it and it didn't hurt too badly. It made keeping up and not jerking the chain a little bit tough, though.

Despite the gravity of the situation I had found myself in (I'd just gotten myself arrested for Pete's sake!), I wasn't all that angry or scared on my own behalf, and that was something that surprised me. As soon as I realized that I was going to jail, I was expecting to be angry at myself for possibly throwing away my entire life; To be guilty for helping a high profile criminal.

But none of those feelings ever came. Instead, I remained angry at Neyla for turning on Sly, and letting him get hurt just so she could try to make an arrest; And I was certainly angry at her for being so two-faced. Somehow, I felt like someone should have known not to trust a cop that was being so convienient ...

I was scared for Sly, too; I didn't know how bad his injuries were, and if he was going to be okay. That was really my biggest worry... He'd said they'd 'faced worse' and come out alive before the heist, but I wasn't sure if there was anything worse than being struck by lightning; At point blank range, too. He'd been a complete mess when I'd gotten to him, and I could only hope that he'd pull through and be alright.

But amongst all of the negative feelings, there was a sense of pride and peace; I had actually managed to help Sly get away, and I'd done it all by myself. Wherever he and Bentley were, they were safe. And I knew that once they sorted everything out, they were going to come for Murray and I.

After exiting the jungle, an Indian police van was waiting for us, and took us to a small prison building, where we waited overnight while the authorities presumably filed all the necessary paperwork that goes with an arrest, and tried to figure out where to incarcerate us.

When the decision was made and we were informed of it, I was finally hit with the realization that this was probably going to be really bad.

We were to be incarcerated at Contessa's Criminal Rehabilitation Center, in Prague. Just the name of the place made my fur stand on end, and it was made worse by the fact that Contessa ran the whole place. Her name was in the title! The way she had spoken when she'd 'assisted' in our arrest was so... Off-putting. She spoke too deliberately, like she was reading from a script, and it made me suspicious of her motives.

But even with the knowledge of our undesirable destination, I tried to put on a brave face and not panic or freak out. I couldn't give Contessa - Or anyone - The satisfaction of breaking me so easily. And once I had made this resolve, I made an attempt to keep a level head, and think about this situation a bit objectively...

I had faith that Bentley and Sly wouldn't let anything awful happen. I trusted them with every fibre of my being, and I knew that they would come for us as quickly as they could. Despite Contessa's prison being insanely secure, I had faith that if anyone would be able to break us out of it, it'd be Bentley. I had no idea what that turtle's IQ was, but I had to guess it was pretty high. He'd get us out, I had no doubts. And with this belief, I was able to stamp down the majority of my panic. This wouldn't be forever, I kept telling myself.

Along with that, I put to rest my confusion about why I wasn't angry with myself for choosing this path. I remembered the conversation I'd had with Bentley shortly before Operation: Wet Tiger, and decided that this was still a cause I was dedicated to, and that life was certainly not all black and white.

After having spent the whole plane ride to Prague sorting through all of these things in my head, when we arrived at the prison, there was only one thing on my mind that was truly bothering me, and it was something I wasn't too sure how to make sense of.

It was the feeling of inadequacy. Feeling like I had failed. And I while I knew it was ridiculous, I was having a bit of a hard time stamping down those feelings. My logic somehow kept going in a circle, and I couldn't settle on an answer that pleased me. I would have just ignored it, like I'd done everything else, but when you're in prison, you really don't have much else to think about.

I was finally roused from my circle of confusing logic by the sound of heavy footsteps approaching me. I turned my head to see whom was walking into my cell, and smiled. "Hey, Murray," It was nice to have someone I was familiar with around; It was helping me to keep that resolve to not freak out.

"Hey, I wanted to make sure that you're alright," Murray said. "This place is kinda creepy,"

"Yeah," I gave a small laugh, sitting up so that Murray could join me on the uncomfortable prison bed. "Kinda reminds me of Dracula's castle, y'know? ...Ooh! That totally ties into my vampire theory from before, doesn't it!" I wasn't really sure how it actually did, but it made me think of the analogy I'd made when I was observing Sly pickpocket the guards in Dimitri's nightclub. And I wanted to try keeping both our spirits up, so I tried my hardest to make a joke out of it again.

Murray actually laughed, whether it was real or for my own benefit, I'll never know, but it helped me relax a bit more. "Yeah, I guess it does!"

I laughed a bit, too, but then the humor faded, and I found myself staring morosely at the floor again, and I didn't know what to say. I wasn't freaking out at least, but being confused and feeling like I'd messed up wasn't really much better.

There was a brief silence, before Murray spoke up again. "Do you wish you hadn't gone out there to help Sly?"

The question caught me off guard, and my head snapped up to stare at Murray incredously. The look on my face quickly changed to a more severe one, as I replied firmly with the only feasible answer. "No. Absolutely not,"

"Oh," Murray sounded like he'd expected me to say yes. "Then why do you look so sad? You know that Bentley and Sly will come get us out, right? And while we're here, 'The Murray' isn't gonna let anything happen to you!"

I laughed just a little bit. Those were all legit things I could have - And should have - been worrying about, but none of them bothered me anymore. "No, that's not it, Murray..." I didn't know how to go about saying it. Would he understand?

"Then what is it? You know you can trust me, right?" Murray put an arm around my shoulders in a comforting embrace, and I leaned towards his warmth.

I sighed, and decided to bite the bullet. "I should be angry at myself for acting on a whim and getting myself arrested, right? I should feel guilty for associating myself with a high profile criminal and probably ruining my chances of going back to a normal life... But I'm not,"

"Soo then what are you mad about?" Murray asked.

"I'm mad because I feel like I didn't do good enough... And that I never will..." I said it before I had the time to decide that I didn't want to. Maybe if I just got it out of my system now, I could stop worrying about it for a while?

"What do you mean? You helped Sly escape!" Murray objected. He sounded so absolutely honest about it, and it was nice to know that at least one person didn't think that I'd messed up.

"I know, and I can't believe I actually did that! But it feels like it was beginner's luck..." I took a deep breath; It felt so stupid to be saying this aloud. "And I know that it's not my choice if I stay and help, but I've never felt so... Dedicated to a cause before... And I'm scared that this one time I decide to step out of the sidelines and try to be someone more... I'm going to fail miserably. Does that even make sense?"

"'Course it does, it's totally normal to be scared of failing," Murray replied. "But you've gotta remember that no matter what you try doing, you're always gonna suck at it at least a little bit when you first start off, y'know,"

"Rome wasn't built in a day, yeah," I nodded; It was true. No one was born knowing exactly how to do something. It took time and determination to master something.

"Exactly! You've gotta start off small when you really get into learning something, and of course you're gonna mess up, that's what people do, no one's perfect," Murray continued. "And it's not like you'd be doing it alone, either. If you mess up, that's what having a team is for, we watch each other's backs!"

"You're exactly and one-hundred percent right," I agreed. "It feels like I've just been a nobody on the sidelines for so long, though... I don't know if I'm capable of suddenly becoming somebody in a cause so grandoise as this one... I suppose I have a deep-seated feeling of never being good enough..."

Murray hummed thoughtfully. "Do you know that when we started out, I was just the getaway driver?"

"Uh. No?"

"Yeah! I was all shy and timid and I'd never hit anyone in my life! I was just meant to drive the van to make a quick escape. But on our journey to reclaim the Thievius Raccoonus, we all overcame a lot of trials. I learned to face my fears and rise up above them! And after that, I decided I wanted to be someone a lot better! And so I worked really hard to become that!" Murray explained.

"And thus 'The Murray' was born?"

"Yep!" Murray replied. "Anyone can become someone awesome, if they put their mind to it! And with great friends to help you, you'll totally succeed! So don't doubt yourself okay? If this is what you really want for yourself, we'd be happy to have you!"

I was quiet a moment, and I blinked a few times as I factored in all of that information into the circle of confusing thoughts I'd been caught up in. This was different than anything else I had ever been involved in... It was unique, and I'd been juggling around all the pieces to it for a while, trying to figure out if I fit into them.

And as I looked up at Murray's smiling face, all the pieces finally seemed to fall into place, and I smiled back.

The week following Operation: Wet Tiger was possibly the most stressful week that Sly and Bentley had ever lived through. And the five hours it took to hike out of the woods was definitely the highlight of it.

Sly insisted that he could walk, and was fine, but Bentley wasn't so sure about it. The raccoon could barely walk a straight line, if what he was doing could be called walking. Being electrocuted had definitely taken more of a toll on him than he was ready to admit, and thus the pace of their hike was set pretty slow.

With Murray and Nyx arrested, and Sly injured god-knew how badly, Bentley felt as if suddenly the weight of the whole world had been dropped on his tiny turtle shoulders. For the first time ever, everything seemed like it was up to him.

And for the first time in a while, Bentley was doubting himself. They'd always been a team, working side by side; One person's strengths covered another's weakness. Bentley had never worked alone before, and he wasn't sure if he was ready to. He supposed he had no choice, though... Murray and Nyx were surely counting on him to get them out of prison, and there was no way he could let them down, and allow them to spend however many years there.

Like it or not, he had to rise up to the occassion... He only hoped that he'd actually be able to.

When they'd reached the van, Sly wasted no time in crawling into the back, and promptly passing out. Bentley was concerned for a moment and considered trying to wake the raccoon back up, before realizing that he sort of had bigger problems... He didn't know how to drive a stick shift.

The next hour and a half were nearly as stressful as the previous five, as Bentley tried to aquiant himself with the controls of a stick shift. It was a miracle that the constant stop-and-go didn't wake up Sly in the back, whom was most likely getting shifted about back there. He was lucky that Bentley had finally mounted the Clockwerk wings up on the top of the van, so as not to have a repeat of last time.

By the time Bentley reached a civilized road, he'd mostly gotten the hang of driving the van, and would at least not be pulled over for driving like a maniac. After passing through a few small Indian cities, Bentley picked a small hotel, and booked a room.

Normally, he wouldn't have minded just camping in the van as he tried to locate their friends, but Sly needed a proper place to rest. Who knew how long it would take for Bentley to get any leads, it would be best if Sly wasn't sprawled in the back of the van for that long.

And thus the next week was spent rather routinely in that small hotel room. Bentley would make sure that Sly didn't keel over from his injuries (keeping the stubborn thief in bed once he was awake turned out to be a whole other task), and spent the rest of the day hacking at record speed, trying to find some trace of Murray or Nyx.

Interpol however, was doing a real good job of not releasing any form of public information about the arrests, which was doing nothing but making Bentley's job harder.

There were about nine hours left before a week became eight days, when Bentley finally had a breakthrough. He could swear he heard angels singing as he finally found a miniscule point of information that led him on a bread crumb trail of data, which finally led him to the solution.

Looked like they were going to Prague. Bentley wondered if Sly spoke Czech...

"This kinda reminds me of the famous Alcatraz escape..." I mused, trying my hardest to not be nervous about this at all.

"What's Alcatraz?" Murray asked curiously.

"It's a prison on an island in the San Fransisco bay. Most secure prison in the US or something like that," I explained. "But there's only one escape that happened there. Three guys made a raft out of raincoats and rubber cement, and escaped through the storm drains of their cells,"

"Did they make it?"

"Yes, and no. They got off the island without being noticed, but they never showed up anywhere else. It's presumed that they drowned somewhere in the bay," I said.

Thankfully, we weren't trying to raft our way out of Contessa's prison, otherwise thinking about the fate of the Alcatraz escapees would have made me more nervous than I already was. Though we were indeed trying to escape an insanely secure prison, via the storm drain of my cell. Sort of. The plan was that I would slip out via the storm drain that Murray had managed to pry open, and see where it led me. If possible, I would steal some keys or a keycard, or something that might be useful in getting us both out.

I really wished that it didn't have to be me doing this. But Murray was too big to fit into the drain. Hell, I barely fit, myself. But my feline genes were helpful for once, and I was pretty certain I could get through. People had slipped through smaller spaces... I recalled a prison escape where an Asian man who practiced yoga managed to slip out of the food slot of his jail cell. I could totally go through this much larger storm drain...

I was entirely certain that had it not been for the emotionally reassuring presence of Murray, I would not be doing this at all. This wasn't something I would come up and decide to attempt on my own. But we both agreed that we had to try something. We'd discovered quite quickly that Contessa was a grade A lunatic.

Not to mention a member of the Klaww Gang. I hoped that Sly and Bentley knew that... It didn't take Murray and I long to realize that Contessa was serving meals covered in those illegal Indian spices, and via other inmates, we began to speculate that she was somehow using the effects of the spices to achieve mind control via hypnosis.

This was not something that either of us wanted to experience. And we decided that it would be better to try and fail, than to not try at all. The results would be mostly the same if we failed or just didn't try, but on the off chance we succeeded... Well, that was worth the shot.

"Well, at least we're not making a raft," Murray said. "You're sure you can fit in there, though?"

"Yeah. Yeah, of course. I'm a cat, I can totally do this," I was almost lying through my teeth. Physically, I was pretty certain it'd be fine. Mentally? I wasn't so sure. But I had to try. We also couldn't stand there with the storm drain open for much longer before someone noticed what we were up to... It was really lucky that the screws on the storm drain were rusted enough that Murray could pry it open without being noticed. I probably couldn't afford to go pushing that luck.

I took a deep breath, and began to crawl into the storm drain, trying to calm the panic in the back of my mind. This had the potential to go incredibly and horribly wrong, but I tried to tell myself that the probability of it was only 50/50, so I also had a good chance of making it.

"Good luck! 'The Murray' will cover for you while you're gone," Murray said as he closed the gate behind me.

"Thanks. I'm definitely going to need all the luck I can get," I sighed. It was dark in the drain, and definitely sort of dirty. I tried not to think about that. I gave my eyes a moment to adjust, and began crawling through it. I couldn't see the end, and I figured that it would possibly make a few turns before coming out somewhere.

I tried to not think about somehow getting stuck in there... There were a million horrible things going through my mind, and it took a whole lot of willpower to not succumb to them. I felt pretty acomplished for actually managing not to.

It felt like forever that I was inside the storm drain, and I'd taken quite a few turns, before I finally saw an exit. And lucky me, there was no grate over it, meaning that I could easily get out.

Okay. The easy part was over. Now I had to get out into the prison grounds, and not get caught whilst trying to find something useful. I had literally no experience in sneaking around, and I really wished I'd been more open about Sly teaching me things back when he'd first offered. They would really come in handy right now...

But I supposed that for now, I'd just have to make do. I'd played some stealth video games before; Assassin's Creed, Splinter Cell, probably a few others... I totally had a general concept of what needed to be done to be sneaky.

...The question was; Did I have the physical skill to pull it off? We'd just have to wait and see, I supposed. I looked left and right as I peered out of the storm drain. It really had been such luck that the screws on the grate in my cell were rusted, I thought idly. This prison was meant to be inescapable. It had to be pure luck that I'd found a way out so easily...

The fact that it had indeed been so easy was putting me on edge, too. It felt too easy... We should have had to work for all aspects of our escape. The Alcatraz guys jumped through so many tiny hoops to achieve theirs. And here I'd found a way into the prison yard so easy? It felt too good to be true.

Once I was sure the coast was relatively clear (it was a prison, no way it would ever be 100% clear), I climbed out of the storm drain, and took a better look around. I had no idea where I was. I assumed I'd came out the other side of cell block D, but I couldn't be sure. None of the buildings were obviously labelled, so I could only imagine what anything was. Various buildings had lights on, and I decided it was maybe best to avoid those.

I hadn't seen any guards yet, and that made my suspicions continue to rise. This felt too easy... Contessa kept boasting about how we'd never escape, how her guards were highly trained, and had motion sensors and everything... Yet I'd escaped my cell and could easily make a break for it if I wanted to.

Of course, I wasn't going to do that. If I was going to be actually escaping, Murray was going to be coming with me. That was the plan, and I refused to leave without him. I needed to find some guard's keys... If we could just unlock the doors and get out, maybe we'd have some kind of chance of fighting our way out?

But where was I going to find a guard who had keys that would unlock the cell doors, and the internal doors to the cell blocks and such? Wouldn't I need to find a high ranking guard or something? Any guard who was high ranking could probably kick my ass real fast without breaking a sweat, so I would have to find a way to not confront him... Which was definitely easier said than done.

Perhaps there was a break room or something? Would that be inside the actual prison walls, or in the surrounding buildings that were probably storage or something? I had no way of knowing... But if it was out here with the rest of the buildings, it would most likely be one of the ones with the lights on...

And I'd already established that I didn't want to go near those... Ugh, conflicting ideas... There was no way of even knowing if any of the lit buildings were break rooms for the guards, and I wasn't sure if I wanted to risk this whole plan for nothing.

I was totally overthinking this, wasn't I? Yeah, I was. I had to stop just standing there and trying to think of every little possibility there was. I had to do something. I had to rely on my instincts here. If I even had any... I was wasting time just standing by the grate, and increasing my chances of being caught.

So I swallowed back all my fears, and began to move. Directly in front of me was a building that didn't seem to have windows, and so I very quickly moved into the shadow that the side of it created. I was lucky it was already dark, it made the shadows even deeper.

My heart was beating out of my chest, and it took everything I had to keep my breathing under control. I could do this, I kept telling myself. I was capable of this. From this tall building, I could see train tracks off in the distance. Why Contessa needed train tracks, I would never know. But I made a note to be aware of any possible trains. The last thing I needed was for this to fail because I got hit by a train.... No, no I wasn't going to think about that.

Across from the building I currently stood at was another one. This one was smaller, but would provide enough cover. Or so I hoped. So I very quickly made a mad dash to it, and then peered around the side of it, looking at the rest of the prison ground.

Not too far off, I saw a vulture guard patrolling, and a few wolves up on the rooves. Okay, so there were definitely guards out and about. Somehow, that actually made me feel relieved.

Off to my left a bit was what appeared to be an abandoned building, and to the right were a few others with purposes unknown to me. One of the ones to the right had lights shining through the windows, and I was debating heading over to it.

Of course, right when I had made my decision to go check it out, I was scared out of my wits by the loud screetching of the prison alarm.

I hissed out an expletive under my breath. Did they know I was gone?

My question was answered moments later by a thickly accented voice over an intercom. "Attention all guard personnell. There has been a security breach in the evidence lockup. I repeat, there has been a security breach in the evidence lockup. All personnell are instructed to remain where they are, and cut off all escape routes. I repeat, stay where you are and cut off all escape routes,"

The evidence lockup? Someone was breaking into the evidence lockup ...? It took my brain a moment to put it together.

Were Sly and Bentley here? Sly's cane had been confinscated as evidence in the case, and of course he'd need it back if he was going to help break out Murray and I. But did this really mean that they were here?

The stunned moment that I took to rearrange my thoughts turned out to be a really big mistake. I tensed up upon hearing an unfamiliar word shouted by someone very close to me, followed by, "Freeze! Do not move!"

Yet another expletive escaped my lips, and for a split second I pondered what I should do as I stared down the wolf who'd spotted me. I'd made it this far...

Perhaps it had been a generally bad decision, but I turned and ran, darting around the corner of the building, and heading diagonal of it. It was just this one guy who'd seen me. All I had to do was lose him, right?

Wrong. After the announcement over the intercom, the guards had assembled into some kind of formation (which I really should have seen coming), and were positioned literally everywhere. As soon as I reached the next building, I promptly had to turn around as I came face to face with two vultures.

This was totally a really bad idea, holy crap! I darted to my left, around another building, and was starting to consider diving into the water. I wasn't the best swimmer ever, but I could tread water and I could move forwards. The water looked pretty calm, and I was pretty sure that vultures couldn't swim. Of course, the possibility of tiring out or messing up and drowning was not a very pleasant one...

I'd try to lose them for just a little bit longer, before trying to swim... I was smaller than these guys, meaning I was just a bit faster. If I could just get far enough away, and then slip into a hiding place...

That idea failed before I could even attempt to implement it, as something very heavy suddenly plowed into me from the right, knocking the wind out of me, and knocking me to the ground. I tried to struggle, but the left side of my forehead hit something hard, and for a few long moments, nothing seemed to exist at all.

When my hearing finally crackled back into existence, along with my ability to think and feel, I was aware of someone still holding me down, and could make out vague words between various people. I was too busy trying to retain my conciousness to focus on what they were saying or doing. My head was pounding like crazy, and it wasn't helping me to not pass out again.

Amongst the jumbled thoughts in my head, the most prominent one was that this plan was most definitely busted.

I clung on to my conciousness for as long as I could, trying to entirely rouse myself, but it was a battle I was destined to lose, and eventually I slipped into total darkness.

Apparently that 50/50 chance wasn't on my side this time.

Chapter Text

When I first became aware of existing again, I immediately decided that I did not want to. It was a familiar feeling, but this time it was acompanied by a throbbing pain in my head that seemed to originate from the left side of my forehead.

Despite being only half-concsious, I was aware of vague thoughts swimming through my head. None of them really seemed to make all that much sense, though... But somewhere in the back of my head was this urgent feeling, like something important was meant to be going on, and I needed to remember what it was.

But for the life of me, I couldn't remember what had happened, let alone what might be so important. I somehow felt like I shouldn't have forgotten... Which was another feeling that was somehow incredibly familiar...

I finally started coming to at the exact same moment that I remembered what was so important. As my brain finally decied to wake up, all the pieces finally clicked back into place, as if I had never forgotten them in the first place.

My attempt at finding a way to get both Murray and I out of prison had failed incredibly miserably. In hindsight, I shouldn't have expected anything less. It was the most secure prison I'd ever heard of, what made us think that an eighteen year old with no prior criminal training could have found a viable way of escape?

It had been a plan doomed to failure the minute we conceived it, but we figured that we had to try something... I wasn't sure if that had really been the right plan of attack, though. I was probably in way more legal trouble than I had been before. I groaned at this thought as I tried to sit up, dreading the punishment I was probably going to receive.

My head was swimming a bit as I pulled myself into a half-sitting position and rubbed at my eyes. I was aware of a bandage wrapped around my forehead, seeming to be catering to my left eyebrow region. I took a moment to regain my bearings as I stared at... The dingey wood flooring? I abruptly stopped rubbing my eyes, and slowly looked up, becoming aware of the other person in the room with me.

"Welcome back to the land of the living. We were starting to get worried about you,"

I blinked a few times, trying to get my brain to comprehend what I was seeing. Though the lighting was dim and my glasses were nowhere in sight, there was no mistaking the person whom was sitting at a table a few feet away from me. I blinked another two times, almost believing that this was a dream.

"Bentley?"

He got up from his seat and walked over to me, and now I could see that he was smiling gently at me. "You're lucky we found you before the guards got you back inside,"

...So that had really been them breaking into the evidence lockup? And they'd found me, and rescued me... I let out a flimsy sigh as I realized that some small part of this was over. I wasn't in the prison anymore, and that alone was enough to give me hope again. I was so overcome by the concept that I couldn't think of a single thing to say.

"Nyx? Are you alright?" I was snapped back to reality by Bentley's concerned query.

I gave a breathless laugh and nodded slightly. "Yeah, I'm... I'm alright. My head's just a little mixed up right now and I can't believe this is actually happening..." I pulled myself into a proper sitting position, despite my sore body and pounding head. ...And I thought I'd been sore after wrestling Clockwerk's wings...

"That's quite reasonable, you took a pretty nasty hit to the head when the guards subdued you," Bentley nodded thoughtfully. "Whatever you hit your head on was sharp enough to break the skin, probably aided by getting caught on your piercing,"

I raised my hand to touch the bandage over said spot. "I never thought I'd ever get an eyebrow piercing caught on something..." I mused. "Guess I'll have a prison scar now, huh? Be a pretty funny story later on, don't you think?"

Bentley had to laugh a little at my stupid joke. "Good to know that you're not mentally scarred,"

I laughed, too, and then finally noticed that something was missing. I'd been too focused on being happy about seeing Bentley again that I hadn't noticed. And I was immediately a bit concerned. "Where's Sly?"

"He's out trying to contact Murray. I've found a weakness in the solitary confinement cell, and if he can get thrown in there, we should be able to break him out," Bentley replied.

I let out a small sigh of relief and nodded. Some part of me had almost assumed that something had gone wrong when they'd relieved the guards of their responsibility over me. "Good... Oh man, I hope Murray doesn't think I ditched him..."

Bentley raised an eyebrow. "Ditched?"

"Why else do you think I was out there? We kinda tried to orchestrate our own jailbreak, heh..." I said, laughing nervously. "We figured it was worth the shot at the time. Murray pried open the storm drain, and I crawled out of it. I was supposed to try finding keys or some way to get both of us out - Because I wasn't gonna go anywhere without him even if I could - But then the alarms went off, and I got spotted and, well... You know the rest,"

"I wondered what you were doing out there..." Bentley replied. "That was a pretty bold move,"

"Yeah, I know... Stupidest thing I've ever done but. Hey I guess it worked out?" I shrugged. "And I mean, we couldn't just sit there and let that psychopath try and brainwash us! Do you know she's a member of the Klaww Gang?"

"That we do... Sly's been pretty angry at himself for letting you get caught by them, you know," Bentley said, and I felt like there was a specific reason he was telling me this.

Which was most likely the fact that we both knew this wasn't Sly's fault. But we also both knew that Sly is incredibly stubborn. "...I'll talk to him," I said decidedly.

Bentley smiled as if to say thank you. "You're also going to have to explain what you were thinking when you left the safehouse,"

I groaned. "I was hoping I could delay that a little more..."

"I think I understand your reasoning, but Sly probably needs to hear it from you," Bentley said. "He's going to find it hard to believe that someone like you would be willing to risk everything for him,"

"That makes sense..." I mumbled, more to myself than to Bentley. "You guys grew up together, it's always been just the three of you, huh?"

Bentley nodded. "Mhm. Sly might need a little convincing to believe that you really want to do this, but I don't think he'll mind having you around,"

"Yeah, I-" I stopped mid-sentence. "Wait a minute, did I miss something? I don't recall confessing my allegiance to your cause quite yet,"

Bentley smiled both deviously and knowingly. "You didn't need to tell me, running out of the safehouse to help Sly - Despite all the danger - Said it all,"

I blinked at him for a moment. And then I smiled and shook my head. "Sometimes you scare me, Bentley. Are you sure you're not a mind-reader? Do you have a crystal ball stowed away somewhere?"

Bentley chuckled. "I'm pretty sure I'm just a very observant turtle,"

"Pfft, sure. That's what they all say," I rolled my eyes (which made my headache worse somehow) and looked at Bentley skeptically.

We both laughed, and I felt a sense of peace that I had never realized I'd been missing until now. When the comedy finally faded, my thoughts returned to more serious matters as I began to think about Sly again.

"It's only been like a week... Is Sly really okay enough to be out there?" I asked. When I'd seen him last, he'd been a wreck, and I wasn't sure if just a week was enough to recover from a high-voltage electrocution. That stuff is deadly. That's why the electric chair is a thing.

"I wish I could tell you yes," Bentley replied, seeming just as unamused as I was. "He's alright to be up on his feet, but I don't know if he'll be able to handle one job after another... Only time will tell,"

I gave a thoughtful and worried hum. "...Well... If there's any jobs I can help with, know that I absolutely want to, okay? I've made my decision. So I wanna help,"

Bentley seemed to consider the idea for a moment. "How bad does your head hurt?"

"Not bad enough that some painkillers won't solve the problem," I replied. That was a lie, though; It hurt more than that. But if Sly could go running about when he was probably still pretty badly hurt, then I could fight through a simple headache. I was at least pretty sure I didn't have a concussion, so I figured I'd be okay.

"Alright," Bentley sighed. "I'll see what you can't help with - But first, those painkillers,"

"That sounds like a perfect order of business," I replied. "Also where in the world are my glasses? Those are kind of necessary for everything,"

"I know the feeling," Bentley replied. "They're over here, I just finished fixing them, they were a bit broken,"

"As if they hadn't taken enough abuse as it was," I sighed. Though at the least, I trusted Bentley's ability to fix things. I watched as the turtle moved about the safehouse, finding the painkillers and a bottle of water. He brought them to me, followed by my glasses.

I made a note to put my glasses on first. If I focused on it, they were just a little crooked, and there were a few scratches on the lenses. But if I didn't focus on it then it was like they weren't there at all. I took the painkillers and also downed half the water bottle. "Okay. Step one completed. Step two; Talk turkey about prison breaks,"

Bentley rolled his eyes at my wording, and motioned for me to follow him to the table where his familiar laptop sat. My legs didn't exactly want to cooperate yet, but I forced them to cross the room and sit in a chair.

"Alright, you already know that Sly's off getting Murray into solitary," Bentley began.

"'Cause there's a weakness in that cell, right?"

"Yes. In order to get in there and get out, though, we're going to have to do some more work out here," Bentley turned his laptop towards me to show me all the schematics and algorithms that were involved in all this.

I nodded blankly at the math on the screen. "It's never easy, is it?"

"Nope. If we want to get into that cell, there's a number of things we must do; Destroy the main bridge, get a sample of Contessa's decryption algorithm, pickpocket Contessa for her tank blueprints, and destroy her giant attack robot," Bentley said, showing me information on each thing as he listed them.

My brain was sort of stuck on the last one, and I tried to not laugh. "Attack robot? Bentley... Bentley that's a water tower..."

"Sly said the same thing, but that's just what Contessa wants you to think! I assure you, it's a giant attack robot," Bentley insisted.

I smothered back a laugh that still managed to escape a little, but then regained my composure and nodded. "Alright, okay. But I wanna be there for that one,"

"Permission granted," Bentley said. "Sly could use a spotter for that one, anyways,"

Spotter? I was about to question this, when the safehouse door creaked open. I turned in my chair to watch Sly slip inside, and sort of got deja-vu as I did so. It reminded me of the first time we'd properly met, after I'd regained conciousness in the Paris safehouse.

Sly turned towards the table, looking like he was going to say something to Bentley, but then seemed to forget what it was when he saw that I was awake. He looked at me for a moment, as I did the same, and neither of us seemed to know what to say.

Finally, Sly broke the ice, and gave me a familiar smirk. "Hey. You doing okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. Not as shaken up as I honestly should be," I replied. We were totally almost quoting the first things we'd said to each other back in Paris. I was consciously doing it to amuse myself, but was he aware of it?

Sly laughed, and it was almost like some unseen force suddenly lifted off of him as he crossed the room to put a hand on my shoulder. "This is like deja-vu all over again, isn't it?"

"So you were quoting what you said when we first properly met?" I asked.

"Yup. Couldn't resist, it just felt so familiar," Sly shrugged, still grinning.

I laughed, and I almost could have forgotten where we were and what was going on. Despite everything that had happened, somehow here we were, making stupid jokes. It was good to know that nothing had changed. But yet, something had.

Sly took a moment to compose himself before speaking to Bentley. "Murray's gotten himself into solitary, all that's left is for us to get in there,"

"Which sounds way easier said than done..." I mumbled. "Like how in the world are you gonna pickpocket Contessa? She has guards shadowing her 24/7," I hated having to get back to business, but it had to be done. Murray was counting on us.

"I'm a Cooper," Sly purred, giving me a cocky sidelong glance. "I'll find a way,"

I rolled my eyes at him. "Sure you will,"

Sly snorted, and then a look of thoughtfulness crossed his face. "...It's good to see that you're not hurt... Too badly," he tacked on the last part after glancing at the bandage over my eye.

"You're concerned about me being hurt, and Bentley's concerned about me being mentally scarred, jeez what's with you guys?" I asked, saying it like a joke but actually being sort of serious about it.

Sly shrugged. "Can't be concerned for a friend?"

"Well sure you can!" I replied. "But you have no right to be worried about me. What about you? You got electrocuted a week ago,"

"Nyx, I'm fine. It wasn't that bad," Sly said, obviously trying to squirm away from the subject.

"Sly, I saw you. You were a wreck," I replied, staring directly at him.

"Okay, alright, fine. But I'm okay now, will you accept that?" Sly asked, putting his hands up placatingly.

I sighed. "No, but..." I paused. Thinking about the last time I saw him wasn't pleasant. I got up from my chair and wrapped my arms around him in the tightest hug I could manage. "...I'm just glad you're not dead,"

Sly hesitated just a bit before returning the hug and holding me tightly. "It takes more than a little electricity to kill a Cooper,"

"Mhm, sure," I mumbled into his shoulder.

Eventually I pulled away, despite not wanting to. Sly was warm and huggable, but we had important business to attend to. "Oh, also, Bentley says you're blaming yourself for me ending up in a prison run by a Klaww Gang member. And that's a thing that's gonna stop right here and now,"

Sly looked very caught off-guard by my sudden change of conversational direction. And for a moment he stared at me, before finally responding. "We offered to let you come with us to avoid them, though. And here it feels like we just handed you over,"

"No," I said firmly, gesturing at him with the index finger of business. "I ended up in prison because I made the decision to help out someone I care about a lot. It hasn't been about the Klaww Gang for me for quite a while now,"

"...Then what is it about?" Sly asked.

"It's about you. About this gang. About the people I care about and the good cause you've introduced me to," I replied. "Before now, I can't think of a single thing that I actually wanted to fight for, because I loved it and the people involved. I was okay with just being over on the sidelines of life and doing my own thing,"

"And then I met you guys and I learned all about what you do. And after months of sharing it with me, and getting to know and like each other... After I actually helped a few times... Do you really not believe that maybe I care a whole lot?"

Sly stared at me, blinking slowly. I patiently awaited his reaction as he seemed to mentally organize what I'd just told him.

"This is really somthing you wanna do?" Sly finally asked. "You'd be giving up everything you've ever known, to be part of our gang. You couldn't go back,"

"I honestly think I already can't, Sly. I was arrested for being associated with you, I'm definitely in some deep trouble. I made that choice and I do not regret it," I replied.

Sly was silent just a moment more. And then he smiled and nodded. "Alright... Alright you win,"

I beamed up at him trumphantly. I had almost expected it to take more convincing, but I was glad that it hadn't. I knew that learning all the nuances of being part of this gang was going to be tough, but I'd already decided it was something I was willing to fight through.

"But now you cannot escape those pickpocketing lessons, y'know," Sly purred smugly, grinning down at me.

"You say that like it's a bad thing. That would have honestly been useful earlier," I said. Although, it would have taken way more than pickpocketing skills to have kept Murray and I's previous plan from failing.

"Perhaps instead you should begin by teaching her how to get around without being caught? That's quite essential," Bentley suggested. He'd been quiet while Sly and I had our rollercoaster moment of emotions, but now it seemed he was ready to properly dive back into business.

"Yeah, that's a good place to start, too," Sly agreed. "After all, your first attempt went pretty badly," he teased.

"Hey!" I protested. "I was doing just fine until someone tripped the alarm in the evidence lockup,"

Bentley made a sound that was half groan and half laugh as our attention was then drawn back to making fun of each other.

It had taken a bit of effort from Bentley to corral Sly and I into talking business again. But once he did, business was all that mattered. I had to remind myself that Murray was counting on us. Sly had assured me that the hippo didn't think I'd bailed on him. Sly said that he'd been pretty worried when I'd never come back (or been brought back), and was relieved to hear that I was safe.

And now we had to put all our effort into getting him out. It felt sort of strange, actually being a part of things now. It felt like being on the other side of the glass. Everything was still familiar, the same things I'd been watching... Except now I wasn't watching anymore, I was there in the thick of it.

Which was actually a little bit terrifying, considering that 'the thick of it' was currently up on the roof of the prison. Lesson one in thieving had been how to sneak around and do it properly, and lesson two had been how to climb up stuff and not freak out on the way up.

...Learning to do this thieving thing was definitely going to take some doing, I realized. But I refused to let that faze me. I had climbed up here, and was doing a pretty good job at not falling or freaking out. I'm a cat, for god's sake, we're supposed to be good at climbing.

"...Now I understand why Bentley said you'd need a spotter..." I mumbled to Sly as we both stared at our general objective. "You sure you wanna get that close to more lightning?"

"Well, I trust you to tell me before it hits so I can get out of the way," Sly replied.

"Alright, good to know you trust me, otherwise this would never work," I nodded.

"Yep, it's all about team work," Sly said, clapping me on the shoulder and then jumping from the building we stood upon to dash towards the lightning rod thing.

Our current objective was to destory the water tower that was apparently actually a giant attack robot, according to Bentley. This was to be achieved by turning off all the lightning rods that were diverting lightning from the tower - Er - Robot. Hopefully, this would make a strong bolt of lightning hit the robot and destroy it. Or just spray water everywhere, if Bentley was wrong.

The thing about the lightning rods is that you can still get electrocuted by them if you're standing close enough to, say, shut them off. That's why Sly needed me as a spotter. Bentley said they glowed red when a bolt is about to strike them, so that's what I was looking for.

Physically, this was a very easy first job. Mentally it was a bit distressing. Because if I screwed up, Sly could very well be killed. But then... This wasn't actually my first job... That had been back in India with the spice grinder, and Sly could have gotten hurt then, too... And I'd done that just fine.

So alright, yeah. I could do this. As Sly approached the platform the rod was mounted to, I brought the binocucom I'd been given to my eyes, and zoomed in on the tower and the air above it. Bentley said they would glow red when a bolt of lightning is about to hit...

Except by themselves they were already red. I supposed that they would just glow brighter, then? I sure hoped so. I concentrated on the glow of the rod as intently as possible, as Sly made his way around it, closing all four valves around it's base.

"Alright, first rod is down," Sly's voice came in over the earpiece no sooner than his statement became obvious by the lightning rod powering down and becoming a lifeless gray. "Think you can follow me to the next one, Nyx?"

The next one, as marked by the nearest holographical waypoint, seemed like it could easily be reached by climbing back to the prison wall, and just moving around it. "Yeah, I think so,"

"Alright, watch out for guards,"

"Will do," I replied as I leapt back over the gap to the wall, and began making my way across it. Part of lesson one had been learning how to stay low and be quiet whilst moving, but also still move quickly. As a feline, the low and quiet part came a bit naturally to me, but adding the quickly to the quietly wasn't quite so simple. At least if I made a bit of noise up on the wall, there weren't really many guards around to hear it. Or so I hoped. Bentley had taken out the wall guards sometime before I'd woken up, and it seemed like Contessa hadn't found the time or resources to station new ones.

As I reached lightning rod two, I waved to Sly to let him know he was clear to climb up to it. He wasted no time in doing so, and began to close the valves. I was starting to relax into the concept of this job, and just everything in general, but I wasn't going to allow that to make me complacent. While I was a bit less on edge, I continued to focus intently on the lightning rod.

Which turned out to be a pretty good thing. It was hard to see at first, considering that the rod already glowed to some extent, but I very quickly realized that it was indeed glowing brighter...

"Sly, get out of there!" I tried my best to not sound totally freaked out, and I have to say I think I did pretty well.

As soon as the words left my lips, Sly jumped backwards off the platform, and clung to a ledge below it. No sooner than he'd done that, a bright bolt of lightning struck the rod, and it lit up like a fireworks display. Seconds later, and the low sound of thunder reached my ears.

"Nice job," Sly said as he pulled himself back up onto the platform to quickly close the last valve on that rod. "You sure you haven't done this before?"

"Well, technically speaking, I have. I guided you through the spice grinder, didn't I? This time I'm just actually here instead of being in the safehouse," I replied, trying to shrug off the adrenaline rush from the lightning show.

"Oh, technicalities," Sly laughed. He would probably have been rolling his eyes at me, had we been in proper visual range.

Perhaps it was his carefree and joking attitude that was helping me relax, but as we continued around the prison, disabling all the lightning rods, I felt less and less nervous about this. Even when the rods began to glow and I knew Sly only had seconds to get my warning and get out of dodge, the tense element was slowly melting away.

"And that's the last one," Sly announced as he closed the final valve on the final rod.

My gaze was drawn to my left at the sound and flash of a lightning strike, followed by electric sparks, and grinding metal. My jaw dropped as I watched the water tower - Now with glowing robotic eyes - try to walk on it's legs like a spider as it sparked and short-circuited.

The show was short-lived, as the robot quickly stopped functioning, and collapsed into a pile of smoking metal. Even once it was over, I continued to stare at it, half expecting it to get back up.

"That..." I was at a loss for words for a moment. "Might just be the most amazing thing I've ever seen..."

"Wow. I can't believe you were right, Bentley... A water tower guard-bot..." Sly sounded just as amazed as I was.

"See? Maybe next time you'll learn to not doubt me," and Bentley sounded incredibly smug that his ridiculous claims turned out to be true.

"How much do you think that thing cost?" I asked as I watched the smoke climb into the sky. "I've never seen anything like it, so probably a lot, huh? ...Interpol is gonna be pissed that it's been destroyed, aren't they?"

"The question is; Will they be more pissed that they let a Klaww Gang member rise to be one of their highest commanding prison wardens?" Sly asked in return as we both started back for the safehouse.

"Hm. Good question,"

I chewed at the inside of my lip as Bentley set up his slide projector. I was desperately trying to not let my apprehension towards our next objective get to me. ...The last thing I really wanted to do was go back inside that prison for any reason.

But this was for Murray, I reminded myself. He was counting on us to free him, and I'd be damned if I let my overthinking keep me from helping. This mindset, while helpful, still didn't entirely keep me from feeling just a little bit uneasy about the whole idea. By the time the water tower job had been over, I'd been pretty comfortable with the specifics of it, but each new task brought on a wave of uncertainty towards my own skills. I figured it would probably be like that for a while, and all I could do was fight through and prove myself wrong.

"Hey, you alright?" perhaps I jumped a bit as Sly sat down next to me, nudging me with his shoulder. He could most likely tell that I wasn't 100% sure of what I was doing. Amongst his skills, people reading is unfortunately one of them.

I sighed a bit in embarassment at my jumping, and then nodded. "Yeah, yeah I'm okay. Just. A little scared, I guess,"

"It's alright to be scared. No one expects you to go into this with nerves of steel. That comes with time," Sly replied. "You're doing great, all things considered. You've done better than I expected, that's for sure,"

"Always good to surpass expectations, I guess," I said, trying to laugh.

"I'm not gonna tell you to not worry, but I will tell you that it's gonna be fine," Sly said. "You're not expected to be perfect, but we're a team now. We've got each other's backs, okay?"

Now I had to actually laugh. "Murray said something really similar. Gave me an entire pep talk, actually,"

"That doesn't surprise me. He's really smart in his own way," Sly replied. "And I'm sure whatever he said is entirely right,"

"It was his pep talk that actually convinced me that I really could learn how to do this," I laughed quietly.

"Doubting yourself, are we?" Sly asked. While his tone was semi-light and teasing, there was definitely a serious and empathetic undertone to his words.

"I've never done anything like this before, I couldn't help but feel like I'd never be good enough to make a difference. But then Murray told me about how he'd started off just like me - Scared and not knowing how to do much. But he'd learned how to be stronger, and insisted that I could, too," I replied. Thinking about Murray's words was actually helping to ease my trepidation towards our upcoming prison break, and instead solidify my resolve to face whatever challenges it would present to me, and then learn from the outcome - Be it good or bad.

"Self-Doubt is something we all feel from time to time. But Murray's right, you can overcome it. You've already done more than expected of you, and you'll only get better from here out," Sly said, reminding me that while he's a goofball, he's also incredibly smart, too.

"For once, I'm actually starting to believe that," I said, nodding and smiling at the raccoon, who smiled back.

"Alright, slideshow's ready," Bentley announced, indicating that our campfire was over, and it was time to get down to business yet again.

Sly and I had double-teamed the encryption algorithm job together; He'd bamboozled the guard by setting off the alarms, and I'd snapped a picture of the security code that Bentley needed. Sly had then tackled pickpocketing Contessa by himself, which I did not argue about; It was undoubtedly beyond my skill level. And to finish things off, Sly and Bentley blew the main bridge to smithereens, making it harder for backup to reach the prison in time to catch us.

All that was left now was to get in, and get Murray out. After my conversation with Sly, I felt relatively ready to tackle that.

"We're all ears, pal," Sly said, prompting Bentley to fire up the projector and launch into the slideshow.

"Thanks to our recent efforts, we're ready to attempt a Murray rescue," Bentley began, cycling through various recon pictures. "I call this plan - The Trojan Tank,"

"Step one; We use the Contessa's keys to steal one of her tanks. I'll jump in and drive, while Sly keeps out of sight by crawling underneath," Bentley said. Sly didn't seem at all bothered by the notion of crawling underneath a tank, and I began to wonder just what strange and dangerous things he'd done in his life.

"With some luck, the guards won't notice anything out of the ordinary, and open the prison gates for us. We casually roll in... And then blast the security doors to Murray's cell block!" Bentley continued, enthusiastically drawing motion lines around the recon picture to indicate an explosion.

"Sly, once inside, you'll need to improvise your way up to the guard control center, and open the doors leading down to solitary confinement. Let's hope that Murray hasn't cracked under the Contessa's hypnosis..." Bentley sounded very worried as he said this. It was the first time that any of us had mentioned Contessa's hypnosis methods. It had been well over 12 hours since Sly and Bentley had rescued me (I'd been out longer than I'd thought, and getting all this work done had taken time) and the effects of the spice had mostly worn off on me by now. But we had no idea what kind of condition Murray would be in. I tried to not worry about it, but it had been obvious back in our cells that it was affecting him. Sly had seen it, too, when he'd gone to get him into solitary.

I thankfully had no time to worry and begin overthinking, though, as Bentley was suddenly addressing me. "Meanwhile, Nyx - As you know, Contessa confiscated the other half of the Clockwerk heart from Murray. We weren't able to retrieve it when we broke in for Sly's cane, so that's going to be your goal,"

They were trusting me with my own seperate part of this heist? I was almost unsure that I'd be able to manage it, but I made note to quickly shove the self-doubt away. I could do this, and even if I failed, I'd learn from it. I nodded to let Bentley know that I was ready to take on this responsibility.

"While the guards are focused on me and Sly, you can slip inside the evidence lockup from the back, and head to the evidence lockup. I've got the access codes, so you should have no trouble getting inside and retrieving the heart. Once you have it, meet us inside solitary, and we can all blow this popsicle stand," the slideshow flickered off as Bentley concluded his instructions and looked between me and Sly, waiting for any questions we might have.

"Alright. Let's do this," I said. There were probably some questions I could have asked, sure. But I chose to not overthink the situation, and just go for it. The plan was good, I didn't need to worry about any what-ifs, did I?

Bentley nodded, and moved to begin packing the projector back into it's box. We'd have to make a quick escape, so per usual, everything was being loaded into the van before we did anything else.

"Before I forget, Nyx," I turned upon hearing Bentley address me again. "This is in case you run into any guards,"

I took the sheathed item that Bentley handed me, and upon removing it immeditely recognized it as an expandable baton; The kind that police officers sometimes use. I extended the weapon with a flick of my wrist, and then had to laugh. "Using the weapons of the police force against them, huh? I like it,"

"I figured you might," Bentley laughed. "It's not exactly meant for heavy combat, but it should at least stun any guard you may run into, and give you time to escape. Which means you shouldn't go in there looking for a fight,"

"Wouldn't dream of it," I replied as I attatched the sheath to my belt. If at all possible, I would prefer to avoid a fight, honestly. Considering the fact that my last two attempts at it hadn't gone all that well...

"Alright. Last of the stuff's in the van, we're ready to go," Sly announced as he walked back inside from putting the last collection of boxes into the van.

"Okay, gang, let's move out,"

Chapter Text

As the ground shook below me, I lifted my ears at the sound of the tank canon blasting the doors to solitary confinement open. This operation was officially underway and in full-swing. Which meant that I had to be incredibly careful. There was no going back now, so all I could do was move forwards.

"Alright, I'm inside. Nyx, you better start moving, you might not have long," Sly's voice came over my earpiece, acompanied by the sounds of the alarms going off. Yeah, totally didn't miss that sound.

"Got it," I replied quietly, and jumped from my place on the prison wall to aproach the evidence lockup building. The semi-familiar announcement about a break-in began sounding over the intercom speakers, informing guards that someone had broken into solitary, and that they should get into 'formation'.

I figured that I'd likely be hearing the evidence lockup version of that announcement again real soon, providing that I actually managed to get inside the building. I had no idea why Bentley had trusted me with my own solo job, but Bentley always had his reasons, it seemed. This was the job he had given me, and I was going to give it my 110%.

"And be careful, okay?" Sly added, trying to make it sound casual and not at all like he actually was worried.

"Don't worry, careful is my middle name," I responded, as I came to a stop in front of the ground floor fire escape, and began to evaluate how I was going to get inside.

"Really?" Sly teased. "I thought your middle name was-"

"Can it, Sly," I replied. "I'm trying to focus, and so should you," it sounded like the raccoon was in the middle of fight at the moment, which meant that he needed to focus a lot more than I did.

Sly's breathless laugh came over the line as he replied. "Fair enough,"

The line went silent then, and I got back to examining the door. It was your typical fire escape door, and reminded me of the ones most classrooms had. Which meant that it opened freely from the inside, but was locked on the outside. I figured it was some kind of electromechanical or electromagnetic lock? I wasn't sure, but it was obvious that the skeleton keys Sly had given me 'just in case' weren't going to work here.

That was why Bentley had also given me a total of five of his trigger bombs, acompanied by a crash course on how to use them. I was more than a little hesitant to use explosives, but it was something I'd clearly have to start getting used to. Hopefully I wouldn't have to use them all that often.

"Freeze!"

Inches away from grabbing a bomb from the pouch around my tail, my hands froze. I didn't intend to comply with the officer's demands, but the shock of being caught had rendered me unable to move as my brain tried to catch up with what was happening.

The officer behind me said something in Czech, followed by hesitant English. "Get on the ground,"

I sighed, raising my hands in defeat and following his instructions. Alright. I had to think of some way to best this guy before he called in back up. Or got handcuffs on me...

"Do not move," the officer demanded as he came up behind me to frisk me. I could tell that he was one of the wolf guards, which I knew I could possibily outrun. But if they ganged up on me like last time, I stood no chance. Right now, it was just this guy I was dealing with, I had to try and keep it that way.

He quickly removed the baton from my belt, as well as the pouch wrapped around my tail, and the backpack meant for carrying the heart. I figured that I only had moments now before the handcuffs would be coming out. I had to think... What did the bad guys on TV always do to escape getting arrested? Maybe it was an unrealistic and inconsistant thing to base an actual escape off of, but it was honestly all I had to go by.

A classic bad guy move came to my mind as I felt the first cuff click around my left wrist, and I had but a second to swivel around with all the force I possibly could, slamming my elbow into the officer's jaw. Sure, it was cliche, but facts are facts; And facts say that an elbow to the jaw hurts, and is effective.

I lunged for my baton, getting in my hands right as I felt the officer grab onto my ankle. I swung my arm as hard as I could, extending the baton and hitting the wolf in the side of the head. It was enough to daze him, and give me the chance to get up.

I retrieved my backpack and pouch of supplies, and from the latter pulled one of the bombs. I activated it, stuck it to the door, and ran behind a stack of boxes before detonating it.

I flinched and closed my eyes as the explosion shook the ground and temporarily deafened me. Maybe I shouldn't have been so close? Regardless of the ringing in my ears I had to keep going. I moved from my hiding spot to run for the door, but hesitated a moment, stopping to make sure that the blast hadn't killed the guard. I was now part of a criminal gang, sure, but the last thing I wanted to do was kill someone.

I was relieved to find that the guard was indeed still alive, albeit coughing and trying to regain his bearings. It looked like he'd be fine, so I darted for the door and vaulted myself over the mangled mess on the floor that used to be the fire escape door.

The alarms were still a constant background noise, now once again accompanied by the announcement that there was a break-in at the evidence lockup. I had to hurry now, there would likely be guards getting into 'formation' to try and stop me. I had a weapon this time around, but like Bentley said, I shouldn't go in looking for a fight. If I could, I was gonna do this as clean as possible.

Not like it had been very clean so far, but I digress. The ground floor of the evidence lockup building was actually not evidence lockup. It was conference rooms and physical record storage. The actual evidence lockup was underground, and I really hoped I was remembering the right instructions to get down there. Directions are one of those things that I'm just not good with.

For once, it seemed like my memory hadn't failed me as I reached an elevator just like Bentley said I would. I hit the call button, and prepared to move or fight if anyone else was in it.

I lucked out, and the elevator opened instantly, and was empty. I darted inside, and pressed the button that indicated the evidence lockup. I stayed to the side of the elevator, as Sly had advised I do, in case anyone was still in the lockup. It would most likely be non-guard personnel down there, just managing the evidence. I wasn't sure if this was better, though, as I didn't want to have to hurt anyone innocent if push came to shove. I didn't think I had it in me to be the tough criminal who demanded that everyone get on the ground.

I waited a moment as the elevator door opened, holding my breath as I listened carefully. It didn't seem like anyone was there, so I carefully exited into the lockup, clicking the other side of the handcuff closed as I did so. I supposed that non-guard personnel were off-duty at night, which is likely the main reason why heists are pulled at night; Less witnesses and less hold ups.

I moved over to the passcoded gate that led to the actual evidence, and pulled a slip of paper from my right boot. On it was the passcode to this door, as provided by Bentley.

"Five... Two... Nine... Seven..." I mumbled to myself as I pressed the cooresponding numbers on the pad. With a loud buzz, the door opened, and I cautiously opened it, stepping inside slowly. I still had my baton in hand, ready to spring into action if I absolutely had to. There weren't any places for people to hide in this room, but Sly had told me to be wary of everything, and expect anything. And I intended to very much take that to heart.

I looked back at the slip of paper with the code on it. Underneath the code was the case number that the Clockwerk heart would be tagged as. It was a long string of numbers that started with '286' and ended with '750' and that's all I really cared to remember.

Keeping my footfalls as quiet as possible (y'know, just for the sake of it), I began searching the boxes. There were quite a few of them, despite the room being rather small, and searching through them all might actually take longer than I anticipated. Hopefully, they were organized in numerical order, which would make my life a lot easier.

"Nyx, how are you doing?" it was Bentley who came over the binocucom and scared the hell out of me this time. "We've found Murray and are working on getting him out, what's your progress?"

I noted that Bentley hesitated between 'we've' and 'found', and from behind him I could hear a commotion, like a loud fight was going on. As much as I wanted to, I didn't have the time to be worrying about that, though... They could handle things over there, I had to do my own job. "I'm in the lockup, I just have to find the heart now,"

"Good, try not to take too long, we should have Murray free soon," Bentley responded. From behind him, I was certain I heard a gutteral yell that belonged to Murray...

I shoved that back again. They were fine, they'd been doing this for years. I had to find the heart before anyone found me. "Will do, I think I'm in the right section here, shouldn't take too much longer,"

"Alright, we'll see you soon,"

I returned to focussing on the case file numbers as I scanned my eyes over them, disregarding boxes that were too small to contain the heart. Finally, I located a box that was just the right size, checked the case number twice, and then pulled it off the shelf.

I opened the box to check, and yep, that was indeed the other half of Clockwerk's heart. I took off my backpack and placed the heart inside, quickly pulling it back on as I stood up. The alarms were still blaring, and guards were certainly on their way, if they weren't already there. I had to hope that I could either slip by them, or outrun them. If I was lucky, the majority of the guards would be focused on solitary; I just had to hope that Contessa valued inmates over evidence.

Now that I had the heart secured, there was only a few things left to do. One of which being leaving a Cooper calling card in the box, and placing it back on the shelf. Sly had asked me to do this, and while I didn't understand fully why he wanted people to know his gang had robbed them, I didn't argue. Contessa knew it was us, so I suppose this time it made sense; Maybe it was to rub it in that we'd bested her?

After this was done, I ran out of the evidence lockup, and back to the elevator. I figured that I'd run into guards not long after reaching the ground floor again, so as the elevator moved upwards, I prepared to use the fourth item I'd been given before leaving; Smoke bombs.

The doors dinged and slid open, and I immediately heard the shuffling of feet. Before my eyes could even focus on the guards in front of me, I slammed two smoke bombs into the hallway, and made a break for it.

I shoved one surprised guard out of my way, and was pretty lucky that he didn't turn and try to grab me. I emerged from the smoke, aware that they knew where I was, and evaluated my escape options.

They likely had the fire escape I came in through heavily covered, so I had to find some other way out... Except I didn't know the layout of this building at all, which made locating a viable escape route rather difficult.

"So uh," I breathed into my earpiece. "I've got the heart, and I'm on the ground floor. But I'm being chased. Any tips on getting out of here?"

"Try heading for the second floor, perhaps. If you can find the fire escape that Sly and I used to get inside, you ought to be able to get out that way. You can handle that jump, right?" Bentley was quick to reply, though he sounded a bit out of breath.

As soon as 'second floor' came out of his mouth, I took a hard right and made for the stairs. I wasn't going to fool around with elevators again, those took entirely too long. "Alright, second floor fire escape, got it. That tower in India was a higher jump, I'll be fine,"

"Remember those smoke bombs I gave you," now it was Sly who was responding. "If you can use those to blind them and then get around a few corners real fast, you might be able to lose them,"

"Note taken," I replied breathlessly. I was already losing steam, so I had to act fast. I was absolutely not as in-shape as Sly, and this made everything a hell of a lot harder. Somewhere in the back of my mind I wondered how a large guy like Murray could keep up with the swift raccoon.

I stumbled as I reached the top of the stairs, but managed to stay up on my feet and keep moving forwards. Those guys were right behind me and I had no time to be messing up and slowing down. If they caught me, they would absolutely overpower me.

"Be careful, alright? Don't do anything stupid," Bentley said.

"Like I said," I panted. "Careful is my middle name, I got this,"

"Yeah, well don't get cocky. You've got a long way to go before you're allowed to do that," Sly laughed, though there was nervousness underneath it.

"I'm very much aware, Sly," I replied, finally slamming down more smoke bombs as I turned a hard left. I tried to pick up speed as I went down the next hall and took another left, hoping to lose them like Sly suggested. "I'm honestly talking out of my ass right now, if you must know,"

"Good to know. Just stay focused," Sly responded.

"Aye aye, Captain. Same to you,"

It didn't take me long to realize that I had not at all lost the men chasing me. I wasn't fast enough to turn enough corners to lose them before they caught up with me. Okay... Things were starting to look not good, weren't they?

Upon seeing the third sign pointing to the fire escape and still not seeing the damn thing, I decided to make an executive decision. Perhaps it was a really dumb one (and I knew I'd promised Bentley I wouldn't do anything stupid), but it was worth a shot. I was really quickly losing steam, and those guys were going to catch me if I didn't put some serious distence between us real soon.

So instead of continuing to look for the fire escape, I picked up as much speed as I could, steeled my nerves, and pulled another move straight out of a movie.

Which was jumping straight out of the window, using the force of my body to break the glass. It was a huge gamble, as I didn't know what kind of glass the window was made from, but it looked like I'd gotten lucky this time and didn't get fatally injured. Of course, I made a mental note to never jump out of a window like that again, 'cause I knew I couldn't be lucky all of the time.

And actually, I wasn't 100% lucky. As I crashed through the window, I felt the pain of glass shards digging into my right arm and shoulder (the side I'd hit the glass with), and a few cutting into my left arm. But like I said, I didn't get fatally injured, and that was good enough for me.

I rolled as I hit the ground, failing to avoid shoving the glass shards in deeper as my right side made contact first. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I knew that getting them out was going to hurt like hell, but that wasn't really my biggest worry.

I didn't have the time to cry over the pain, though I won't deny that my eyes teared up. As soon as I recovered from my roll, I got back up on my feet, and made a beeline for solitary. I was pretty sure that I'd put enough distence between me and the guards, now. Sure, it was vertical distence, but it did the trick.

"Okay, I managed to escape in one piece, where are you guys?" I rasped into my earpiece, my throat having gone a bit raw from my heavy breathing.

"We've got Murray out, and we're up on the wall chasing Contessa," Bentley responded, sounding even more out of breath than before. I was certain I sounded just as awful.

"Alright, I'll be there as soon as I can," I said, turning sharply to climb up a building.

From this building, I moved to another, and then to the wall, sprinting across it to reach my teammates. By the time I got there, though, it looked like the action was done and over with. Contessa was escaping on some kind of blimp, and Murray seemed a bit discouraged by this.

"Gahh! She's getting away!" the hippo grumbled angrily.

"Don't worry, pal," Sly reassured him. "We'll find her. With the four of us back together, she doesn't stand a chance,"

"Aw, it's so nice to know you really do consider me a part of things," I purred playfully as I closed the distence between me and them. Despite all the pain I was in, I couldn't help but to grin like an idiot. We'd all made it. We'd sprung Murray and gotten the other half of Clockwerk's heart. We were all okay and we were back together. I honestly couldn't have been happier.

"Well, after that stunt you pulled in India, why wo- Nyx are you bleeding ?" Sly's jesting statement was cut short upon seeing the blood oozing from mainly my right arm.

"Yeah, I uh. Couldn't get to the fire escape fast enough, they were gaining on me too much. So I kinda had to. Jump out a window," I replied, laughing nervously. "I know you told me to not do anything stupid but it was between this and getting caught soooo,"

Both Sly and Bentley sighed, but it was Murray who spoke next. "Well, at least you're okay, right? Leaping out a window is super brave!"

"Yeah, I'll be fine," I laughed. It was a real relief to hear Murray's voice again. "I'd uh. Give you a hug but there's absolutely glass shards in my arms right now, so eh," I held out my fist and let Murray eagerly fist-bump with me, both of us grinning like idiots.

"Well," Sly said, trying to not let the good mood get to him too much, but failing miserably. "Can't say I haven't jumped out a window before, but..."

"Don't tell me there's an actual technique for jumping out of windows?" I asked, glancing over at Sly.

"Not necessarily a technique, but yeah basically," Sly shrugged, finally giving in to laughing. He then pointed to my left wrist with a smirk on his face. "Are those handcuffs ?"

"Yeeeaahhh. Guard caught me outside the building. Barely had the time to smack him in the jaw before he got the other side on," I replied, holding up my hand to show the other cuff dangling loosely. "You can get these off right?"

"Of course I can," Sly laughed. "Handcuffs are so easy to pick,"

"Are you all done flirting?" Bentley asked impatiently. Even he couldn't resist smiling at us, though.

"Pfft, this is barely flirting, Bentley," I scoffed. "If you wanna see flirting, go back and look at the recordings of Sly and Neyla,"

"Oh, c'mon, I was only trying to get on her good side," Sly protested.

"Suuurreee. Like those shorts totally had nothing to do with it," I purred.

"Can we perhaps save this for later?" Bentley interupted. "We should really get going, before Interpol - Actual Interpol - shows up,"

"Oh yeah," I said, feigning ignorance. "I forgot about that. You're right, my appologies,"

"Besides, we've gotta get that glass out of your arms, Nyx," Sly said, nudging me in the side with his cane.

"Yeah, that too. Man, am I excited for that ," I drawled sarcastically as Sly lead the way back towards the safehouse.

"Which is code for 'I know it's going to suck like hell' right?" Sly asked.

"Yep,"

'Suck like hell' is a serious understatement to how painful removing glass from your arm is. I'm pretty sure that the glass going in hurt way less than pulling it out. Perhaps it was the adrenaline?

We drove out of Contessa's prison in silence, alert and on the look out for Interpol. Once we got far enough away, Murray pulled over, and the hell of removing glass and disinfecting my wounds began.

I wish I could say that I took it like a man and didn't cry like a baby, but then I'd be lying. I'd also be lying if I said that Sly didn't have to hold my hand and talk me through the whole ordeal.

Bentley made sure that I learned a very good lesson from this incident; Don't go jumping out of windows again. ...Until Sly teaches you how to, of course. But that was the part of it that I kept to myself.

Once I was no longer in danger of an infection, we got back on the road, and from there the entire atmosphere changed. It all started with Sly making stupid jokes, and before we knew it, everyone was laughing so hard they cried. Murray actually had to pull over twice for fear of crashing, if you can believe it.

We stopped in some small town, because Murray insisted that we should totally get some hot dogs and marshmallows, and find a place in the woods to make a campfire. We all figured we deserved to celebrate, so we agreed. Not long later and we'd set up a makeshift fire, and were roasting marshmallows and hot dogs over the open flame. It reminded me of camping trips with my girl scouts troop when I was a kid. It was a welcome change to all the stress that we'd been through the past few weeks.

On our way to a proper hotel, Murray actually let Bentley drive, something the turtle seemed incredibly proud of. Apparently he learned how to drive it for the first time when escaping India with Sly. Said raccoon says he was unconcious for most of this, but that it certainly took Bentley a while to get the hang of driving a stick shift.

For the second time, I actually don't remember arriving at the hotel. In fact, I'm pretty sure I fell asleep leaning against Murray's side whilst Bentley was driving. But I woke up the next morning in a hotel bed, with Sly's limbs tangled around me. Apparently the hotel only had one room available, and apparently Sly is a cuddler.

I had every opportunity to hold this over his head, but I honestly didn't have the heart to. He looked so comfortable that I couldn't even bring myself to try getting up, for fear of waking him. I'm pretty sure that Bentley took a few pictures, but he's not admitting to anything.

While spending a few weeks just relaxing and goofing off was incredibly nice, eventually things had to come back around to the Contessa. This was something I knew from the start, but I tried to not focus on it as much as possible.

But as soon as Sly and Bentley started talking plans again one morning, I knew I had some priorities to set straight. At first I was a bit nervous, for fear of failure, but then I remembered that I absolutely was going to fail. Many times. But that's a part of the learning process, and with that in mind, I finally dredged up the courage to ask.

"Hey Murray,"

"Yeah?"

I smiled up at the hippo as I gave him my request. "Will you teach me how to fight?"

Sly and Bentley stared at me from across the room, while Murray gave me the biggest smile I'd ever seen.

"Of course! I thought you'd never ask!"

Chapter Text

"Okay, I know you said this place was a 'well-fortified nightmare' but I honestly did not expect the tank patrols," Nyx proclaimed, warily peering out the window at the passing tank. "Like who even has tanks patrolling their home?"

Sly laughed and clapped Nyx on the shoulder. "Well, there's a first time for everything, isn't there?"

"Yeah, I guess. But those things are definitely going to be a pain in our asses later, aren't they?" Nyx asked, watching the tank turn to circle back around the building. Of course the only empty building had to have a tank patrolling right by it, that was just their luck.

"Most likely. But I'm sure we'll be fine," Sly reassured the feline. "We've been through worse, haven't we?"

"You've said that before, and at the time I didn't quite believe you," replied Nyx. "...But now that you've survived being electrocuted , and we've busted out of an insanely secure prison run by this grade A psychopath... The tanks actually might not be so bad..."

"See?" Sly laughed. "That's the spirit! So long as we stay out of their line of sight, we'll be fine,"

"Yeah, but I bet that'll be easier said than done, won't it?" Nyx questioned, raising an eyebrow.

"Isn't that how everything works?" it was Bentley who answered this question, drawing their attention to him. "I've got a recon plan, if you two are ready to go,"

"Oooh, I get to do recon ?" Nyx purred excitedly, turning from the window to grin at Bentley.

"Perhaps I'll regret it, but yes," Bentley sighed. "You're going to be taking some recon photographs, while Sly gets up to the top of Contessa's 're-education' tower. I have a bad feeling about what's up there,"

"Photos, huh? That sounds pretty easy and not dangerous. Alright, I'm game," said Nyx, nodding to the turtle. She wasn't the biggest fan of going out into the heavily guarded castle grounds, but she decided to - For the time being - Shove those thoughts back. Recon pictures couldn't be that tough, could they?

"Alright, I've got the waypoints uploaded to both your binocucoms. Whenever you're ready to go," Bentley informed them.

"Well, there's no time like the present, right?" Sly said, picking up his cane and cocking it behind his shoulder. "You ready?"

"Yeah, I suppose so," Nyx decided, fastening her supplies pouch to her belt (having found that her tail was not a good place for it). "Let's go,"

The duo quietly made their way out of the safehouse, and took a look at where their waypoints were. "Alright, you think you remember what we taught you?" Sly asked. His tone was a strange mix between teasing and serious; He wasn't sure if just a few weeks of combat and thief training was enough for Nyx to be able to traverse Contessa's castle grounds.

"Yeah," replied Nyx, despite all the signs in her brain that were telling her to go back inside. "I've got the spire jump down, at the least, and there's surely a way to not walk on too many telephone wires. I think I'll be fine, don't worry," then she forced a grin and gently bumped the raccoon on the shoulder. She might have been scared, but she was determined to do this.

"Now what did I say about being cocky?" Sly laughed, gently shoving her in return.

"You said that like four weeks ago before you taught me what I was doing," Nyx replied. "I think I have a bit more right to be confident, now," even though she actually sort of wasn't ...

"Alright," Sly chuckled. "Fair enough. Still, be careful,"

"After this is over, I'm gonna have to change that to my legal middle name, y'know?" Nyx laughed.

"Nyx Careful Blythe?" Sly teased, pretending to actually be considering it, before leaping onto the edge of the safehouse porch. "Has a nice ring to it. Good luck!"

And then he was gone. Nyx rolled her eyes and took another look at where her objective was. Actually, she had four. A boat, a blimp, an assault tank, and Neyla's headquarters.

Nyx sighed at the idea of dealing with Neyla, and began making her way towards the closest waypoint. She slipped behind the tank patrolling near the safehouse, and climbed up onto a building. At least there the only thing she had to worry about were guards. Granted, those guards were intelligent and could hear her in addition to seeing her, but at least they weren't tanks .

As the first waypoint objective came into view, Nyx groaned mentally. She didn't see any boats, blimps, or assault tanks (she figured an assault tank differed from normal ones?), so that only left the option of Neyla's headquarters. She checked the waypoint again, finding it to be pointing to an old building.

Which, as unluck would have it, was surrounded by tanks. She spotted at least three of them making rounds that crossed in front of the building. Yeah, this would definitely be easier said than done...

Her current position atop another building was no good for getting a good angle of Neyla's HQ, there was some other structure in the way; Looked like a sheltered picnic table or something. So it looked like Nyx was going to have to slip through the tank patrols to get a better angle.

"Lovely..." she mumbled, assessing her options for safe spaces where she could see the building. ...It looked like that lamp post at the edge of the bridge to her right might do the trick?

Said lamp post was rather close to some sweeping spotlights that no doubt had guns mounted on them, but they didn't touch the post... As long as she was careful about where all her body parts were, Nyx figured that it was likely her best bet. Regardless of the fact that it scared the hell out of her, of course.

However, there wasn't much room between the tank patrols, let alone safe ground to walk on when they were around. Whichever way she did this, there was definitely going to be some risk involved...

"Well... I jumped out a window, didn't I...?" Nyx sighed to herself. Moments later she saw an opening in the patrol, and decided to take it. She leaped off the building, and made a mad dash for the lamp post.

This was fine. This was totally fine, she kept telling herself as she booked it towards the post. Except perhaps it wasn't ; Just as she reached the lamp post, she felt the heat of a blue light hit her back...

Spitting curse words, Nyx had but a moment to leap up and get onto the lamp post. She flinched as the tank fired at her, the shot just barely missing her. Had she hesitated, this mission could have ended very badly. She hadn't the time to be thankful for this, and scrambled up to the top of the post.

She perched there, tensely waiting to see if the tank could still see her. The machine paused for a moment, before it turned and continued along it's path. Nyx let out a sigh of relief and pressed a hand to her chest. That just might have been the most terrifying thing she'd ever experienced.

"Okay, that was too close..." Nyx muttered as she pulled out her binocucom. Her breathing was erratic and her head was pounding, but she had a job to do, she reminded herself.

"Please tell me you did not almost get hit by a tank," oops, looks like the microphone had been on, and Bentley had heard her.

"I won't lie to you, Bentley. Yes, I did. Don't tell Sly," Nyx replied, zooming in and out until the building was properly focused and in-frame. Her heart was practically beating out of her chest and she was desperately trying to ignore this and focus on her job.

"Too late, I've already heard," Sly's voice came in moments later. Drat. "Are you okay?"

Nyx sighed. "I'm fine, it completely missed me, don't worry," though perhaps 'fine' was a relative term. Was she injured? No. Was she incredibly shaken up? Yes. She decided to just not mention that second part, though.

Sly laughed, though it was a slightly tense sound. "It's my job to worry about our rookie," Nyx got the feeling that he didn't believe her when she said she was fine; He was really good at people reading.

"Yeah, uh huh. Why don't you focus on climbing that huge tower?" Nyx suggested. "I need to be taking pictures,"

"I second that statement," said Bentley.

"Alright, alright," Sly sighed. "If you insist,"

Nyx snickered quietly to herself as the line went quiet again. Even if it was only for that short moment, talking to Sly had helped ease her nerves, and she was finally able to focus on taking a snap of Neyla's headquarters. She wasn't the best cameraman in the world, but she figured that'd do, right?

"Neyla's made a headquarters out of that old bank," Bentley's voice came in seconds later, confirming that the picture was good. "It's a pretty secure location... It'll take some doing to drive her out,"

Nyx sighed as she hopped down from the lamp post and rushed back to the safety of the other building. Didn't everything take some doing...?

"So, let me get this straight. Contessa has Clockwerk's eyes, and she's using them as a brainwashing device?" I asked incredously, staring at the recon pictures Sly had taken while up in the 're-education tower'.

"And she's testing them out on Carmelita," Sly added, sounding a bit annoyed by that notion.

" And she's testing them out on Carmelita, okay. And we know that Neyla is holed up in some old bank, and it doesn't look like she's coming out any time soon," I continued, followed by a sigh. "Does everything have to be impossibly hard?"

"Well, it wouldn't be any fun if it was too easy," responded Sly, giving a cocky smirk.

"Uh huh. I for one would appreciate it if sometimes things were easy. Would really make my life better," I replied, propping my head up with my hands as I leaned on the table.

"Aw, sounds like someone's just scared to test their skills," Sly purred, raising a teasing eyebrow.

"Oh please , Sly. You're the one who told me to not get cocky," I retorted, rolling my eyes at him.

"There's a difference between being cocky and knowing your skills and then pushing them," corrected the raccoon so matter-of-factly.

I was about to respond and say something witty, but it just wasn't meant to be, apparently. Bentley cleared his throat in that moment to get our attention, signaling that his new slideshow was finally ready.

Giving up our light-hearted arguement, Sly and I turned to the projector, as did Murray. Said projector turned on with a loud whirr, and the presentation began.

"The war between Neyla and the Contessa has put the castle on high alert," Bentley began, cycling through various shots of the castle grounds. "To get at the Clockwerk eyes, we'll need to subtley manipulate this conflict to our advantage,"

"Here's the plan; Murray, sneak into the castle and kidnap the head of security, I wanna ask him a few questions," explained Bentley, rotating through various pictures of an old vampire bat.

"Meanwhile, Sly, Nyx and I are going to get a little paranormal," Bentley continued, the slide changing to that of a crypt-looking thing. "I'll slip into the crypts beneath the castle, and put together a bad-mojo bomb. It should be enough to destroy the mindshuffler," I chose to not ask what 'bad-mojo' was, as much as I wanted to.

"Sly and Nyx, you capture a few local ghosts, and drop them into Neyla's headquarters. Hopefully the near death experience will inspire her to purchase more mercenary firepower," continued the turtle. Why that was a good thing for us, I'd never know, but by now I knew to not question Bentley's plans. "We've all got our assignments, good luck,"

And that was that when it came to the slideshow. Alright, looks like we had a pretty solid game plan. All that was left was to put the plan into motion and hope that nothing went wrong. Come to think of it, that was how everything went around here.

"You're up first, Murray, I need to talk to the General before I do anything else," instructed Bentley, typing something into his laptop. "Sly, Nyx, if you two want to get going with your ghost capturing, you're free to do so,"

Murray nodded enthusiastically. "I'm on it!" and then he was out the door.

"What do you say, Nyx? You ready to mingle with ghosts?" Sly asked, nudging me in the side with his cane hook.

"I don't even believe in ghosts, so this is gonna be. Interesting," I replied. "Let's do it,"

Sly laughed as he lead me out of the safehouse. "You don't believe in ghosts? Oh man, this is gonna be fun,"

"Do you believe in ghosts?" I asked the raccoon, glancing up at him.

"I've mingled with them before, actually. I'll tell you about it sometime," he responded, grinning at me as I stared at him. He'd seen ghosts before? I wasn't sure how to process that idea.

Sly chuckled at my confusion, and then motioned for me to be quiet as he began leading me towards our objective. Moving through the castle with Sly around was a lot less nerve-wrecking that doing it by myself, I decided. Sly knew how to navigate and pathfind, which was something I was still learning. Even though he liked to drag me up onto the buildings and make me use the rail walk a bit too much, I felt more at ease with someone who knew what he was doing.

After a little while of evading guards, tanks, and spotlights, Sly and I came to a small building with big spider legs protruding from it. Sly decided that this was a great perch, and lead me to the top of it. He directed my attention to a grave site across from the building, and then Bentley started giving us the proper introduction to this job.

"Alright guys, there's your new objective. Sneak inside and smash the coffin of the Evil Wolf Priestess," were Bentley instructions.

"Sounds pretty harsh," Sly responded. "Does the old girl really deserve that sort of treatment?" I sort of had to laugh as he said that.

"Weren't you listening?" Bentley asked. "She was an Evil Wolf Priestess. Once you smash the coffin, it'll free all the ghosts trapped in there with her,"

"Okay, I don't know where you're going with all this, but freeing trapped ghosts sounds vaguely heroic," Sly responded, and then cut the feed. "You ready for this?" he asked, turning to me.

I nodded. "Yeah, I guess so. Time to learn if ghosts actually exist,"

Sly laughed. "That's the spirit!"

We both leaped down from the spider-legged building, and approached the entrance to the Wolf Priestess' crypt. It was currently clear of guards, but I'd seen a few go by while we were talking to Bentley. So I supposed that we needed to be careful.

Sly had the lock to the crypt picked in no time, and just like that we were inside. No security, no nothing. "Why am I suspicious about getting in here so easily?"

"Because I've trained you well," answered Sly. "Then again, this is a crypt. They don't exactly expect people to break into these,"

"Yeah, I suppose so," I agreed as we moved further into the crypt. The hallway we were in was short, and when it opened up into a slightly larger hallway, we both stopped.

"I guess that's why getting through the door was so easy..." I muttered, completely in awe of what was stretched out before us. "I can't even..."

The floor of this room had patches of razor sharp spikes protruding from it, and if that weren't bad enough, there were huge axes swinging back and forth. "This room is a literal death trap,"

"Do you wanna wait here?" Sly asked, giving me a sidelong glance.

I thought about it a moment. I would need to learn how to do this kind of stuff sooner or later, wouldn't I? I just wasn't sure if I wanted that time to be now . I spent a short moment thinking it over, before I made my decision.

"Yeah I. Think I'll wait here," I finally said. I felt bad for chickening out, but I honestly hadn't been ready to face giant swinging axes .

Sly nodded and put a hand on my shoulder. "I understand. I'll be back in a flash,"

And then he leaped from the floor to hook his cane onto the handle of one of the giant axes. From here, he moved to the next one and then dismounted, landing safely on the ground opposite the spike patch.

The racoon then continued on, towards another setup just like the first. Once he cleared that one, I couldn't see him anymore. "Sly? What else is out there?"

"Not much, just this big room and the coff-" Sly's statement was cut off by the raccoon yelping in surprise, and then there was the sound of his cane smacking into something. "Okay, I take that back! There's guards in here!"

"Be careful!" I warned, feeling a bit bad that I couldn't be in there to help. But I knew that Sly wouldn't hold it over me, so I tried to not hold it over myself.

The fight didn't last long, and soon the only sound left was that of Sly panting as he caught his breath. "Alright, that was fun. Now to release those ghosts,"

The sound of his cane smacking into something very hard was then heard, followed by a whooshing sound that I couldn't completely identify. It almost sounded like voices ...?

Seconds after this, I found myself suddenly being swarmed by various blue things that were now flooding through the hallway. I shrieked and dropped to the floor, instinctively covering my head like they teach you to during school tornado drills.

The sound of Bentley's voice had been drowned out by my shrieking, but I was certain that the turtle had said something. But currently, my ears were now hearing the sound of Sly laughing at me. "Good god, Nyx, I heard that all the way from here. Did they attack you or something?"

It took me a moment, as I pulled myself off the floor, to realize that those had been honest to goodness ghosts. "I can't believe it,"

Sly tried to contain his laughter as I saw him enter the hallway of death again. "Yep, ghosts are real, welcome to the paranormal club,"

By the time Sly reached me again, he'd finally stopped laughing. "That scream was amazing, you have impressive lungs,"

"Thanks. I could sing opera if I wanted to," I responded, choosing to just. Not question the ghosts.

"I'd pay to see that," Sly chuckled as we exited the crypt.

"Ha," I laughed. "That's never gonna happen,"

Sly looked at me with a mischievous look. "I have ways of making things happen,"

I rolled my eyes at him. "Uh huh,"

Now that we were back outside, we moved to climb up to the top of the crypt, where Bentley began informing us about the next part of our mission. "I've modified the imagers in your binocucoms to capture ghosts," was the mind boggling thing that the turtle said.

"Didn't I just set these guys free? Why would I want to capture them again?" Sly asked, not at all fazed by the idea of being able to capture a ghost with his camera.

"Not to worry, it's only a short term confinement," Bentley assured him. "Gather all the ghosts, then set them free down the chimney of Neyla's headquarters!"

Now that was an idea I could get behind. In fact, I really liked the sound of it.

"I get you. She'll think it's a sneak attack from the Contessa," Sly said, nodding to Bentley's genius.

"Correct. If I did my math right, and I always do my math right, Neyla should respond to the assault by purchasing more firepower," Bentley continued.

"Anything bad for the Contessa is good for us," Sly decided. "...And we get to really freak out Neyla!"

He sounded very, very enthusiastic about that idea, and I shared in this sentiment. However, as I caught sight of a skeletal figure just floating around the castle, I had to let my mind turn back to more serious matters.

"Sly. Sly are you not going to question the fact that we're going to catch ghosts by taking pictures of them?" I asked, nudging the excited raccoon in the ribs.

"Not at all, I've seen weirder," he answered, shrugging loosely.

"Well this is definitely the weirdest thing I've ever seen," I mused, staring at the glowing blue figure that had likely once been a wolf. "I cannot believe that ghosts are real and we're going to capture them..."

Sly laughed. "Well, you better start believing soon, 'cause we've got work to do," and then he pulled out his binocucom again, and snapped a shot of the ghost I'd been eyeing.

And no sooner than he had, the ghost just. Magically seemed to vanish inside of his binocucom, like a huge gust of wind had just sucked it right in.

I stared at Sly's binocucom and also him for a good few moments. "We're GhostBusters now, are we?"

Sly grinned. "Yep,"

I sighed, shook my head, and pulled out my binocucom. "Alright... Let's do this,"

As we embarked on our ghost capturing mission, I quickly learned that catching ghosts is not as easy as one might think. With Bentley's strange technology, all one had to do is snap a picture of the ghost, right?

Well, that's right but also wrong. One also has to chase the ghost to be able to get a good shot of it. And in our case, we had to chase them up really tall towers. They were incredibly evasive creatures, and I began wondering if they weren't doing it on purpose.

After nearly falling off a particularly tall tower, I decided to let Sly handle the ones who insisted on flying ridiculously high, and I handled the ones who, like me, seemed to prefer lower altitudes. This likely wasn't the best mission for someone with a mild fear of heights, I decided.

It was an indeterminate amount of time later that Sly and I were finally both perched atop the bank that Neyla had turned into her headquarters, both with trapped ghosts ready to set free.

"You ready for this? Sly asked, a huge grin plastered on his face. He clearly loved this idea as much as I did. Which was to say, too much.

I returned his grin with one of my own. "Absolutely. This is gonna be good ,"

Sly nodded in agreement, and then we both released our ghosts into Neyla's chimney. We watched as the ghosts went down, and then listened as various yelling could be heard from inside. I still couldn't understand Czech, but one didn't need to in order to understand two things; One, when people were startled and angry. And two, when people were cursing.

Shortly after the commotion began, Neyla burst out the front doors of her HQ, looking very, very pissed off. "So the Contessa wants war, eh? Perhaps it's time I purchased a little air power; A few bombers should put that old charlatan in her place!"

And then Neyla was off, likely to go order those aforementioned bombers. Sly and I were grinning at each other so wide it's a wonder we didn't pull any muscles. "That was amazing ," I hissed out, trying to not laugh too loudly.

Sly nodded. "I've never seen a job go anymore perfectly,"

High fiving ourselves for the job well done, Sly and I started back for the safehouse. "That was fun," I said decidedly. Despite the heights and the ghosts, I had enjoyed that mission. The end result had been more than entertaining, that was for certain.

Sly chuckled. "Already over the ghost thing, are you?"

"Not entirely," I responded. "I don't think I'll be over that one for a little while, but I have another question,"

"And what's that?" asked Sly, looking back at me with a raised eyebrow.

"Why does Contessa just. Have a random crypt in her home? Isn't that a little weird?" I questioned. It had occurred to me somewhere along the job and I was starting to really wonder about it. What sorts of reasons were there for people to have crypts in their homes?

Sly was silent for a moment, before he turned to look at me again. "That's a really good question,"

"Should we divert it to Bentley?"

"Probably,"

"Alright team, let's get down to business," Bentley announced, beginning his second slideshow. Nyx was pretty sure he'd been up way too long working on it. He'd still been awake when she and Murray had gone to bed with the sunrise.

"The first steps to escalating the war between Neyla and the Contessa have gone well. We're down to the final setups before we spring our trap," the turtle said, cycling through various photos of Neyla and the castle grounds.

"Sly, I need you to steal a voice modulator from the castle, and install it under Neyla's headquarters. If all goes as planned, it should allow us to give orders to her mercenaries without being detected," Bentley continued. Nyx had no idea what a voice modulator was, but it sounded kinda cool.

"Unfortunately, Neyla's recent bomber purchase has made her army over-enthusiastic , and they might strike before we're ready. Which leads me to Murray. I need you to hotwire one of the Contessa's tanks, and go to town on the mercenaries. We just need to... Intimidate them a little," said Bentley, giving his teammates a coy smile.

"And finally, Nyx and I will venture back into the crypts to power up that old computer in the re-education tower. We're going to need it to save Carmelita," Bentley concluded, and the slideshow flickered off.

Sly stood up and stretched, pulling his arms above his head and swishing his tail around. "Alright, let's get to it!"

"Sly, Murray, you two can go ahead and start your jobs," said Bentley. "Nyx and I will wait here to make sure nothing happens with you,"

"Aye aye, Captain!" said Sly, giving a mock salute as he headed for the door. Nyx rolled her eyes at him.

Murray followed the raccoon out of the safehouse, leaving just Nyx and Bentley. Nyx gave a small sigh and rested her chin in her palm. The closer they got to pulling the big heist, the more nervous she got. Messing with Contessa and Neyla just didn't seem like a good idea to her. The last plan they had that revolved around pissing someone off hadn't gone too well...

"So, how are you holding up?" Bentley asked out of the blue, making Nyx turn towards him. "Being a thief isn't easy, is it?"

Nyx averted her gaze for a moment before she answered. "I'm doing alright so far, I guess. But it's definitely not easy," she paused. "...I chickened out in the crypt when we came across these swinging death traps..."

"Don't be hard on yourself," said Bentley. "This really isn't the best way to learn how to be a thief. Sly practiced for years before he took on his first job. Throwing you into situations like these probably isn't the best way to go about it, and I'm sorry for that,"

"No, no, it's fine," Nyx insisted, waving a hand dismissively. "I want to help, I don't want to sit around and do nothing. It's just hard to ignore that fear of the terrible unknown. ...It's even harder to trust my own skills and instincts because I'm honestly not sure how much I have of either,"

"I know how that is. It took me a long time to work up the nerve to get out into the field. In fact, the job that lead us on this Clockwerk puzzle piece search was the first field assignment I ever took," Bentley said.

"Really? How long was that before we met?" Nyx asked.

"Only a week or two," responded the turtle. "It'll take time, but you'll learn to trust in your abilities, and also your teammates. But know that we don't hold it over you if you need some time to adjust,"

Nyx laughed lightly. "Yeah, learning a new lifestyle isn't an overnight thing I suppose. But this is something so big and important, I feel like I need to be good at this now, I guess. I need to step back and remember that it's not that easy,"

Bentley nodded. "Exactly. That's why I'm trying to not send you off by yourself too much. Giving you your own job back at the prison was a little too much, wasn't it?"

"Yeah, kinda?" Nyx responded. "I mean. I did it and got it done without dying, but I definitely didn't know what I was doing. I got lucky, I think"

"And luck can't hold out forever. So I'm sorry for sending you into something you likely weren't ready for. That's my fault," the turtle appologized.

"Don't be sorry. I said I wanted to help, didn't I?" Nyx asked, smiling. "It's not gonna be easy, I know that. Don't be sorry because something challenges me,"

Bentley had to give her a small smile at that. "There's a difference between a challenge, and being in way over your head, but alright, I'll let you win this one,"

And that was when the binocucom came to life. "Alright, Bentley, I've found a tank, what do I do now?"

Bentley glanced at some blueprints he had on the table, then began giving Murray a sequence of instructions so that the hippo could hotwire one of Contessa's tanks.

Nyx had no idea what anything either of them said meant, but she figured that was probably because she knew next to nothing about vehicles. She tried to listen anyways, but got lost over and over.

Murray eventually got the tank hotwired, and himself into it's driver's seat (Apparently the seat didn't go back as far as he would have liked). And then the hippo got to work thrashing some of the other tanks that were patroling the area.

While he did this, Sly finally came in on the binocucom as well. "I'm in position, Bentley, what do you need from me?"

"The Contessa plans on taking control of Neyla's army by fooling them with a prototype voice modulation device," Bentley explained. "To get the thing working, she'll have to jack it into the satellite connection beneath Neyla's headquarters,"

"Soo, I'm guessing you'd like me to steal the device and hook it up for our side. ...Giving us control over Neyla's mercenaries. Sounds great!" Sly purred. Anything that was bad for Neyla gave him great glee, it seemed.

"You'll have to steal a few keys here and there to get access to the more secure areas of the castle," Bentley warned, though it was more of a 'so you know' warning than an actual 'be careful' one.

"If there's pockets to be picked, I'm your man," replied Sly, grinning.

"First, steal a wire tap and the voice modulator. Then head for the sewers beneath Neyla's headquarters," was Bentley's next set of instructions.

Sly nodded. "I'm on it," and then he let the connection go, and got to work. Beneath him were two vulture guards who had been marked by Bentley's holographic waypoints. Looks like those guys had the keys.

Sly hopped down from his rooftop perch, and approached the two carefully. One was mobile, the other seeming to be guarding the building he was standing near. Sly slipped in between the beams of their flashlights, and dipped his cane into the stationary guard's pocket. Soon enough he hooked a key ring, and quietly pulled it out. One key down, one to go.

Slipping back around the flashlight of the mobile guard, Sly came up behind that guy, and went to work picking his pocket as well. In no time at all, he had both keys in his posession, and was heading for the castle.

The castle grounds weren't exactly safe, but Sly managed to reach one of the back doors easily enough. It really helped that he was a lot quicker than the bulky vultures that patrolled the place.

Sly unlocked the castle doors, and slipped inside, looking around warily for any guards. It might have been easy to get inside, but surely there would be security inside, right?

Right. Sly instantly spotted various wolves patrolling the room that was before him. Despite the challenge, Sly wasn't too bothered about it. He'd done this a million times by now.

"The wire tap is on the opposite end of this room, Sly," Bentley told him. "Easy does it in here, huh pal?"

The room before the raccoon was small, and there were four guards patrolling it. Sure, two were sleeping on the floor, but they'd surely wake up if enough commotion started. Normal people would view this as an impossible and/or annoying challenge, but Sly just saw it as another day's work, and was ready to tackle it head on.

The two guards who were awake were patrolling the room in what appeared to be a pattern. Sly studied it for a moment, before determining the best possible way to slip through. Once he had, he moved quietly to slip behind one of the guards for a short moment, and then slip underneath a nearby table.

From here, Sly waited until both guards had turned their backs again, and then darted from under the table to reach the wire tap at the other end of the room. He disconnected it from whatever it was hooked up to, and pocketed it.

" Oh yeah , that wire tap is perfect ," Bentley purred.

"Geez Bentley, don't have an orgasm," Nyx teased, trying not to giggle as she spoke.

Bentley sounded like he almost choked on something, and Sly had to try to not laugh as he slipped back through the guard patrol.

" Nyx !" Bentley hissed, sounding thoroughly embarassed.

The feline laughed. "Sorry, couldn't help it,"

Chapter Text

"I honestly didn't expect the kracken to show up," proclaimed Sly as he walked back into the safehouse, shaking his head.

"Neither did I," I agreed, followed by, "Are you okay?"

In all honesty, I don't think any of us expected there to be a huge tentacled beast living under Contessa's castle. And to make it weirder, we were miles from a proper ocean. Sure, the castle had water surrounding it, but was that even deep enough?

Sly chuckled and waved off my concern. "Yeah, I'm fine. A few bruises here and there, but I'll survive,"

I sighed, but accepted Sly's statement. Hopefully he wouldn't be too proud to admit when he was hurt, right? "So, Bentley... It's our turn now, isn't it?"

"That it is," the turtle said, grabbing his crossbow and strapping it on. "You ready to go?"

I sighed again but grabbed my baton from the table, sliding it into the sheath on my belt. "Before we go, I have but one question; Why exactly do you want me to come with you?"

"Experience. Now that you know what to expect, I figured maybe you'd want to try again?" Bentley replied. "Of course, if you don't want to, I understand,"

I thought about it for a moment. Then I nodded. "Yeah... I think I do wanna try again," of course, wanting to try again is not the same as not being scared of the thing I'm about to do. I was definitely scared of venturing into another trap-filled crypt.

But I wanted to learn how to defy that. I'd let it win last time, and I was determined to not let that happen again. So that was why I decided to go with Bentley. I had to face my fears. Everyone else had.

Bentley nodded at my decision. "Ready to go, then?"

"Ready as I'll ever be," I replied, trying to convince myself that this would be fine. Bentley would be with me, and he knew what he was doing.

Bentley nodded again, and lead the way out of the safehouse. "Be careful!" it was Sly who was calling after us.

"We will!" I called back. "It's my middle name, remember?"

Bentley took the lead as we carefully navigated the castle grounds. Bentley didn't navigate anything like Sly, I quickly noticed; The raccoon liked to climb up onto the rooftops and make me use the skills I'd learned from the Thievius Raccoonus. He was also incredibly relaxed about everything, and didn't have a heart attack when a guard came near us.

Whereas Bentley definitely looked like he might have a heart attack if a guard came within fifteen feet of us. His nervousness wasn't helping ease mine any, but I figured that if we both panicked, then nothing good would happen. So I tried putting my nervousness into a choke hold - So to speak - And not worry about it too much.

Aside from potential heart attacks, I liked the way Bentley navigated. He generally stayed on the ground, only leading me up onto a building once or twice when we really had to. As long as we stayed low and quiet, navigation with Bentley couldn't go too wrong.

We found our crypt entrance rather easily, and as Bentley typed in the passcode, I continued questioning why Contessa had so many crypts laying around her home...

Before we stepped into the room I was feeling somewhat okay about this whole mission. Bentley was with me and he knew what he was doing, so I was calm enough to rationally approach it. But then we stepped inside and I froze as I saw what lay before us.

Stretched out before us was a hallway full of death traps. Spikes were embedded into the ground, and rolling logs with more spikes were placed over them. How lovely...

"How are you going to hack the computers down there when they've got no power?" Sly asked over the binocucom.

"According to General Clawfoot, a mobile energy source is stored at the end of this hallway," Bentley said, glancing down the hallway that I was glaring at.

"'Hallway' is a pretty kind term for what looks to me like a complex medieval gauntlet of death," said Sly.

"That's exactly what it is!" I hissed loudly.

"Yes, well... While the idea of jumping down a crypt filled with whirling, razor sharp-"

"Bentley stop ," now it was my turn to have a heart attack. "If you want me to come with you for this one, then. Stop that sentence right where it is,"

"Alright, alright. Sorry," Bentley responded, reaching up as far as he could to pat me on the back.

"Just make sure those traps don't tear you two into little pieces, okay?" came Sly's voice again.

" Sllllyyyy ," I groaned. "Did you have to say that?"

"Yeah, I did," the raccoon responded, sounding actually serious. "I don't want anything happening to you two,"

"Don't worry, we'll be fine. Right, Nyx?" Bentley asked, though he looked just as scared as I felt.

I sighed. We needed to be strong for each other in this current moment, otherwise we'd like never get anywhere... "Yeah... We'll be fine, Sly,"

"Alright," the raccoon sighed. "Good luck,"

We were definitely going to need luck, weren't we? I stared at the spinning death traps that were spread out before us, and tried to think of some way to make them less terrifying.

"Are you ready to do this?" asked Bentley, sounding just as hesitant as I was.

I swallowed hard. "Yeah. We need that computer online. Both for us and for Carmelita," I had to keep reminding myself of that fact.

Bentley nodded. "I'm sure Sly will appreciate that sentiment,"

I had to laugh a little bit. The raccoon's crush on the inspector was sort of cute. "Yeah. Now, how are we going to get through this? Is it as simple as leaping over the logs?"

"It looks like it," Bentley confirmed. "Do you want me to go first?"

I thought about it for a moment. Yeah, I kind of did. But then I remembered why I was here in the first place... I shook my head after a moment of thinking about it. "No... I'll go first..."

Bentley looked surprised that I'd decline his offer, and stared up at me. "Are you sure about that?"

"No, but I'm going to do it anyways... I'm a cat, I'm good at jumping at the least," I replied, trying to sound a lot less scared than I really was. "I need to stop being scared, so I'm going to do this. They're not moving that fast... I think I can handle this,"

Bentley nodded, understanding that this was something I needed to do for myself, despite the fact that he looked pretty nervous about letting me go first. "When you're ready, then,"

I nodded once, and then turned to assess the rolling logs of spikey death. It was hard to believe that about three months ago I had been living in a boring apartment, struggling to pay bills. And now here I was in Prague, helping out a gang of criminals and doing things that could likely get me killed. And if not killed, arrested.

I sort of had to smile at myself. I'd come a long way, hadn't I? Even if I was still scared out of my mind, I was actually out here doing this. I dropped low to the ground as I began formulating my path. I could jump a lot farther than Bentley could (and maybe even Sly) thanks to my cat genes, so I started guess-timating how far away the safe patches of ground were.

I found myself thinking about Sly's Thievius Raccoonus training that he'd done with me on the roof of the safehouse we'd adopted before coming to Contessa's castle. He'd set up an obstacle course of spire jumps and rail walks, and once I knew the moves, the spire jump ones actually hadn't been too hard. This situation wasn't that much different, was it? In fact, my targets were even larger than the tiny perches Sly had me leaping on.

It was that sense of familiarity that helped me officially make up my mind; Yeah, this was something I could do. Maybe it would scare me at first, but I could do it. I'd come this far, hadn't I? I wasn't going to give in now.

"Alright, I think I've got a path," I announced after a few minutes of studying the traps. "I'm... Going for it,"

"Be careful," warned Bentley, sounding nervous and worried.

"Like I told Sly, that's my middle name, now," I replied, before I set my jaw and forced myself to make the first jump. I knew that if I hesitated anymore, I'd probably talk myself out of it eventually.

My heart was beating a million miles an hour as I sailed over the spikey logs of death, but I forced myself to not freak out. I landed squarely on the patch of safe ground that I'd aimed at, and then quickly had to leap over another log to the next one.

From there, I just had to jump over a third log, and I was home free. I stood up and looked back at the obstacles I had just avoided, my face blank with surprise. I had actually gotten through that... I gave a breathless and hysterical laugh, pressing a hand to my chest to try and calm my erratic heartbeat. I was practically crying, though I wasn't sure if it was from fear or relief.

Bentley gave me a short round of applause. "Great work!"

"Thanks!" I called back after catching my breath. "...Now it's your turn!!"

It took Bentley a few minutes of staring at the traps as well, before he finally made a move to cross. He was likely just as scared as I was, though he was probably better at ignoring it.

Unlike me, Bentley had to utilize every patch of safe ground to maneuver through the logs. His short turtle legs didn't let him jump very far, but it was thankfully far enough to allow him to safely clear the hall.

I gave him a high five as we met up again. "We totally get points for conquering our fears, right?"

The turtle nodded. " Absolutely ,"

"Can I turn mine in for cookies?" I proceeded to ask.

"Sure," Bentley laughed. "We'll get cookies on our way out,"

"Awesome,"

We proceeded up a small flight of steps, and entered into another room with spiked floors and logs. This time there were two long ones, one on top of the other, circling the room in opposite directions. I picked out the pattern relatively quickly; The logs moved slow enough that we'd have to jump to one safe spot, and then wait for a log to move before we could jump to the next one. That couldn't be so hard, right? We'd gotten through the first set...

What I was really worried about was the fact that I could see swinging axes in the hallway we were headed towards... That was definitely not something I was excited for.

"I'm... Gonna go first again, if that's okay..." I said slowly, approaching the edge of the traps. I still didn't exactly want to cross first, but I wanted to familiarize myself with doing this, without watching someone else first. I needed to learn how to navigate and plan. As well as face my fears, of course.

"Be my guest," said Bentley, apparently realizing that I was determined to conquer this.

I waited for the first log to roll by me, and then jumped to the first section of spike-less ground. I waited for the log to move forwards some before leaping over another patch of spikes to the next safe area.

It was just one more jump from there to clear that room. I stopped to force myself to breath normally. I was actually doing this, and it was going just fine... I almost couldn't believe it. I finally turned and gave Bentley a thumbs up. "Come on across!"

Bentley waved to indicate that he'd heard me, and then began planning his route. I watched as he traversed the spikes of death, and wondered if he was just as worried about me as I was about him. All things considered, he was probably more worried than I was.

"How much more do you think we have to go?" I asked as Bentley rejoined me again.

"I don't know. But just remember that we'll have to go back through all of this to get out again," answered Bentley.

I groaned. "Lovely,"

I then stared at the swinging axes that were now blocking our path. "I never wanted to see these things ever again,"

"You ready to try taking them on?" Bentley asked.

I sighed. I didn't want to. I really didn't want to... But... "Yeah. Yeah, I think so... They don't move very fast, either... I think I got this,"

Bentley nodded. "Alright. I admire your bravery,"

I snorted. "I'm not brave. I'm just determined to stop being scared,"

"The effects are still much the same," said Bentley.

I snorted again, but smiled at the turtle as I began planning how I was going to do this. I didn't have to plan a route this time, since it was just a straight shot past the axes, I just had to choose the right time to go jumping past them.

I eventually decided that jumping past them when they were both at the right side of the room was my best bet, and I ignored all my self-preservation to do just that. I felt the wind the axes created as I sailed past them, but I made it across before they got too close to me. Despite my heart beating literally out of my chest, I gave another breathless laugh. I'd done it, and it hadn't been too terribly hard.

The next set of axes were evaded much the same, and I then turned to motion Bentley over. He followed the same strategy I did, and soon we were once again together on the opposite side of the death traps.

The next room we came to had two rather long spiked logs that would crash into each other, attempting to both crush and skewer anyone who tried to cross. By now, I was slowly realizing that physically, I could do this. Cats were made for jumping and quick moves, and I was learning how to utilize that. It was the mental strain that was making this ridiculously hard, but I was also learning how to fight through that.

It seemed like Bentley was also getting used to the idea of this job, and was also learning that so was I. We exchanged a wordless glance as I approched the traps before us.

Evading these traps involved a lot of jumping back and forth, and my heart was beating so fast that I could hear the blood rushing in my ears, but I made it to the other side regardless. Bentley followed in my footsteps, and we sort of had to laugh at ourselves as we realized that we were actually doing pretty good.

It was the next room that sort of stopped us in our tracks, however, as it was a little different from the others. There were spiked logs attatched to spiked logs, creating an interesting pattern of death that we had to avoid.

Bentley and I looked at each other, before I smirked at him and nodded. I could do this, and so could he. He nodded back, and this time he decided to go first.

I watched as Bentley crossed the room, jumping over the circulating logs of death. He was calculated and precise, and that was likely why the Cooper Gang was so successful; Bentley's brain.

After Bentley had made it across, I forced myself to follow suit. Despite the logs attatched to other ones making the room look tricky, it actually wasn't much different from the others, in terms of how one evaded the logs. The pounding of my heart hadn't dared to stop yet, but I was getting slightly used to ignoring it. The adrenaline was likely helping with that, I figured.

The next room we entered into was... Completely flooded. There was various debris in the water that we could cross with, but it was the water itself that was making me nervous again.

"Bentley..." I said slowly. "How much do you wanna bet that we're about to meet the kracken?"

"I'm not going to bet anything," Bentley replied. "Because I'm pretty sure you're right,"

I swallowed hard. "Okay. So uh... I'll try crossing this, and if any tentacles come up, you shoot them?"

"Sounds like a plan," said Bentley. "Whenever you're ready,"

I stared at the water for a minute, convinced that I could see something moving under there. I then took a deep breath, and leaped to the first piece of large debris.

And as soon as my feet made contact with that piece of metal and displaced the water, a large purple tentacle rose from the water at an alarming speed.

I flinched backwards, aware that I sort of had no where to go. But before the tentacle could try slapping at me or I freaked out, a well-aimed dart hit it, making it retreat into the water. I let out a sigh as I watched it sink.

"You okay?" Bentley asked.

I looked back at the turtle. "Yeah, I'm alright. I got this," and though most of the time I'm lying to myself when I say 'I got this', I was actually pretty certain of it this time. I might have been scared, but I was starting to believe that this was a job I could physically handle.

Bentley nodded, and I proceeded to jump to the next floating platform. As I expected, another tentacle rose, and took a swing at me. I managed to leap over it, and shortly after, another dart sank into it. I took the short moment's reprieve to leap to the next platform and then to the other side of the room.

I heard another tentacle rise as my feet touched the concrete, and moments later another dart was fired. "We make a great team!" I called to Bentley.

"That we do," he replied as he began crossing the room himself, looking around warily for more tentacles.

"Do you think that thing is actually a kracken?" I asked as he joined me again.

Bentley laughed. "Probably not, but it's an apt description,"

I laughed too as we headed up the ramp that lead to the battery we were here for. Bentley grabbed it and proceeded to attatch it to his crossbow harness. "Aha! This acid battery should do the trick! Just walk close to the electrode and voila!"

I was about to question if that would really work, but then Bentley approached the computer right next to me, and I watched it light up and power on. "Oh wow,"

"Prepare to be hacked, you knave!"

"So how'd it go?" Sly asked when we returned, trying to sound casual instead of concerned for our wellbeing.

"Good, all things considered," Bentley replied.

"We dodged terrifying death traps and even had our own run in with the kracken ," I said, directing a bit of anger into how I reffered to our tentacled friend. "But we doubled teamed that guy so he never stood a chance,"

"Good to know that you overcame your fear of death traps," said Sly. His words were teasing, but I could see in his eyes that he was proud of my acomplishment.

So I smiled back at him. "I wouldn't say that I overcame it. Death traps are death traps, if I'm not scared of them there's something wrong with me. But yes, I faced my fears. We both did," now that the mission was over and we'd survived it, I was a lot more calm and could look at it more objectively.

"I'm proud of you both. I'll be honest, I was a bit worried about you two tackling that one together," Sly replied.

I scoffed. "Bentley never does anything without good reason,"

"It's good to know that you trust me so much," Bentley said from across the room, where he was setting up another slideshow.

"It's impossible not to trust you, you're the smartest person I've ever met," I laughed, dropping into a chair and taking my glasses off to clean them.

"Why thank you," Bentley purred.

Murray slid a can of soda over to me, and I graciously took it. "Death traps totally don't sound fun. You guys get props for taking them on,"

"Nyx has already decided that she wants cookies as her payment," Bentley chuckled.

"Yup," I agreed. "We're buying out the nearest store of all their cookies once we get out of here.

"Sounds like a plan to me," Sly laughed, finding the idea rather funny.

"Yeah! Cookies sound great!" Murray agreed.

I smiled. "Glad we're all on the same page,"

We then talked idly about everything and also nothing while we waited for Bentley to have his slideshow ready. I eventually came down from my adrenaline high, and returned to being nervous about our next move.

I had no idea what our big heist was going to be, and I couldn't help but be worried about it. We were initiating a war between Contessa and Neyla, and then getting right in the middle of it as far as I understood. I didn't quite like the idea. But at the least, I trusted my friends and teammates, and decided that this was enough.

"Alright," Bentley finally said, standing up and firing up the projector. "Gather 'round,"

We did as instructed, and thus began the slideshow. "It's time to wage war on the castle, and in the confusion, pull off a heist I've named; Operation: High Road,"

"First, Murray and Nyx will take down the spotlights on the main gate with the codes provided by General Clawfoot," Bentley explained. "Then, with the help of the voice modulator, I'll order Neyla's forces to attack!"

"Sly will then paraglide the two of us over to the Contessa's get-away blimp, and we'll use it to get inside her re-education tower," the slideshow rotated between various recon pictures that Sly had likely taken while he was climbing the tower.

"The assault on the castle will undoubtedly draw the shadow guards from their posts, and if we free Inspector Fox, she's sure to clear out the Contessa," Bentley continued. "With the mindshuffler exposed, I'll plant the bad mojo bomb, and presto! The Clockwerk eyes are ours!"

"So if you guys are ready, let's take our positions, and get this thing started!" Bentley concluded, and the slideshow sputtered out, leaving the screen a bright white.

"Well, I'm ready to go," announced Sly. "What about you two?"

"Let's do it!" yelled Murray, fist pumping into the air.

I grinned despite my nerves. "I'm game. Let's put these two-timing cops in their place,"

"Alright guys, head for the main gate and power down those search lights," Sly instructed. "While you do that, Bentley and I will climb our way up to the top of the castle. Good luck!"

"Same to you," Nyx replied as she followed Murray through the tank patrols. He didn't seem anywhere near as scared of them as Bentley, but he also didn't navigate quite as efficiently.

Ducking in and out of the searchlights they aimed to power down was as nerve-wrecking as ever for Nyx, but the duo made it to the keypad on the other side without much trouble.

"I hope that General guy told the truth, or this is gonna get ugly," Murray said as he typed in the codes.

It took a moment for the command to register, but the lights soon went down. "Oh yeah! The lights are down, Bentley! Time to call in the cavalry! I'll see if I can find some extra fire power to help out!"

Murray lead Nyx away from the bridge, asking if she knew how to pilot a tank. To which her hesitant answer was no.

Meanwhile, Bentley began relaying orders to Neyla's mercenaries. "Attention blood thirsty mercenaries! The castle defenses are down! Seize this opportunity for aggressive military action by pressing an attack on the castle!" there was a quiet 'uhh' that followed, but then, "Charge! For victory! For glory!"

"That should do it," said Bentley as soon as he confirmed that the mercenaries were heading in.

"Now that you're done being a war monger, feel like paragliding over to that blimp?" Sly asked, pointing to the airship in question.

"Just make sure to grab the rope hanging off that thing..." replied Bentley. "I don't want to drown,"

Sly nodded and then knelt down so that Bentley could climb onto his back. Once the turtle was secure, Sly wasted no time in leaping off of the building they stood on. He quickly deployed his paraglider, and they began their slow decent towards the blimp.

Once they were in range, Sly hooked the rope attatched to the blimp with his cane, and then climbed inside. Of course, this alerted the on-board guards that something was up, and they came to investigate, looking for a fight.

"Hold on, pal," Sly warned. "This could get rough,"

Thankfully, there were only two guards on the blimp, and Sly took care of them rather easily. He considered it to be a nice warm up for the rest of the mission.

"Alright," said Bentley, climbing off of Sly's back to assess the blimp controls. "Let's head for the re-education tower,"

Bentley adjusted their course rather easily, and soon they were skirting up along the edge of the intimidating tower. They climbed out of the blimp and into the tower, arriving just in time to watch Contessa freak out over the attack.

"What?! The mercenaries have breached the castle defenses? All of you go! Defend this tower to the last man!" Contessa shrieked, gesturing wildly at her guards.

With loyal salutes, her elite shadow guards left the room one by one, leaving Contessa all alone with Carmelita. She likely thought that she was totally safe there, but she had another thing coming.

"Don't worry my dear, I still have time to finish with your 'readjustment'," Contessa purred, sounding as if this were a good thing for Carmelita. It made Sly's fur stand up on end. Was this what Nyx had gone through as well?

"Let me out of here, and I'll 'readjust' your face!" Carmelita growled, struggling against the iron that held her in place. One had to give her props for not giving in by then.

"Okay partner," Sly said. "Looks like the shadow guard is out of the picture. You ready to free our violent little princess?"

Bentley nodded. "Affirmative. That Irontech 2-50 is a fully integrated system; Access to Carmelita's restraints has to be in this old terminal somewhere,"

The turtle then got to work hacking, leaving Sly to stand guard. He decided to use this time to check up on his other teammates. "Murray? Nyx? What are you guys up to?"

"Uh well," it was Nyx's nervous voice that came in, though she was partially drowned out by loud cannon fire. "Murray gave me a crash course in tank controls, and so we're helping seige the castle..."

Sly almost couldn't believe that Nyx had agreed to get into a tank, and he planned to ask about it later. "Do you know how to drive anything at all?"

"No..."

Sly sighed. "That's reassuring,"

"Don't worry, I'm fine... Murray's got me covered," Nyx replied, though she didn't sound completely convinced of her own words. "Just worry about Carmelita and getting those eyes,"

Sly was going to respond, but then Bentley spoke up. "That should do it," looked like he was finished hacking.

The raccoon and turtle duo watched with baited breath as the shackles holding Carmelita down all popped open. The vixen wasted no time in leaping off the Irontech, and the hypnotized glaze left her eyes as she surveyed the room.

"Aha! I've isolated the brain pattern... You and I are about to become the best of friends," Contessa purred, completely unaware that her prisoner had escaped and was now pointing a shock pistol at her.

"Okay, new best friend. Hands up! And I mean all of 'em!" Carmelita growled, raising her shock pistol and narrowing her eyes. She was all kinds of pissed, and she intended to do something with that anger.

"My dear you really shou-" Contessa then realized that Carmelita had escaped, and her visage turned to panic as she fled for the door. "Shadow guard! Shadow guard!"

"Come back here, you witch!" Carmelita yelled, chasing after the large arachnid.

With those two gone, it left Sly and Bentley free to get at the mindshuffler. Bentley lowered the gate seperating them from the main room, and they jumped down into it.

"That Carmelita," Sly hummed. "Always trying to solve her problems with a shock pistol,"

"She is rather truculent," Bentley agreed, setting the bad-mojo bomb. "Stand clear Sly, this might have a larger blast than anticipated,"

Sly nodded, and Bentley then proceeded to arm the bomb. The two then sprinted away from the bomb as fast as they could. Regardless, the force from the explosion still knocked them both off their feet. Yeah, that bomb had more of a kick than Bentley thought. It had also caused the room to fill with thick smoke.

"Bentley!" Sly called, pulling himself to his feet. "You okay?"

"This is no place for an asthmatic..." Bentley declared, coughing a little. "But I've located one of the Clockwerk eyes! Can you find the other?"

"No worries chaps, it's safely in hand,"

Sly and Bentley turned around at the sound of a very British accent suddenly addressing them. As the smoke cleared, Sly's eyes focused on the figure of Neyla; With the other Clockwerk eye in her possession.

"Neyla?!" Sly questioned, wondering just how she'd known where to find them. Neyla smirked. "Thanks for clearing out the Contessa... Nothing I did could pry her away from the Clockwerk eyes," then she hummed to herself. "One should be enough for the old bird. Ta-ta!"

Then Neyla was sprinting out of the room at a breakneck pace. "Bentley!" Sly hissed. "Take the eye and escape on the blimp... I'm going after Neyla!" and without any further words, Sly was chasing after Neyla.

"But? The plan?! It... This wasn't in the plan!" Bentley protested as he watched Sly go. He then sighed. There was no use questioning it now, was there? So the turtle obeyed Sly's instructions, took the eye to Contessa's get away blimp, and began his escape.

"Attention all bombers!" Neyla announced via some remote device. "Focus your attack on the Contessa's blimp!"

"Heads up Bentley! You're about to come under fire!" Sly panted, hoping that Bentley was a good enough pilot to evade fire even while in a blimp. "Get to the blimp's turret and stay sharp!"

"Guys what's going on?! Why did Neyla just order the blimp to be fired upon?" It was Nyx's semi-panicked voice that came over the binocucom now.

"Bentley's got one of the eyes and he's on the blimp," Sly answered. "Neyla's got the other and she's trying to escape!"

There was silence over the line for a moment, but then, "Like hell she is. I've got eyes on both of you, just keep on her tail!"

Sly had no idea what Nyx planned to do, but he had no time to question her. After all, keeping up with Neyla was definitely more important.

Somewhere in the castle grounds, Nyx was was perched atop a high building, and she had a pretty good view of Sly and Neyla. The tank she'd been driving earlier had run out of ammo, leading her to get out of it and take out foot guards. When that was done, she'd ended up on the buildings, trying to assess what her next move should be.

And now her next move was trying to intercept Neyla before she could get away with that Clockwerk eye. For a moment, Nyx wondered how she was going to do that, but then she caught sight of the Interpol boat that was approaching the castle grounds from the surrounding waters. That was likely Neyla's target...

So, before she had the time to think about it and become scared, Nyx clambored down from the building she stood on, and began rushing towards the building nearest where the boat would dock. As a criminal, rushing towards the cops was not something Nyx figured was a good idea, but she really wanted to get Neyla back for everything she'd done...

Meanwhile, Neyla was feeling pretty confident in her escape. Even if her boat didn't arrive on time, she could just lead Cooper in circle for a while. She was faster than him by just enough to matter, after all.

So, Neyla was taking a bit of a scenic route, something she was rather fond of, Sly had noticed. She was hoping that if she ran him around long enough, she'd eventually lose him. At least, that was the theory.

As she approached her pick up point and realized that her boat had not yet docked, Neyla glanced behind her at Sly, who refused to be left behind. Neyla snarled, and prepared to turn, but then found something rather heavy plowing into her.

Neyla hissed as she fought with whatever had just landed on her, and as a fist made contact with her face, she realized that it was a person. She scrambled to keep hold on the Clockwerk eye, but it slipped away from her, rolling to the middle of the building she was on.

Sly was right behind Neyla, and when he leaped up onto the building, he was a little surprised to see Nyx, viciously grappling with Neyla. He had no idea how she'd managed to be at the right place at the right time, but he was sort of glad that she had.

The raccoon smirked and picked up the Clockwerk eye, watching as Nyx and Neyla battled. Nyx had lost their last fight, but only because two big Interpol agents had ended it. And now, Nyx had some proper battle training. Sly wasn't sure if she could overpower Neyla, but he figured he ought to let her try.

By then, Nyx had scratched Neyla across the face, and they'd tumbled head over heels like a wheel a good few times. Neyla had resorted to biting Nyx's shoulder, and Nyx retaliated by digging her claws into Neyla's side.

Sly had to flinch a bit as he watched the two felines fight. Nyx was definitely gonna be sore after all of this, wasn't she? Neyla looked like she packed a pretty good punch.

"You meddling brat! I should have ended you when I had the chance!" Neyla yelled, finally managing to get on top of Nyx and pin her down. "I won't make that mistake again!"

Nyx hissed, struggling against Neyla, but it was clear that the younger feline was running out of steam. "You're such a stereotypical villain, you know that?"

Neyla opened her mouth to snarl something, but then something gold struck her side, and she went flying into a collection of spider webs, where she became subsequently stuck.

"Thanks," Nyx panted as Sly helped her up off the floor.

"No problem," Sly replied, grinning.

Nyx pushed her glasses back up onto her nose where they belonged as she turned towards Neyla. She pointed an angry finger at the tigeress. "That scratch is for what you did to my friends, just so you know,"

Neyla was seething as she watched Nyx turn back to Sly, who held up the other Clockwerk eye with a triumphant look. "Get back here! Don't you dare! That eye is mine! It's mine!" she yelled, struggling to get free of her sticky prison.

And no sooner than those words left Neyla's mouth, a string of spider web appeared out of nowhere and latched onto her. It then ripped her from the webs that held her, and tossed her off somewhere. Both Sly and Nyx looked up to see none other than the Contessa staring them down.

"She escaped Carmelita..." Nyx hissed into Sly's ear. She wasn't sure if she wanted to run away, or stand her ground...

"Actually, Mr. Cooper, Miss Blythe... The eye belongs to me," Contessa said firmly, her eyes locked on the Clockwerk eye in Sly's hands.

Contessa then leaped down to the same roof her adversaries were on, and slowly began moving towards them, as if she were stalking them. There was murder in her eyes and it was making Nyx very nervous.

"Here," Sly said, shoving the eye into Nyx's hands. "Take it and run! Find Bentley and Murray, I'll catch up with you later!"

Nyx froze for just a moment, unsure if she wanted to leave Sly alone with that psychopath. But then she nodded firmly, knowing that there was no use in getting both of them caught and letting Contessa have the eye. "Be careful," she whispered before she leaped off the edge of the roof.

As she went, she heard Contessa yell, protesting about the eye being taken just like Neyla had. But she had Sly to deal with, and couldn't give chase.

Nyx remembered where the rendevous point was, vaguely, and began heading towards it. But, no sooner than she had, Bentley's panicked voice radioed in.

"Merciful Hades! Sly, can you read me? Carmelita shot out the guidance system and the blimp is decending at a decidedly unsafe rate! I'm going down! Down! Down !!"

The panicked information was then followed by a loud crash, and Nyx was pretty sure that her heart stopped beating for a good few moments. But then she seemed to kick into auto-pilot, and turned towards the site of the crash. She hadn't seen it, but she'd felt it, and she figured that a blimp wreck couldn't be hard to spot.

"Bentley?!" it was Sly calling for the turtle via the binocucom.

"Don't worry about Bentley, Sly," Nyx panted. "I'm heading his way! Just worry about Contessa!"

"Got it. Thanks, Nyx," Sly sighed, sounding relieved.

"Don't mention it," Nyx replied as she leaped up onto a building. Her entire body was tired and sore, and her arms were covered in scratches from the desperate way she'd climbed things to reach Neyla. She was climbing at a very similiar pace now, and the open wounds - Shallow as they were - Really hurt. She pushed back the notion of pain, and tried to get her brain to focus on finding Bentley.

"Is anyone there?" the turtle's quiet voice came in soon. He didn't sound terribly hurt, but Nyx couldn't really tell just by his voice.

"I'm here, Bentley," answered Nyx. "I'm on my way to your location, just stay there!"

"Alright, I - What the-" Bentley's words were cut off as something else caught his attention.

"Hands up, turtle,"

"Carmelita..." Nyx muttered to herself. Of course, the vixen had shot down the blimp, why wouldn't she investigate the wreckage? Nyx tried forcing her legs to go any faster, but as it was she was rapidly running out of steam. She was surprised that she'd lasted this long, she was never much of an athletic type. She was likely running on pure adrenaline by this point.

"Give me the Clockwerk eye. I said give it here," Carmelita demanded, likely pointing a shock pistol at Bentley.

There was silence, and then a shuffling sound. Was Bentley giving her the eye? Nyx supposed that he couldn't really fight her, could he?

"Now keep your hands up for ten minutes after I leave," Carmelita instructed firmly. "I'll be watching," wait. She was leaving Bentley there?

"Carmelita, she - Oh, the guys are going to kill me," Bentley groaned.

"No one's going to kill you, Bentley," Nyx panted. "What happened?"

"Carmelita took the eye! And she's trying to escape in one of the Contessa's tanks!" Bentley replied frantically.

"Don't worry about it, little buddy," came Murray's voice over the line. "I won't let her get away. Where's the other eye?"

"I've got it," Nyx replied. "I'm almost to Bentley's location, we'll meet you at the rendevous once you've got the other,"

"And where's Sly?" Bentley questioned as he saw Nyx round a corner.

"Fighting Contessa. He sent me off with the eye to make sure she didn't get it," Nyx answered. Moments later she skidded to a stop by the blimp wreckage.

"And what about Neyla?" was Bentley's next question.

"I have no idea," Nyx said as she helped Bentley from the wreckage. "Contessa tossed her somewhere, and she's likely regrouped with the Interpol boat that I saw coming in,"

"Great, actual Interpol is here," Bentley groaned.

"Yeah," Nyx sighed, then changed the subject to one she found much more important. "Are you okay, Bentley?"

"I'm fine," the turtle responded. "Turtles are made for protection,"

"Good. You scared the hell outta me," said Nyx, sounding very relieved.

"I think the question here is; Are you okay?" Bentley asked, turning the question to Nyx. "You look like hell,"

"That is an understatement to how I feel right now, but I'm fine," Nyx responded. She was sort of lying, though. The adrenaline was keeping her on her feet for the time being, but she knew for a fact she was going to crash and burn the minute this heist was over.

Bentley sighed, knowing that she wasn't being completely honest, but decided to not challenge her answer. "Alright. Let's get to the van,"

Nyx nodded, and the two took off for the van. Hopefully Murray and Sly would meet back up with them before Interpol had the place covered.

Upon reaching the van, Bentley climbed into the driver's seat and revved up the engine. Nyx climbed into the back and used Bentley's laptop to check Sly and Murray's locations.

Sly wasn't where she left him, in fact he was on the move, likely chasing after Contessa. Murray was also moving, chasing after Carmelita. Nyx hoped that both those chases wouldn't last for too much longer.

In silence and stress, Bentley and Nyx waited for their teammates, hoping that nothing else would go wrong.

"Carmelita's tank is done for!" Murray shouted eventually. "I'll grab the eye while she's still stuck in it, and then meet you guys at the rendevous,"

"Great job, Murray!" said Bentley, then turned his attention to Sly. "Sly, how's it going with you?"

"I'm chasing Contessa!" the raccoon replied, sounding out of breath.

"Well, when you can, we'll all hook up at the rendevous for extraction," Murray said. Nyx was sort of surprised that he'd used the word 'extraction' properly. He wasn't much of a big words guy, she'd noticed.

"Got it,"

Murray joined Nyx and Bentley at the van, and took the wheel. He handed off the other eye to Nyx, who found herself looking them over while she waited. They were huge, and even when they weren't attatched to anything, there was something about their gaze that unsettled her.

Eventually, Nyx put the eyes aside, figuring that it was probably bad to keep staring at them. After all, Contessa had been using them for hypnosis...

It took what felt like forever, but Sly's voice eventually came through the binocucom line again. "Contessa's down and out. I'm on my way to the rendevous!"

"Great!" exclaimed Murray. "The van is all warmed up and ready to go!"

"Be careful out there, Sly!" Bentley warned. "Nyx said she saw an Interpol boat arriving. Neyla's likely made contact with them,"

"Don't worry, I'll be fine," the raccoon replied.

Murray's foot was hovering anxiously over the gas pedal, ready to punch it the moment Sly was in the van. Nyx and Bentley kept glancing out the windows, looking for their comrade; What was taking him so long?

The question of what kept Sly from reaching the van faster was instantly answered when Sly rounded the corner, and his team saw who he was dragging with him. Nyx's jaw practically fell open, but she tossed the van doors open anyways to let the duo in.

Murray had the van in motion almost before Nyx had the doors closed, and the van accellerated at an almost alarming rate as Murray booked it for the exit.

The three who were unfortunately in the back of the van had to struggle to not knock heads with each other as Murray made sharp turns that only an expert driver could make, but it was thanks to these turns that they were able to escape before Interpol caught onto them.

After Murray slowed the van down to a reasonable speed, there were a few moments of silence, before all eyes landed on the very pissed off vixen that was now in the van with them. Even Murray averted his gaze from the road for just a moment to look at her via the rear-view mirror.

Bentley looked at Sly with an exhausted look that clearly screamed, ' Why ?'

Sly shrugged and gave a guilty grin. He couldn't have just left Carmelita back there to be arrested again, and he figured that helping her escape wasn't too big of a deal.

Bentley sighed and shook his head, his mind already trying to think up some way to ditch Carmelita before she tried to arrest them. Though he couldn't blame Sly for helping her, he decided. He would have felt bad too, if they'd left her there.

With Carmelita present, the air in the van was rather tense and awkward. She was clearly not happy to have been rescued by thieves, let alone to be riding in a vehicle with them.

No one seemed to know what to say, and the silence was making Nyx feel incredibly weird. As the silence wore on, Nyx eventually decided to say something. They couldn't just sit there in silence forever, could they? She figured that if Sly hadn't said anything by now, that the duty rested on her to break the ice. "Are you okay, Inspector Fox?"

Carmelita looked rather surprised by the question, and it took her a moment to answer it. "I'm fine,"

"Good to know. I can't imagine what Contessa did to you - Actually I can, and it doesn't sound fun," Nyx replied. "At least we don't have to worry about her anymore,"

Carmelita was silent a moment, and seemed to be judging Nyx. "...You're that girl who tackled Neyla to help Sly escape, aren't you? ...You don't look like much of a criminal,"

Nyx laughed a bit. "Looks can be decieving. Though in this case, you're right. I haven't been a criminal for very long,"

"About four weeks, to be precise," interjected Sly. "Though she's been with us for way longer,"

Carmelita narrowed her eyes a bit, trying to figure out how Nyx fit into the Cooper Gang picture. "Well, I hope you realize that I'm arresting you first chance I get," was what she settled on saying.

"Oh yeah, we know," Nyx replied, smiling despite the threat. Then she moved to lean over the driver's seat to point at something. "Pull over here, Murray! Bentley owes me cookies,"

To that, Carmelita had no idea what to say. She'd probably never understand the Cooper Gang, would she?

Like Bentley promised, we bought all the cookies at the gas station I pointed Murray to, which the poor cashier seemed very confused about. Despite the fact that I was dead tired, there's nothing like rewarding yourself for a job well done, I think.

By the time we had reached that gas station, Bentley had already come up with a plan to ditch Carmelita. It was a simple plan that involved cutting the power to the gas station to lure Carmelita in, and then slipping out the back while she fought with the languge barrier between her and the cashier.

It wasn't the most elegant of plans, but it had worked. Carmelita would probably be pretty pissed at us, but hey, we left her a package of cookies to say sorry.

We camped out in a small hotel for the remainder of the night, and in the morning we learned what had happened after we left Contessa's castle.

Interpol came down on the place hard, and we had just barely missed them. Neyla claimed all the glory for taking down the corrupt Contessa, and was thereby promoted to Captain. Which I was one hundred percent sure she didn't deserve.

We took a few R&R days to unwind from the stress our past few weeks had been, and it was then that something occured to me.

I'd come to France looking for my purpose in life, hadn't I? I'd moved there because I thought I wanted to be an artist, and I thought that Paris was the best place to chase that dream.

But as I sat in our hotel room and played a loud game of Uno with my comrades, I realized that that right there was what I had wanted; To belong somewhere. I had gone to France chasing faint ideas of who I wanted to be, because I had no idea where it was that I was meant to belong. But I was now certain that going there had definitely helped me find it.

And despite how different it was from the plan I'd originally had for myself, I could no longer imagine being anywhere else.

Chapter Text

"So she made you play a game of Voodoo Simon Says? That's ridiculous!" I laughed, almost choking on a chocolate chip cookie.

"It was kinda fun, though," Sly replied. "She thought she was being all big and bad, but honestly it wasn't that challenging,"

"And why did that one ghost cat want gumbo? How do dead cats eat?" I questioned further. Sly had been telling me stories about his adventures in Haiti for a while now, and I was very much absorbed into them.

Sly shrugged. "We never figured that one out before we had to leave,"

I laughed, gesturing at Sly with my cookie. "You have been on some really weird adventures,"

"Yeah, we definitely have. Are you counting this one as weird yet, though?" Sly asked, raising an eyebrow.

I hummed, biting into my cookie again as I thought about it. "I dunno. We'd been mostly sticking to logic and reality for the longest time, even if you were constantly doing dumb and dangerous things, but then the ghosts happened..."

Sly laughed. "The ghosts really did it for you, huh?"

"They assaulted me, Sly," I insisted.

Sly grinned. "Sure they did,"

I stuck my tongue out at him at the same moment the van stopped and Bentley announced that we'd arrived. Our destination? Nunavut Bay, Canada. We'd followed Rajan's spice shipments to this cold and snowy place, and Bentley had learned that it was currently inhabited by a lumberjack named Jean Bison. We'd seen him at Rajan's ball, if I remembered correctly.

And of course, like every Klaww Gang member before him, Jean Bison had some Clockwerk parts on him; Both lungs and the stomach. Why a robot actually needed organs was beyond me, but the fact remained that we had to get them.

Murray had parked the van behind some abandoned bait and tackle shop, and I assumed that this was to be our new safehouse. So, we all climbed out of the van, and began setting things up inside. It took a while to sort all of Bentley's equipment and get it all plugged in and whatnot, but soon enough our base of operations was ready.

"So Bentley," I drawled, sitting down with one of the packages of cookies we still had. "What do we know about this Jean Bison guy?"

"Well," Bentley began, pulling up files on his computer. "In his youth, he trecked across Canda to try striking it rich during the gold rush of 1852,"

"1852?" I questioned. "Doesn't that make him like, a hundred years old?"

"I was getting to that," said Bentley, giving me a look for interupting him. "Being young and brave, Jean Bison took a few chances with some dynamite and a mountain, and he ended up buried alive in an avalanche. Lucky for him, the quick freeze actually kept him alive. A hundred and twenty years later - Thanks to global warming - He thawed out, and then joined the Klaww Gang,"

"Now he ships illegal spices for them, is trying to chop down all the forests, and is... Doing something with Clockwerk's organs..." I mused. "Does anyone else find that last part kinda weird?"

"Yeah, it is sort of strange," Sly agreed. "What's a low-tech guy like him doing with robot parts?"

"Does he even know how to use them?" I questioned.

"Those are all things that we need to find out," said Bentley. "So, Sly, if you're ready to do some recon, I think breaking into Jean Bison's cabin might provide some of those answers,"

Sly nodded and headed for the door. "On it,"

"Watch out for trains!" I called to the raccoon as he left. I'd seen at least two, and a lot more train tracks while were unpacking our stuff. I assumed that Jean Bison used them for his spice shipping.

Sly waved to indicate that he'd heard me, and then he was gone. I leaned back in my chair and passed the package of cookies to Murray as he sat down across from me. "So how many more Clockwerk parts do you think there are?" I found myself asking Bentley.

"Well, if I did my math right, and I always do my math right, all that's left are the talons and the brain," Bentley answered.

"What about the rest of him? Like the outer shell and stuff that holds all these organs and pieces together?" I questioned. Didn't we need to destroy those, too?

"I'm not sure," Bentley hummed. "They were all in the museum and they were all stolen by the Klaww Gang. What they did with those other pieces is beyond me,"

I sighed. "But we'll have to find them eventually, right?"

"Right," Bentley confirmed. "Hopefully we'll figure out what happened to those soon,"

"Agreed,"

"Are you eager for this to be over?" Bentley then asked, catching me a bit off-guard.

"No," I replied. "...But also yes. I don't mind running around the world with you guys, in fact I love it. But I wanna hurry up and put this evil scheme to rest. I think Sly does, too,"

Bentley nodded. "You're right. It doesn't show often, but he's terrified of Clockwerk,"

"I can tell," I replied. "Clockwerk must have been a real menace. I've only seen pieces, but I can imagine how terrifying he must have been,"

"He was super scary!" Murray agreed, speaking through a mouthful of cookies.

"I can't imagine the stress that owl has put Sly through," I mumbled, saying this a bit more to myself than to Bentley or Murray.

"A lot," Bentley replied anyways. "You should have seen him when we embarked on our quest to stop the Fiendish Five and reclaim the Thievious Raccoonus. He was a lot more tense and angry,"

I nodded. It didn't happen often, but every now and then one could see a spark of anger in Sly, and now it's presence was making a lot more sense. "Clockwerk put him through hell..."

"But he came back out stronger than ever," Bentley said. "This gang came out stronger than ever, actually,"

I was quiet for a moment as I connected some dots that I hadn't realized I'd left out. "I never realized it before, but Sly's desperate to get rid of Clockwerk because he's scared for his family, isn't he?"

Bentley nodded. "While he also doesn't want the Klaww Gang using the parts like this, it's mostly a personal vendetta,"

"Is that why he was a bit confused as to why I wanted to join you guys?" I asked. "Did he think that I hadn't put the pieces together and didn't know what I was signing up for?"

"Did you?" Bentley asked in turn.

"Not at the time. I mean, Sly told me about what happened to his father, I remember that rather well," I replied. "But I hadn't completely realized just how personal this was to him. I had kinda just focused on the Klaww Gang somehow,"

Bentley raised an eyebrow at me. "And now that you know?"

"...I'm more determined than ever to lend a hand. I'm not just aligned with your 'it takes a thief to catch a thief' ideals," I answered. "I'm dedicated to you guys. You're my friends,"

"I figured just as much," said Bentley, nodding. "I learned a lot about you when you rushed out of the safehouse in India,"

I laughed a bit. India felt like a long ways away now... "Do you think Sly knows? That I'm not just here to bust criminals like some kind of hero?"

"You'll have to ask him," said Bentley. "I know him well, but I'm not a mind reader,"

I snorted. "I beg to differ,"

"I'm just a very observant turtle," Bentley insisted.

I rolled my eyes. " Mhm ,"

The room lapsed into silence again as Bentley updated the waypoints that Sly was following around. Eventually I got up and meandered over to the window, staring out at the freshly fallen snow.

It had been a long time since I'd last seen snow, and I was sort of excited about being around it again. "Hey Bentley?"

"Yes?"

"Do you mind if I maybe. Go play in the snow before things get underway?" I asked, giving Bentley a pleading grin.

Bentley sighed. "Sure,"

"Can I go, too?" Murray asked excitedly.

"Of course," said Bentley, shaking his head at our childish nature.

"Sly! It's- It's awful! I can't believe it!"

The raccoon had been on his way back to the safehouse after picking a few pockets, when Bentley was suddenly yelling in his ear. "Slow down, Bentley... What happened?"

"Murray and Nyx, they went out to play in the snow! And they got captured... By Inspector Fox!" Bentley exclaimed, sounding like he was on the verge of both an asthma and panic attack.

"Carmelita? She's here?" Sly questioned. "...Don't worry, Bentley, I know how to handle her,"

"But..." the turtle protested. "I don't know where she's locked them up! I'm used to having all the facts!"

"Calm down, Carmelita's not cruel like the Contessa. I'll follow her without being seen, she's bound to check up on them sooner or later," Sly replied smoothly. Hopefully his calmness would help ease Bentley's nerves.

"Okay," the turtle sighed. "That's... That's a good plan. Just don't get caught, too... I don't want to be alone,"

Sly nodded, then cut the feed and got to work following Carmelita. She was much more apt that the usual guard, but Sly was a master of tailing people by now. Dodging in and out of cover and weaving around Carmelita's flashlight, he followed her closely as she made a lap of the area.

She was probably looking for him, Sly figured. If she already had Nyx and Murray, all she had to do was find him and Bentley. She would likely turn them all in to prove that she wasn't a turncoat. Sly wasn't against helping Carmelita clear her name, but he was indeed against him and his team going to jail.

Eventually, Carmelita lead Sly up a small hill, and to an old power box. Inside said power box was Murray, who looked rather miserable. Outside the box was Nyx, who was handcuffed to the bars of it. She looked rather bored with the whole situation.

"Hey criminals. Doing okay?" Carmelita asked as she approached them.

"Yeah, I'm okay," Murray sighed.

Nyx shrugged languidly, clearly not taking this whole 'being captured' thing very seriously. "Aside from being detained against my will, I'm pretty good,"

Sly remembered a time when something like this would probably have scared Nyx to death. He had to smirk thinking about it. She'd certainly come a long way, hadn't she?

"Don't worry, it won't be long now. Once I bust the other members of your gang, we'll get out of here," Carmelita said, as if that would be a good thing.

"Aren't you kinda on the outs with Interpol right now?" Murray asked sheepishly.

"I'm an honest cop!" Carmelita snapped. "Busting the Cooper Gang will prove my innocence and show everyone that Constable Neyla set me up !"

"Captain Neyla, you mean," Nyx corrected her. "She got promoted after the whole Contessa bust that she totally had no part in,"

"Whatever!" Carmelita growled. "Just sit tight... I'm going to look for your pals,"

Nyx watched warily as Carmelita left, and then produced something from her pocket after she was sure the vixen was gone.

"Are you sure you can get that off?" Murray asked as Nyx began fiddling with the handcuff around her wrist.

"I don't know, but it's worth another try," Nyx replied. In her hands were two bobby pins, both bent to resemble lock picks.

It was then that Sly slipped up to them. "Hey, you guys okay? Bentley sent me to break you out,"

"Fat chance," said Murray. "This thing is triple padlocked, and Inspector Fox is carrying all the keys,"

"And I'm trying to pick these handcuffs with bobby pins," Nyx sighed, holding up her tools. "She took my actual lock picks,"

"Ten points for the attempted MacGyver," Sly chuckled. "And come on, Murray, you know I'm an expert at pickpocketing,"

"She's tough, Sly," Murray warned. "If you manage to get a key you'd better run for it. Carmelita's sure to notice and chase after you,"

Sly grinned. "Leave her to me,"

And then the raccoon was sneaking back down the small hill, following Carmelita's footprints. Nyx sighed and discarded her bent bobby pins into the snow. "And now we wait,"

It was aproximately forty-five minutes later when Sly came running up the hill again, carrying three keys and a small bag with him. He took a moment to catch his breath, and then tossed the bag to Nyx.

Catching it, she saw that it was her bag of supplies that Carmelita had confiscated. "Thanks. Took you long enough,"

Sly smiled as he used the three keys to unlock the padlocks holding Murray inside the power box. "You're welcome,"

"Now where's the handcuff keys?" Nyx asked as she moved with the door to let Murray out.

Sly grinned a devilish grin as he motioned to the supply bag in Nyx's hands. "I don't have them,"

Nyx stared at Sly for just a moment before she realized what he wanted her to do. She narrowed her eyes at him as she reached into her pouch and pulled out a lock pick. "You're cruel,"

"You need the practice," Sly purred, crossing his arms.

Nyx rolled her eyes but couldn't help from laughing a bit, and got to work picking the lock on the handcuffs. It was harder than it should have been, since one hand was confined by said handcuffs. But soon enough the lock clicked open, and Nyx freed her hand.

She stepped away from the power box, and grinned at Sly. "There, I did it,"

"See? No problem, I knew you had it in you," said Sly. "Now do you wanna tell me how you guys got caught?"

"She got between us and that electric barrier thing," Murray answered. "She moves really quietly!"

Sly nodded, motioning for his friends to follow him back to the safehouse. "Yeah, Carmelita's quick on her feet like that,"

"I considered running or tackling her but I figured that neither option was smart," Nyx said. "For one, I don't think you'd ever forgive me if I tackled her,"

Sly laughed. "I don't think you could hurt Carmelita if you tried,"

"Is she that tough?" Nyx asked.

Sly nodded. "Oh yeah,"

Nyx raised both eyebrows in mild shock. "Well then remind me to stay out of her way next time,"

"Will do," replied Sly.

Within a few more minutes, the trio reached the safehouse again. Murray headed inside, but Nyx grabbed Sly's arm to stop him. "Hey, Sly? Can I talk to you for a sec?"

"Yeah sure," the raccoon replied, turning to face her. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong," Nyx assured him. "I just. Wanted to make sure that you know something,"

Sly raised an eyebrow. "Which is?"

"Well. I was talking to Bentley and we got to talking about Clockwerk and how he put you through literal hell..." Nyx said, trying her best to meet Sly's eyes as she spoke. "And it occurred to me that collecting all the parts of him isn't just about stopping the Klaww Gang from using them for evil, it's about putting an end to someone who's been tormenting you and your family for years,"

"And I realized that maybe you don't know that I'm in this thing because I want to help you do that. I'm not just here because I like trying to be a renegade hero of some kind or because I like the idea of breaking the law," Nyx stopped to officially lock eyes with Sly before she continued. "I'm here because I care about you guys. You're my friends and I care about you. And if Clockwerk is your enemy, then he's my enemy, too,"

Sly stared at Nyx for a moment with an expression she couldn't name. She stared back as she waited for him to react. How was he going to react?

It was a few moments later, but Sly soon started to laugh. "Yeah, Nyx. I knew that," he said, clapping the cat on the shoulder. "It's good to hear it straight from you, though,"

Nyx smiled wide at the raccoon that was smiling back at her. "Glad we're on the same page,"

Then she opened the safehouse door and stepped inside. "Hey Bentley, hope you didn't have an asthma attack or something,"

"I nearly did," the turtle groaned. "Are you okay?"

"I'm one hundred percent fine," Nyx assured him. "In fact, I think I'm better than that,"

Bentley sighed. "Good. Good. Now, we've lost a lot of time, so we need to get things moving,"

"What's the plan?" Sly asked, joining his teammates at the table.

"I'm glad you asked," Bentley purred, gesturing to the projector that was set up in the corner. He got up from his chair, and fired up the old machine. Nyx idly wondered how it had survived being dragged from Europe to Canada and likely a million other places.

"Thanks to Sly's efforts, we now know the location of all three of the local Clockwerk parts," said Bentley, cycling through recon photos. "Two lungs, and a stomach,"

Nyx made a face at the mention of said Clockwerk parts. "That's still really weird,"

Bentley rolled his eyes at the interupting feline. "Jean Bison has grafted each piece to the engine in one of his 'Iron Horse' trains. This improvement allows the trains to run all night, and all day. We won't have the luxury of sneaking in while they're stopped,"

"While they're in motion, the only way aboard is through a hatch on the caboose roof," continued the turtle, circling said hatch in a recon photo. "Which unfortunately have been locked down. These need to go. First, collect the spice gas from the balloons above town, and then land on the back of the caboose to blow off the locks,"

"Once the way is cleared, I'll suit up and jump into Iron Horse number one while it passes near town," Bentley continued to explain. "With some luck, we'll have the first Clockwerk lung in a few hours,"

"I still don't get why a robot needs organs," Nyx said, now that the slideshow was done.

"You think I know how Clockwerk operated?" Bentley asked with a laugh. "I want to know that just as much as you do,"

"Maybe by the end of all this, we'll have found out," Nyx said hopefully.

"Perhaps, but I doubt it," Bentley replied.

"That looked incredibly terrifying,"

"It was actually pretty fun, you should have come with," Sly purred, dropping the empty vaccum backpack onto the floor. He had just returned from blowing the locks off the Iron Horse trains.

And by 'blowing the locks off' I mean defying gravity and death by skydiving into balloons of spice gas that would then shoot him back up into the air. And then he would paraglide down and land on the caboose to blow up the lock. And how - You might ask - Does spice gas blow up locks? Well, apparently it's really unstable at low altitudes. So if Sly had happened to miss the caboose, he would have been blown up.

He'd come out of the mission without a single scratch, of course, but it didn't stop me from being concerned about his apparent adrenaline addiction.

"Yeah, haha, no," I said. "I prefer to be on the ground, skydiving isn't my thing,"

"Aw, c'mon," Sly teased. "Learn to live a little,"

"Sly, I continue to live because I don't do stupid things like land bombs on the backs of trains," I said flatly.

"And what about breaking into said trains?" Bentley asked. "Would that be considered stupid?"

"Yeah kind of," I replied. Perhaps if the train were stopped, it wouldn't be so bad. But these trains were going to be constantly in motion.

"Good. Because you're coming with me," the turtle said, strapping on his crossbow.

I blinked twice while Sly stifled laughter. "What now? I swear you just said I'm coming onto the train with you?"

"You are," Bentley confirmed. "I'll likely handle everything, but you need the experience,"

I groaned to both myself and the heavens above. "You've gotta be kidding me,"

"Nope. Get your gear, we've gotta do this soon," Bentley said.

I sighed long and hard and glared at the raccoon who was laughing at me. "Alright, okay," I grabbed my gear as requested, and then followed Bentley out of the safehouse.

The turtle lead me through the snowy town, and to a ledge that overlooked one of the train tracks. I suddenly realized that we were going to jump onto the train, and I immediately became more scared of this mission than I had been before.

"According to this time table, Iron Horse number one should be passing by anytime now," said Sly via the binocucom.

"I-I see it! It's moving awfully fast!" stammered Bentley. Apparently he was just as anxious about this as I was.

"I think that's an understatement, Bentley," I replied. "It's going ridiculously fast..."

"And that's why you're here..." replied Bentley.

I blinked a few times and then stared at Bentley. "Me? What am I supposed to do...?"

"You're good at jumping," Bentley explained. "So you're going to be the one to get us onto that train,"

I sighed, knowing that there was no use in arguing. We were here, and the train was due any minute. "Alright, I guess that does make sense," after all, I did know I could jump rather far. It'd likely be safer if it were my legs propelling us both towards that train.

"Just jump on the caboose and go in through the hatch," Sly said. "Piece of cake,"

"Says you," I said flatly, eyeing the train as it approached us.

"Just don't worry about it too much," Sly advised, and then the line clicked off.

I snorted, pushed my glasses back up onto my nose, and then bent down to scoop Bentley into my arms. "Hang on tight, I dunno how well this is gonna go,"

"I'm trusting that you won't fling us to our deaths," said Bentley, taking my advice and clinging tightly to my neck.

The train was approaching quickly, and I crouched down and prepared to jump. I really didn't want to make that jump at all, but Bentley was counting on me. And friends needing me is unfortunately one of my biggest weaknesses.

The roar of the train was almost louder than the thumping of my heart in my ears as it approached, and I took one last deep breath... A second later, and there was the caboose.

Ignoring all the warnings in my head, I leaped from our perch, and off we went towards the caboose. Maybe my aim wasn't perfect, but at least we landed on the caboose without being injured or falling off.

I let out the breath I'd been holding, and set Bentley down. "I can't believe I did that,"

"See? I told you it'd be fine," and there was a snarky comment from Sly. I almost missed him being concerned about me. But by now, he was relaxing into the idea of me going on jobs, and unfortuntely so was I.

I blew a raspberry with my tongue, and then followed Bentley down the hatch on the caboose. The caboose was thankfully empty, but the car ahead of it had various laser security beams panning from side to side.

Bentley and I stopped to analyze these beams, and it occured to me that they probably should have scared me more than they actually did. Lasers didn't really seem as scary as giant axes, in my mind.

"So how do you feel about dodging these lasers?" Bentley asked, gesturing to the red beams.

"Surprisingly, pretty good," I replied. I watched as the various beams moved side to side in a strict pattern, and soon I had that pattern figured out. I waited for the right time, and then vaulted myself over a train seat to slip between them.

"You're getting the hang of this, I see," said Bentley, smirking at me as he evaded the lasers as well.

"Very slowly," I replied. "That wasn't too different from dodging the axes. It felt kinda familiar,"

"And eventually, everything will be some kind of familiar," Bentley said. "That's why I insist you come with on these sorts of things, even if it makes everyone nervous,"

I nodded as we ducked through the second set of lasers in that car. "I understand, even if sometimes I'm a bit mad at you for making me do it,"

Bentley smiled. "Good to know,"

After clearing a third set of lasers, we moved to the next car. This one had lasers lining the floor, and it reminded me of the spiked floors and logs. There was a grid of lasers that were stationary, and these left various safe spots for us to land on. There was however, another set of lasers that were moving horizontally across the floor. Those would likely be the biggest threat here.

Feeling a bit more confident, Bentley and I tackled this challenge together, both jumping and weaving through the lasers. We reached the other side unharmed, and I had to laugh at myself. "This is. Actually a little fun,"

" Oh no ," said Bentley, though there was something teasing in his tone. "Sly has been a terrible influence on you,"

"I'm not saying that doing dangerous stuff is fun," I countered. "I'm just saying that the acrobatics is kinda fun. Makes me feel like a movie hero,"

"Still, I blame Sly," Bentley insisted, rolling his eyes and shaking his head.

I laughed a bit and followed the turtle onto the roof of the next car. We then had to subsequently hit the deck as we found a bald eagle swooping at us from above. As we saw it turn around to come back, we booked it across the car and jumped down to the open one below us.

"Well, I didn't expect that ..." I mumbled breathlessly, looking above us at the circling eagles.

Bentley nodded in agreement, and then took aim with his crossbow, drawing my attention to a guard that was a few feet away from us. It was a miracle that the oblivious duck hadn't seen us yet.

Bentley fired a dart, and that duck slumped over, down and out for the time being. Bentley looked over to me. "You wanna get the other guy?" he gestured to the other duck that was further ahead.

"Sure," I agreed, and then quietly began making my way through the roofless car. By now, I had the sneaking around thing down pretty well. Being a cat really helped with that, I'd found.

Climbing up to another level of the car, I slowly drew my baton. I was right behind the duck now, and it was surprising that he hadn't sensed me yet. Before he had a chance to, I swung my arm to the right, extending my baton and smacking him with it all in the same move.

He was conscious for a few moments after he hit the ground, but passed out rather quick. I waved Bentley over as soon as I was sure the guard was out. We moved through the rest of this car, taking out another few guards on our way. Fighting was another thing I'd become more comfortable with by now, so long as my opponents weren't five times bigger than me. Or there weren't a million of them.

We found ourselves on the roof of the next car, but thankfully there were no eagles around to bother us, just guards. Bentley took care of those guys with his sleep darts, and we then pressed onwards. We had to be getting close by now, right?

The next open car was guarded by a large moose with a flashlight. Remember what I said about opponents five times my size? Yeah, I didn't want to engage that guy. Thankfully, we didn't have to. Bentley motioned for me to follow him up a stack of boxes to our left, and via these we were able to completely avoid the bored moose and the two goats that were with him. How they never saw us I will never know, but I decided to not look a gift horse in the mouth.

Moving to the next car, we found that it's floors were lined with lasers not unlike the first setup we'd seen, though this time both arrays were moving. It was more difficult, but Bentley and I still managed to cross the car without incident. Something in the back of my head was reminding me of exactly what I was doing, but the part of me that was used to this was on auto-pilot by now.

"I think we're in the home stretch," whispered Bentley as we reached a car that was completely and utterly filled with boxes. "It should be just past here,"

"And how do we cross... Here?" I asked, staring at the tall stacks of boxes that towered over us.

Bentley motioned to the side rails of the train. It took me a moment to figure it out, but I soon realized that his plan was for us to edge our way across by standing on the rails and bracing ourselves against the boxes. Alright, that was something new that I wasn't too familiar with. The tightness in my chest came back with a vengeance, but I was slowly learning how to fight it.

I nodded to Bentley. "Sly gave me a crash course on this stuff, it shouldn't be... Too hard," though maybe that was a slight understatement.

Bentley nodded to me once, and then climbed onto the left-hand railing. I took a deep breath, and then climbed onto the right side. I pressed my back up against the boxes, and slowly eased myself along the edge. However, I was stopped dead in my tracks by a bright flashlight coming way too close to me.

"Bentley, there's a guard here, I can't get past him," I whispered into my earpiece.

"I've run into the same roadblock," Bentley replied. "Try climbing on top of the boxes, there seem to be a few missing on top,"

I glanced behind myself and saw that Bentley was right, there were a few boxes missing on the tops of the stacks. I moved back along the rail a little, and then climbed up, using the missing spaces like large footholds.

Bentley met me up top, and we pressed forwards. The crates allowed us to leap over the two guard's heads, and that put us right in front of the first Clockwerk lung. I sighed as we approached it. Mission complete.

Bentley detatched the lung from the furnace of the train, and turned it over in his hands as he looked it over.

"Outstanding!" Sly exclaimed. "Chalk up one strange robot organ for us, and one less Iron Horse train for Jean Bison!"

Bentley and I exchanged pleased glances with each other. But then another thought crossed my mind...

"Bentley, how are we getting off this train?"

Bentley managed to hijack the train controls and get it to stop so that we could get off. Otherwise our plan B option was to jump off the train and into the snow, which didn't sound very appealing. But thankfully, Bentley's tech skills reigned true, and the train made an unscheduled stop to let us off.

Once back at the safehouse, Bentley dove into another slideshow. Apparently getting at Iron Horses two and three was going to take a bit more work. Bentley had to destroy the defenses on Iron Horse two to clear the way for Sly, and Murray had to kidnap some bear cubs to unlock a hand cart that would be needed to catch Iron Horse three.

Once that was said and done, Sly boarded the second train, and within the hour we had the second Clockwerk lung. Now all that was left was to board Iron Horse three, and steal the stomach.

This was to be the big heist, and thus Bentley had another slideshow for us. We all gathered around the projector, and Bentley began the presentation. "Okay, guys, this is it. Time to break into Iron Horse number three, and carry away the Clockwerk stomach," the title card for this heist read 'Operation: Choo-Choo' and I had to force myself to not laugh at that.

"Now the train's moving too fast to jump onto here in town, so we'll have to catch up with it on Murray's new hand car," said Bentley, circling a picture of said car. "Once we're in position, Sly will hop aboard and make his way to the engine. While he travels through the interior, I'll provide air support with my RC chopper,"

"Nyx, you might be wondering what your job is," continued the turtle, answering an unspoken question. "Well, considering that we've already robbed Jean Bison twice, he's likely to have upped the security on Iron Horse three. Your job is to get to Sly on the off chance that anything goes wrong, and get him out of there,"

I nodded to Bentley, fully ready to take on that responsibility should I need to. Regardless of how scared I might be, protecting a friends was one of those things I'd always be willing to do.

"I've planned this as a textbook train robbery, if we all do our jobs right, what could possibly go wrong?" Bentley concluded as the slideshow flickered out.

With the slideshow over, everyone began moving around the safehouse, packing up our supplies and loading them back into the van. Once that was done, everyone geared up, and we headed for the hand car.

It took Murray a moment to get the hand car going, but once he had, we were rocketing down the train tracks at a rather alarming speed. I really hoped that the old hand car would stand up to the stress...

Iron Horse three was fast, but Murray managed to get the hand car moving fast enough to catch up to it. We fell in line right behind the caboose, and Murray held our speed there.

"Got it," said Sly. "Strong work, Murray!"

"Yeah, sure," Murray panted. "'The Murray's' strength knows no limit," though the tired sound in his voice implied that it did.

"You're on, Sly," Bentley instructed. "Break into that train and steal the Clockwerk stomach,"

Instead of getting onto the train right then, Sly starting musing about Jean Bison. "That Jean Bison's one strange guy. The Klaww Gang divides up the Clockwerk parts and he walks away with stomach and lungs? ...It still creeps me out,"

"Get creeped out later when aren't riding an antique hand car at breakneck speeds," Bentley replied, sounding both nervous and a bit impatient.

"Good point," Sly agreed. "It's time for a train robbery,"

And then the raccoon finally jumped onto the train, and began making his way through it.

We waited with baited breath as Sly moved through the train. We couldn't see where he was or what he was doing without Bentley's laptop, so all we had to rely on was whatever Sly told us.

Which wasn't much, considering that he was sneaking through the train and avoiding guards and security systems. But eventually, he did radio in. "Looks like Jean Bison's here in the train,"

"Probably trying to stop the stomach from being stolen," Bentley replied. "Stay out of his way, Sly, he's too tough for you,"

"Got it," Sly replied, but left the connection open so we could hear what Bison was saying.

"Nobody's gettin' past me," the bison was growling. "That there Clockwerk stomach is as safe as a snowman in winter,"

Unbeknownst to him, however, Sly was likely sneaking right past him as he spoke. I could hear the raccoon's feet shuffling and I figured that he was likely moving along the outside edge of the car like Bentley and I had.

Jean Bison continued growling to himself, completely unaware that he was indeed about to be robbed again, "I'd like to meet that varmint that's been lootin' my Iron Horse trains! By Jimenny, I get hot under the collar just thinking 'bout how I'd cut that boy down,"

"Geez, anger issues much?" I teased. "I don't think even Rajan was quite that violent,"

Sly laughed. "Yeah, this guy's one hot spitfire, isn't he?"

I was going to respond to that, but then the sound of gunfire filled the air, and Sly let out a pained yelp.

"Sly!" it was both me and Bentley that called out for the raccoon. He thankfully still had his earpiece on, so we could hear what was going on.

"Oi! Cooper!" it was Neyla! How had she found us? "Thought I might find you here! Just can't stay away from these Clockwerk parts, can you?"

"Oh, I just do it to meet exciting ladies like yourself," Sly replied smoothly, though there was a hint of pain behind his voice. Had he actually been hit?

Bentley and I exchanged worried glances, and I prepared to jump onto the train if I had to.

"If you'd like some excitement, why not climb up on top of the train?" Neyla sneered. "I'm sure to get your heart pumping, maybe even show you my new ride,"

"No thanks, Neyla, I've seen enough already," Sly replied.

"What's the problem, Poodle?" Neyla teased. "Afraid you can't take me on? Have to call up your little friends for help?"

"Come in, 'little friends'," Sly said, mocking Neyla. "Neyla's got me pinned down, and she managed to hit me. Any chance of air support?"

My heart jumped as Sly confirmed that he'd been hit, and I wasted no time in taking the first aid kit Bentley handed me, and then jumped onto the train.

"I've already launched the RC chopper - She won't know what hit her," Bentley announced, sounding pretty confident in his ability to take on Neyla.

"Come on, Cooper!" Neyla yelled. "Let's play!"

That was when I heard the sound of a bullet crashing into something metal. "What in blazes?!" Neyla growled. There was a moment of silence before she continued. "Alright, little RC friend, this should be a quick bit of destruction,"

And then the sound of an all-out firefight broke out. Once I was on top of one of the train cars, I could see that Neyla had come up with some kind of flying vehicle that I couldn't identify. But it had some seriously powerful guns on it...

"Sly! How bad are you hit?" I asked as I crossed the car. I needed to know how badly he was bleeding...

"Shoulder," Sly replied, sounding way too calm for someone that had just been shot. "Through and through, I think,"

"Alright... I'm on my way anyways, I can at least clean it and try to stop the bleeding," I replied, jumping back down to another car.

"...You sure you wanna be out there with Neyla shooting at everything?" Sly asked, now sounding sort of alarmed.

"Too late for that Sly, I'm already halfway through this train. No turning back now," I replied. I honestly hadn't even thought of the danger that Neyla might pose to me until now. I was too concerned with getting to Sly and making sure he was okay. I wasn't sure what that said about me? Did that make me reckless? Or selfless?

"Alright," Sly sighed. "Just be careful,"

I laughed a bit. "That's my name, Sly, don't wear it out,"

I went quiet as I slipped by the car that had Jean Bison in it. He was still mumbling to himself, and seemed to believe that the firefight outside was the train's defenses blowing away the 'thieving varmint' that had been robbing his trains.

After clearing the car with Bison, I found Sly pressed against the back of the next one, where Neyla couldn't hit him. His right shoulder was soaked with blood, but he still looked pretty calm.

"You've certainly come a long way," Sly teased as I joined him in the small safe area. "You never would have done something like this three months ago, would you?"

"Nope," I responded. "Shirt off," I then demanded, holding up the first aid kit.

Sly heaved a sigh, but took his shirt off anyways. "It went through and through, I'm alright, I've had worse,"

"I know," I replied. "But the least I can do is clean it and stop the bleeding, okay? Let me do my small part in this,"

Sly laughed. "Alright, fine,"

The raccoon went quiet as I began disinfecting the hole in his shoulder. The bullet had just barely caught him, any higher and it would have just grazed him. But it still counted as a bullet hole, and I was going to treat it as such.

Sly gets extra points for being a good patient and not squirming as I cleaned his wound. In fact, he remained rather calm about the whole thing, only flinching and hissing a few times. "This isn't the first time you've been shot, is it?"

"Nope," Sly answered, grinning. "I'll tell you about it when I get the chance,"

"I'm holding you to that," I replied as I wrapped a bandage around Sly's shoulder. It wouldn't completely stop the bleeding, but it would at least keep the wound somewhat clean.

Sly put his bloody shirt back on once I was finished, and we both looked up at the sound of an especially loud explosion.

"You rummy blighter!" Neyla screetched. "This is a - Wha? Oh no! Oh no !" the panicked words were then followed by the sound of a crash, and we assumed that meant Neyla was out of the picture.

"That was some fancy flying, 'little friend'," said Sly, grinning wide.

"Whatever you say, 'Poodle'," Bentley replied sarcastically.

I snickered at their exchange. I had no idea why Neyla had called Sly a poodle, but it was definitely hilarious.

Sly turned towards the next car, but then turned back to face me. "Get back to the hand car, I'll be fine,"

"Are you sure...?" I asked slowly. I wasn't sure how much that wound would affect Sly's right arm, and I knew that he mostly swung right handed.

"Yeah," Sly replied. "I've had worse, remember? I'll be fine, so long as you stay out of dodge,"

I sighed. Sly was right. This train had a whole lot of security, I'd likely just slow him down if I came along. I nodded to him. "Okay. Just. Be careful,"

"Now who's worrying too much?" Sly teased, tapping my nose playfully. And then he was climbing up to the top of the next car.

I brought a hand to my ear to hail Bentley over the binocucom. "Sly's continuing forwards now, he's okay. I'm coming back to the hand car,"

"Alright," Bentley replied. "But both of you, be careful,"

I laughed. "I think we've both heard that phrase a little too much,"

I went back the way I came, once again slipping past Jean Bison who was still none the wiser to us. How he'd not heard Neyla screaming, I'll never know.

I reached the hand car again and leaped back to it just as Sly apparently reached the stomach.

"Never thought I'd see the day when a stomach got turned into a tool of evil," said Murray, as if he thoroughly disapproved of this.

Sly was quiet for a moment before speaking again. "Looks like Jean Bison's wised up and bolted the stomach down. We'll have to crack the engine block to get it free,"

"Then that's just what we'll do," Bentley replied. "A well placed bomb down the train's smoke stack will knock it loose. Just make sure to take some cover,"

"Not so fast, chum!"

I hissed at the sound of Neyla's voice, completely astonished that her ship had survived that first crash. She was really, really persistent...

"The Clockwerk part is mine," Neyla growled. "They will all be mine!"

Bentley then engaged Neyla in another firefight with his RC chopper, and the sound soon overtook most everything else.

I wasn't sure how such a small RC chopper was standing up to the huge thing Neyla was piloting (What even was that? I'd never seen anything like it), but I was praying that Bentley's piloting skills were up to snuff.

Apparently they were, because soon we heard another explosion and a crunching sound, and Neyla was shouting again. "You won't stop me! Not the Cooper Gang, not Interpol, not anyone !"

In the distence, there was the sound of another crash, and this time I hoped that Neyla stayed down.

"Stand clear, Sly, this might be messy," said Bentley.

"Got it," Sly replied.

Bentley navigated his slightly beat up RC chopper over to the smoke stack, and then dropped a well-aimed bomb right down it. The explosion it caused could be heard even from the hand car.

"Sly? Sly ? You okay?" Bentley called out, sounding very concerned.

"I've got an upset stomach on my hands, but other than that, I feel great!" Sly replied, laughing at his own joke.

"Y'know, other than the fact that you've been shot," I added in.

Sly laughed. "Other than that, yeah,"

How he did not consider that something important I will never know... I sighed and rolled my eyes. "Let's just get out of here before Jean Bison realizes what we've done,"

When we got back to the town, we found that Interpol had already showed up, looking for us as well as Bison. It looked like Neyla had survived that crash, and was furiously demanding that the Cooper Gang be caught.

Per Sly's orders, we all split up as we entered the town. There was no sense in travelling together, and thus getting caught together. The plan was that Murray and I would reach the van and drive it a small distence out of town, while Sly and Bentley kept Neyla and her forces on their toes.

Murray and I reached the van without incident, and for the first time in a while, I got to sit in the front seat. Driving very carefully, Murray navigated the van out of town, but stopped before it got too far away. "Okay, guys, we're out of town. Come meet up with us when you can,"

"I'm on my way," said Bentley, sounding tense and nervous. Poor turtle, evading the cops probably hadn't been easy for him. I knew that I certainly wouldn't want that job just yet.

"I'll be there soon, too," Sly said, sounding much more calm than Bentley.

We waited for about twenty minutes before Bentley reached the van and vaulted himself into the back. "Where's Sly?"

"Not here, yet," I replied. "...What's taking him so long?"

"You don't think he got caught, do you?" Murray asked slowly.

"...No," I replied, shaking my head. "He's too good for that. ...I hope,"

It was ten stressful minute later when we finally saw Sly running towards us, and yet again the question of what took him so long was silently answered.

Upon seeing that Interpol had caught onto us and were giving chase, Murray floored it as soon as the van doors were shut again and all passengers were inside.

I was so, so glad to be in the front seat for once, I thought to myself as we made a very rough turn.

Everyone was silent as Murray drove at Mach 5 to evade the cops, and even once we'd lost them there was a moment of silence.

Once that moment was over with, I leaned around the passenger's seat to smile at Carmelita. "Nice to see you again, Inspector Fox. I never got to ask before; Did you like the cookies we left you?"

Carmelita scowled at me, and Sly couldn't help but to start laughing.

Yet again, Bentley's genius allowed us to ditch Carmelita before she tried arresting us. We left her at another gas station, this time by locking her into the bathroom while Murray and I distracted the cashier.

I was sure that we'd pay for these little gags eventually, but somehow I wasn't too worried about it. Carmelita didn't scare me half as much as Neyla did. In fact, she was sort of fun to have around. I sort of wished that we could actually have a conversation that didn't involve handcuffs and arrest threats.

We were all pretty pleased to have made off with three Clockwerk parts all at once, though. It felt like such a huge win that we couldn't help but celebrate. Not to mention the fact that we'd shut down spice shipment all throughout North America! If that's not a win, I don't know what is.

Despite the fact that Interpol was all over the place, Jean Bison somehow managed to escape, however. When we learned this, we all knew that this meant we had to hunt him down again. And this time put him out of business for good. We weren't sure what he was planning, but he'd mentioned a 'Northern Lights battery' to the mysterious fifth Klaww Gang member, Arpeggio. It also seemed that Arpeggio had the Clockwerk brain.

In additon to all this, the Klaww Gang seemed to be planning a 'final hoedown' in Paris, if Jean Bison and Arpeggio's conversation was anything to go by. Arpeggio had said a bunch of tech stuff and mentioned something about Contessa, but I couldn't make heads or tails of it, even after repeatedly playing back the file that Bentley had recorded from Sly's binocucom. Bentley said he vaguely understood the technological babble, but that it didn't make much sense all on it's own. Whatever Arpeggio had mentioned, it was likely part of some bigger plan.

And to top all of it off, Jean Bison was in posession of a fourth Clockwerk part; The talons. According to Sly, those things were ridiculously sharp, and knowing Bison, he was using them to cut down trees.

So, we had to stop Jean Bison from de-foresting Canada, as well as figure out how to get at the Clockwerk brain that Arpeggio was in posession of. Somewhere along the way, we also had to help Inspector Fox clear her name, since we all agreed that her current situation was rather unfair.

We sure had a lot of work to do, didn't we? But by now, I was getting rather used to it, and was more than certain that we could pull it off. So, following the strangely behaving Northern Lights, we pursued Jean Bison farther into the wilderness of Canada.

Chapter Text

"Well. At least we know we're in the right place," I said slowly, as we took in all the fallen trees that were laid before us. Jean Bison was most absolutely here. Where here was, I wasn't quite sure. We'd gone off the map hours ago, and had just been following the Northern Lights. I was surprised that they'd lead us to the right location.

"This is an ecological disaster," Bentley groaned into his hands.

I nodded and sighed. "Yeah, this guy is definitely not winning any awards for wildlife preservation or whatever,"

"Those talons have got to go," Sly said, shaking his head. "The world just doesn't need to make room for another strip mall,"

"Agreed," I said.

We then climbed back into the van, and drove down the steep hill we were perched on. The road had gotten pretty dangerous, but luckily we'd found some snow chains in the van and had affixed those to the wheels. That minimized our chances of going of the road quite a bit. Of course, it helped that Murray is an expert driver.

We soon drove into the lumber camp that we'd been staring at, and carefully chose an empty building to be our new safehouse. We parked the van outside, and unloaded our equipment per usual.

"Okay," Bentley said once we were all set up and ready to go. "So here's what we know; Arpeggio's blimp is on it's way to pick up a battery from Jean Bison. And two, the only way we'll get a crack at Arpeggio's Clockwerk brain is by finding a way to sneak aboard his blimp,"

"But, before we do that, we'll have to snag the Clockwerk talons off Jean Bison," Sly added. "Time is short, and we've got a lot to accomplish,"

"True, true..." Bentley agreed. "But first things first. This lumber camp isn't on any of my maps. I need you and Nyx to poke around and take some recon photos, they'll help to get my sensors oriented,"

"No problem," Sly replied, turning to grin at me. "Recon photos we got covered,"

"Alright then, let's get to it," I said as checked to make sure all my gear was in place.

Sly tossed an arm around my shoulders as we headed for the door. "Are you sure you're the same girl I saved back in Paris? 'Cause she surely would have had a few questions to ask before leaving the safehouse,"

I laughed. "Y'know. I'm not even sure anymore. A lot has happened,"

"It sure has," Sly agreed. "I'll be honest, I never expected you to end up working with us,"

I snorted. "Me neither. But it's worth it,"

"Glad you think so," Sly purred.

I smiled. Even if it came with some downsides, I would always be happy that I'd chosen this gang. I then turned to Sly, ducking out from under his arm. "Are you sure that bullet wound is healed enough?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. Don't worry," Sly replied, shrugging off my concern. Bentley and I had wanted to take him to a proper hospital after we left Nunavut Bay, but being wanted criminals makes that hard to do. That was one of those downsides I just mentioned.

I sighed. "If you say so,"

Sly clapped me on the shoulder and then made for a wall of ice. "Trust me, I'm fine,"

I rolled my eyes, and then headed into the logging camp. There were various guards out and about, so I had to be vividly aware of myself, and my surroundings.

The first thing of note that I came across in the camp, was a large old bear that was lumbering around. Had I not been paying attention to everything, I might've walked right into him. He moved nearly silently, but I took notice of him just in time to leap backwards out of his way. A bear was not something I wanted to cross paths with...

I pulled out my binocucom and snapped a picture of the large grizzly, once I was sure he wasn't going to come after me. Bentley would probably want to know if there were bears around. They'd been pretty useful last time, after all.

"This place is bear country, alright," Bentley said in regards to my photo. "...Interesting. He's putting out a slight radio signature..."

"A radioactive bear, huh?" I joked as I moved farther away from the bear, making sure to not turn my back on him.

"Not likely," Bentley replied. "I'm working on figuring out what it is,"

Navigating around the bear, I headed towards a building that was near a giant wall of ice. While the ice wall was impressive, my focus was the rather rusty looking saw blades that were on the side of the building. They lead to a wooden chute, which then lead to a truck that was full of wood. Every now and then, logs would come out of the saw blades, freshly sliced by them, and they'd roll down into the truck below.

I decided to take a picture of the whole set up, just in case we needed it. Bentley probably wanted all the intel he could get.

"Those saw blades look particularly old," Bentley mused. "I guess this logging camp has been around for a while,"

Wondering what else I should photograph, I began heading back the way I'd come, darting in between guard patrols. Doing so still scared the hell out of me, but by now I was sort of confident that I could navigate through them. I'd navigated through the tanks, had I not?

Sure, the one tank had almost got me, but that's not relevant...

"Nyx," Bentley said after a while. "Why don't you come back to the safehouse now? I'm sending Sly over to the lighthouse to check out what's in there,"

"Got it," I replied. "I was getting bored, anyways,"

"How can you be bored while sneaking around a lumber camp owned by a man from the 1850's?" Sly asked, and I could hear the raised eyebrow in his voice.

"I was being sarcastic, Sly," I laughed.

"So was I," the raccoon chuckled back.

While Sly headed for the lighthouse, I returned to the safehouse. I had to take the long way around, due to the bear, and thus returned to the sound of Bentley saying something in regards to a photo Sly had taken.

"-But where's the battery Arpeggio is coming to pick up?" the turtle was saying.

"The mystery of the missing battery, hm?" I asked as I took a seat.

"Indeed," said Bentley. "Sly's found the charger in the lighthouse, but the battery is nowhere to be found,"

I hummed. "Interesting,"

Sly then sent in another photo, this time of the front door, which was being held shut by a steel bar.

"I was right," Bentley hummed. "The entrance is barred from the inside,"

The next photo that Sly sent in was of Jean Bison himself. No matter what angle you photographed him from, he was just really unattractive looking, apparently...

"Oh, Sly! Listen in! He's mumbling to himself!" exclaimed Bentley, turning up the volume on his laptop.

"Come on, Jean, ya got it in ya," the bison was saying. "Those lumberjack games need some more competition, eh? What would attract the participants?"

There was a beat of silence before he continued. "Bullseye! I'll post the Clockwerk talons as a trophy! That should bring in the competition. Although who am I kiddin', eh? I'mma gonna win just like every other year,"

Jean Bison took a moment to laugh at himself. "Oh, it's tough bein' this tough, it sure is, yeah,"

"We need to talk about these 'Lumberjack Games'," Bentley said. "Come on back to the safehouse,"

"What even are Lumberjack Games?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

Bentley shrugged. "Just another thing we need to find out,"

"So, how did you like playing bear dentist?"

Sly smirked as he crawled out of the bear den and found Nyx standing there waiting for him. "It was great," he replied, words dripping with sarcasm. "They said I'm the best dentist they've ever had,"

Nyx laughed. "Maybe you should change professions, then,"

Sly shrugged. "Nah, I prefer being a thief. Makes more money,"

"True that," Nyx agreed as Sly handed her three transmitters that were grossly attached to bear teeth. She grimaced at them.

Sly laughed at Nyx's reaction. "See you back at the safehouse. Good luck,"

Nyx rolled her eyes and then checked which locations Bentley had assigned to her, heading off for the nearest one. At least Sly hadn't told her to be careful this time.

To the uneducated, transmitters attached to bear teeth likely didn't make much sense. But it was all part of Bentley's plan. They needed to know more about Jean Bison and his operation, and thus Bentley planned to bug him. Using the transmitters from the bear teeth was just a way of cutting corners to speed things along.

After all, they had a lot to accomplish before Arpeggio's blimp arrived. Bentley's master plan - If it worked - Would result in them hiding inside the battery he was coming to pick up, like a modern day Trojan horse. But getting there wasn't going to be easy. And the first step was figuring out more about what Jean Bison was up to. Nyx wished it didn't involve bear teeth, but oh well.

The first transmitter needed to be placed on a tree, which was growing atop a small rock pillar. Nyx assessed it a moment, before scrambling her way up a pole that was attached to the wood chute. Slipping between the sliced logs, Nyx used the height of the chute to then leap down to the rock pillar.

She didn't land on her fee; Of course that was too much to ask, but she landed on the pillar at the very least. Glad that no one was around to see that one, Nyx picked herself up from the floor, and placed one of the transmitters onto the base of the tree.

As she began moving towards her next waypoint, Jean Bison's voice suddenly sounded over some kind of intercom. "Perk up your ears, boys, I'm gonna tell you the tally from last month..."

"The blue lumberjack team managed to clear out about a hundred and twenty acres of forest," Jean Bison announced. "Not bad considerin' they had to kill all them badgers to do it, eh?"

Nyx made a face as she listened to the bison speak. Was this was he considered fun? Or even sport?

"But now, the gold lumberjack team. Bless their hearts, those boys chopped down two-hundred and eleven acres! Ya'll hear that? Two-hundred and eleven acres of progress!" Jean Bison exclaimed, sounding very enthusiastic.

"I cannot believe this guy," Nyx muttered into her earpiece.

"He's got a real twisted sense of progress, doesn't he?" Sly responded.

Nyx sighed. "Indeed he does,"

"It's kinda sad, though," Sly went on. "He's just a normal guy from the 1850's. In his day, he'd be a hero,"

"But in ours, he's a villain," Nyx said, finishing the raccoon's sentence.

"Mhm," hummed the raccoon.

Jean Bison had stopped talked by that point, having praised his men for their 'jobs well done'. By then, Nyx had reached the building where her second waypoint was placed, and was clambering her way up to the top. Climbing things with foot and handholds was so much easier than climbing vertical pipes...

She placed the next transmitter against the chimney of that building, and then leaped down from it and back into the snow. Only one more left on her end.

The third waypoint that Bentley had set wasn't too far from the previous building, in fact, Nyx could see it from where she'd landed. It was atop another large rock, though it looked like the oil main next to it might let her get up there without too much fuss.

Hoisting herself atop the oil main, Nyx used it to climb up onto the snowy rock, and placed the third transmitter against another rock that was up there. Alright, mission accomplished.

Nyx leaped down from the big snowy rock, and began heading back towards the safehouse, following the yellow waypoint that marked it's location. About halfway there, she had the hell scared out of her by an arm suddenly slinging itself over her shoulders.

Nyx forced the scream in the back of her throat to become a strangled squeak as she flailed away from the gray-furred jerk that had snuck up behind her.

"Sly!" Nyx hissed, glaring at the raccoon that was now laughing at her.

"Sorry, did I scare you?" Sly asked, clearly not sorry at all.

"Yes, you did!" Nyx replied, letting out a long breath as she let Sly lead her back to the safehouse. "That was rude,"

Sly laughed a bit and held up his hands. "Sorry, I couldn't help it,"

Nyx narrowed her eyes, though she wasn't actually mad at him. He'd just scared her half to death, sure, but she couldn't truly be mad at him.

"Are you guys on your way back to the safehouse?" Bentley's voice came in over their earpieces just seconds later.

"Yeah," Sly replied. "You need us for something else?"

"Just you, Sly," Bentley said. "Murray's run into a snag over at the RC combat club, he needs you to reach a disguise on the upper floor for him,"

Sly nodded. "On it," and then he removed his arm from Nyx's shoulders and headed off towards the mulch mill that housed the RC club. "I'll see you back at the safehouse,"

Nyx stuck her tongue out at the raccoon as he left, and then continued back towards the safehouse. "Sly is a jerk," she announced as she entered.

"Oh really?" Bentley asked, sounding rather sarcastic.

"Yeah, he came up behind me and scared the living daylights out of me," Nyx proclaimed, dropping into her chair.

"Did you expect anything less from him?" Bentley asked, chuckling a bit.

Nyx was silent for a moment. "Yeah no, not really,"

Bentley laughed now, and then turned his laptop so that Nyx could join him in watching the raccoon defy the laws of peripheral vision and also gravity. He was currently sneaking behind the group of guards in the room, and was making his way towards a pole in the back that seemed to lead up to the upper levels.

Once at the pole, Sly dodged a lone spotlight that was panning back and forth, and then climbed his way up the pole. In the room below him was another guard, so Sly chose to perch upon the edge of the fence there, and edge to the left, towards the wall.

He then jumped over the guard's head, landing near silently behind him. Keeping his eyes on the guard for a moment, he moved towards the passageway that could be seen from the left side of the room when he came in.

Though perhaps 'passageway' wasn't the best term for it? There was no floor, unless you counted all the sharp saw blades down there, which Sly certainly did not. There were a few claws mounted to the roof, which were used to move logs. Only one of them had a log currently held in it's grasp, while the other two were empty and closed.

Nyx was going to ask how Sly was going to get across that, when the raccoon suddenly leaped towards one of the closed claws, and hooked his cane onto it. He swung from this claw to the next, and then landed on the log. He leaped onto the edge of a saw blade from there, and used it to reach the next area with an actual floor.

"His lack of self-preservation will forever amaze me," Nyx said, staring at Bentley's laptop with a nearly blank look on her face.

Bentley chuckled at her statement. "It took me a while to get used to it, too,"

Meanwhile, Sly was busy walking across lengths of razor blades. Razor blades that occasionally moved at breakneck speeds. Again, Nyx found herself staring blankly at the screen as she watched Sly. She was used to Sly doing dangerous things, but walking on blades was just a little too much for her.

The next area that Sly came across was completely and utterly full of large razors, all spinning rapidly. "Please don't tell me he's going to crawl under those..." Nyx asked, hoping that saying it aloud would make it happen.

It didn't, and Sly went crawling underneath the blades, being mindful of where his tail was at all times.

Nyx waited until he was clear of the razors before saying, "You are the biggest idiot on the planet,"

Sly chuckled a bit as he spire jumped onto the tip of another claw. And here he'd thought that she was used to the way things worked in his gang.

After swinging on another claw and slipping by another guard who had fallen asleep, Sly climbed up another pole to reach another set of claws that he could spire jump to. These lead him to the uppermost area of the mill, where there was a guard, and the disguise that Murray needed.

The raccoon slipped underneath a few tables, and skirted around the edge of the guard's flashlight to reach the disguise. He tossed it down to Murray, and then leaped off the platform to slip out the door.

With Murray now in disguise, he openly approached the group of guards who had been fiddling with various RC devices. "Hey fellas, any of you guys think you can beat 'The Mur-" Murray stopped, realizing his error, and both Nyx and Bentley found themselves holding their breath.

"-'The Moose'? Maybe put a bet on it?" Murray managed to recover from his error, and at least not sound like he'd just made an error.

The guard he was speaking to seemed none the wiser to Murray's blunder. "Oh, I'm in, eh! I ain't got a lot of money for the wager... But there's no way I'd lose to a new guy like you,"

Murray was then invited into the combat circle, and both he and the guard prepared their RC tanks. "You ready to go, eh?" the guard asked.

"You know it!" Murray replied, and with that the match began. The tanks didn't have native ammo, and it seemed that part of the battle was to reach the ammo that other guards threw into the ring.

Murray controlled the tank rather well, and Nyx began to wonder if he'd done this before. The other guy was able to land in a few hits, but in the end, Murray was the one who was victorious.

"You won, eh. But I ain't got no money," the guard said begrudgingly, as if he couldn't believe he'd lost.

"That might be okay," responded Murray. "It all depends,"

The guard raised a brow. "Depends on what?"

"On whether or not you know the location of the Northern Light battery," Murray said.

The guard sighed. "Oh well, I guess I owe ya..."

"After reading through the log chopping guide, it's become painfully clear that to win in the lumberjack games, we'll have to cheat," Bentley said pointedly.

"Now, I've constructed a plan that hinges around us acquiring an eagle's egg. Which is more difficult than you'd think," Bentley continued. "First, Murray and I are going to destroy the local oil mains. Once destroyed, the pressurized oil should ignite, and create updrafts, which Sly will then use to paraglide over to the eagle's nest. Grab an egg, and then head back to the safehouse,"

That sounded a lot easier than Nyx figured it likely would be. After her experience with the eagles on the train with Bentley, she really didn't want to go antagonizing them. But Bentley had his reasons...

"Thanks to Murray's undercover work in the RC combat club, we've learned that the Northern Light battery is hidden in a silo nearby," the turtle went on. "The battery needs some serious modification if we're going to hide it to sneak onto Arpeggio's blimp. First, we'll short the battery with grapple lines on local boats. Then, we'll all break into the lighthouse and sever the power flow to the battery. That way it won't re-charge,"

"Given my electrical engineering background, this plan has a ninety-seven percent chance of success," Bentley said. "Pretty good, huh?"

"And what about the other three percent?" Nyx asked, skeptically raising an eyebrow.

"Well, that's the percent where we get electrocuted by the battery," Bentley said, although he didn't sound nearly scared enough of that option.

Nyx stared at him for a moment. "Oh. Well that's a lovely thought,"

"Don't worry, that likely won't happen," Bentley said, shaking his head.

"Well, I sure hope you're right," Nyx sighed, resigning herself to the fact that dangerous things were just normal around these guys.

Bentley chuckled. "Aren't I always? Now, are we ready to begin?"

"'The Murray' is ready to destroy some oil mains!" Murray cheered, smacking his fists together.

Bentley nodded. "Alright. Nyx, how do you feel about coming with me to help out with that one?"

Nyx raised an eyebrow, but then shrugged. "I guess so?"

"Good to hear it, let's go then. Sly, you get to man the binocucom station until we get back," Bentley said, leading Nyx and Murray to the door.

"Aye aye, Captain," Sly said, kicking his feet up onto the table.

The three headed out into the snowy lumber camp, and Bentley pointed Murray towards where he needed to go. Then he lead Nyx to another location not far away.

When Murray reached his position, he stared at the big oil main before voicing his concerns. "These oil mains look pretty sturdy. 'The Murray' is strong, but his fists can't punch through metal,"

"No problem," Sly said over the binocucom. "See that old bear down there? His name is Grizzle Face, the guards ignore him because he's blind and practically nerve dead. Except for his sense of smell. If that old guy smells fish, there's no stopping him. Use him to take out the oil mains,"

"But I don't smell like fish!" Murray protested, but then lifted an arm to smell under it. "Do I? How can I lure him around?"

"Bentley and Nyx have taken up a post along the river," Sly explained. "They'll keep tossing bombs into the water, and the fish should get blown sky high. Plenty should land near your position,"

"So you want me to throw a fish at the oil mains so that old Grizzle Face will knock 'em apart?" Murray questioned.

Sly nodded. "That's the idea,"

Over by the river, Bentley was finishing up with giving Nyx a crash course in bombs. She had practically jumped out of her skin when he'd handed one to her, but she was a little less jumpy now that she knew how they worked.

Bentley tossed the first bomb into the river, and within a few moments it exploded, sending various kinds of fish flying out of the water. One particularly big fish landed at Murray's feet, and he didn't hesitate in picking the slimy thing up.

"Blegh," Nyx make a face. "Touching fish is gross,"

"But yet you'll eat fish?" Bentley questioned, raising an eyebrow at her.

"Ssshh. I'm a cat, okay?" Nyx playfully hissed, watching as Murray tossed the fish onto the oil main. Was this actually going to work?

It was a few moments after throwing the fish onto the oil main, but eventually old Grizzle Face came loping around a corner, and proceeded to tear the oil main to shreds as he tried to get the fish.

"Wow," Nyx said as she tossed the next bomb into the water. "I didn't know bears were that strong,"

"They are indeed a force of nature," replied Bentley, as if he found it beautiful.

Another fish flew through the air and landed near Murray, and he picked it up to haul it over to the next oil main. Old Grizzle Face wasted no time in following, and Murray almost didn't have the time to dart out of the bear's way once he tossed the fish onto the main.

The cycle continued twice more, until all four oil mains in the camp had been smashed to pieces. "Solid work, Murray," said Bentley. "Now that the oil lines are exposed, Sly's all set up for a paragliding job off the lighthouse,"

"Speaking of that eagle egg," Nyx said as she and Bentley began heading back for the safehouse. "We're not going to hurt the baby, are we?"

"Not if I can help it, no," replied Bentley. "We just want to harness the parent's protective power to our advantage,"

Nyx nodded. "Okay good. Proceed as planned,"

When they returned to the safehouse, Bentley began looking over various blueprints and plans, before yet again grabbing his crossbow. "Alright. Sly, Murray, I need both of your help for this one. We've gotta short out that battery. Nyx, you'll stay here, and keep an eye on things from this end,"

Nyx nodded and gave a quick salute. "You got it,"

Bentley nodded back to her, and then lead his other teammates out of the safehouse and into the camp. Crossing the river to get there, they made their way over to a small boat that was docked in the surrounding waters, which wasn't too far off from the silo they were targeting.

"If we can trust Murray's informant, that's the silo with the battery hidden inside, right?" asked Sly as the trio stood there.

Bentley nodded. "Yes. To prepare it for travel, we'll have to drain off it's Northern Light Energy,"

"Am I the only one still asking how the Northern Lights can power a battery?" and there was Nyx, once again questioning the logic of everything going on around her.

Sly laughed. "Yeah, I think so,"

Bentley shook his head, though he couldn't help but smile a bit. "Anyways - By attaching a boat's grappling hook to the top of the silo, we should be able to deplete power from the battery,"

"Sounds easy enough," said Sly. "What's the actual plan?"

"I need you to get on top of the silo, Sly. You'll attach the grappling hook once Murray and I commandeer the boat," instructed Bentley. "It's Murray's job to get me over to the boat, and keep an eye out for trouble,"

Sly nodded and started for the silo. "Got it. Hope you know how to drive a boat,"

Bentley rolled his eyes as the raccoon went. Of course he knew how to drive a boat... He then lead Murray to leap down from the ledge they were on, to one of the lower snow-covered walkways. "Alright Murray, you ready to toss me over there?"

"The Murray's throwing arm is at full capacity!" confirmed Murray.

That was all the confirmation Bentley needed, and he leaped up into Murray's arms to let the hippo toss him over onto the small boat.

Once there, Bentley wasted no time in starting to hack at the boat's control system. While he did, Murray kept an eye out for possible guards, and Sly was busy climbing up the silo.

Back in the safehouse, Nyx was reclined in her chair, watching three different screens do three different things. "Hey Sly," she said after a while. "How good do you think you'd be at this job if you were scared of heights?"

"And where is this question coming from?" Sly questioned in return.

"I dunno," Nyx replied. "Curiosity, I guess..."

Sly snorted as he reached the top of the silo. "You know what they say about curiosity and cats, right?"

"Nooo," Nyx drawled, clearly being sarcastic. "What do they say?"

"Oh, don't tell me you've never heard the saying 'Curiosity killed the cat'?" Sly purred, taking Nyx's sarcasm and rolling with it.

Nyx laughed. "'Course I have. But not many people know the rest of the saying. There's a second part that says 'But satisfaction brought it back.',"

"Lookit you, coming in with the obscure knowledge," chuckled Sly. "I really do need to stop leaving you with Bentley,"

Nyx rolled her eyes, even though Sly couldn't see. "Just answer the question,"

Sly laughed and then sighed. "Guess I would be pretty crap at this if I was scared of heights. But then again, aren't you scared of heights? You're managing,"

Nyx hummed. "Okay, true. But I'm a cat... We're good at climbing, at the very least,"

"But yet you're really bad at landing on your feet..." Sly purred, as if he were trying to deduce something important.

Nyx stuck her tongue out and blew a raspberry at the raccoon. "It's not every day that I go using mushrooms as trampolines or go diving out of windows, y'know,"

Sly laughed. "Well, you better get used to it, if you plan on sticking with us,"

Nyx snorted and rolled her eyes again. "You still need to teach me how to jump out of windows properly,"

"Oh yeah," Sly drawled. "Remind me to do that once we've taken care of the Klaww Gang,"

Nyx found it interesting that he didn't say 'Destroyed Clockwerk', because wasn't that his main goal here? She chose to not comment on it though, figuring it best to not do so. "I'm holding you to that,"

"Are you two done flirting?" Bentley suddenly asked, pulling up to the silo with the first commandeered boat.

"It's not flirting, Bentley," Nyx protested. "It's a casual conversation between teammates,"

Bentley hummed. "Uh-Huh. You ready for this grappling hook, Sly?"

"Born ready," replied the raccoon.

Bentley moved the heavy grappling hook slowly, aiming carefully up at the top of the silo. He didn't want to hit Sly, but he needed to get the hook up there... Eventually, he lined his shot up, and fired the hook.

Sly caught it perfectly with his cane, and hooked it onto the silo. "Alright, that's one grappling hook attached,"

"Okay, Murray, let's find the next boat," said Bentley, motioning for Murray to follow him. The two slipped around the guards, and headed for the next boat that Bentley had located.

From the safehouse, Nyx watched as Murray tossed Bentley onto the frozen form of the mammoth they'd previously - And briefly - Rescued from the deep freeze. "So Bentley... You're standing on a frozen mammoth..."

"Don't remind me..." mumbled the turtle.

Sly chuckled slightly. "I was wondering what happened to that guy... Guess he just prefers to be frozen..."

"Do you have any self-preservation at all?" Nyx asked as Sly strode back into the safehouse with a eagle egg cradled in his arms.

"Nope," Sly replied, not even giving it a second thought. He was pretty used to dangerous and sometimes stupid things by this point in his life.

Nyx on the other hand - Despite some of the dumb things she'd recently done - Was not. "What if you'd fallen into the water? Who would've came to rescue your ass?"

Sly shrugged. "I made it back, didn't I?"

Nyx sighed and shook her head. Then she turned to Bentley, who was setting up that familiar slide machine. "So what's the plan, Bentley?"

"Give me a moment..." said the turtle. "And I'll tell you,"

Nyx reclined in her chair as Sly procured a warm towel to wrap the eagle egg in, so the little bird inside wouldn't freeze. It was pretty cold out there, after all.

After a few more minutes, Bentley had his projector set up, and was ready to brief his team on the upcoming 'Lumberjack Games'. "The Lumberjack Games are upon us. Now, despite Murray's study of the log chopping guide, none of us are skilled enough to beat Jean Bison at his own game... So, though it pains me to say it, we'll have to cheat..."

"Murray; You'll participate in the power log chopping competition. Get us a good score, then let Bison up for his turn. While he's chopping, I'll sneak the eagle egg into his trousers, and the protective parents should disturb his axe swings," Bentley explained. "Sly; Given your ascension skills, I've signed you up for the ice wall climb. We'll keep Bison from beating your score by pulling him off the wall with some nearby grappling lines. And finally - I'll represent our team in the log rolling competition. With my knowledge of rotational mechanics, we're sure to get a stupendous score. Sly will be in charge of greasing Bison's log, so he has no chance of beating it,"

"Nyx; While I know it's boring, I need you to hold down the fort here, and make sure nothing goes wrong. If we need you, we'll call. If you guys are ready, I say we head out and show these meathead lumberjacks what we're made of!" Bentley concluded, his slide show clicking off as it reached it's end.

Sly handed the eagle egg off to Bentley, and rolled his shoulders. "Let's do this thing,"

"Be careful out there, okay? Let's hope that Bison doesn't recognize you guys or something..." Nyx said as her teammates geared up.

"Don't worry about it," said Sly. "We've got this,"

Nyx snorted. "Seems like you always do, huh?"

Sly winked at her as they went, a silent confirmation that they'd be fine. And after all this time, Nyx found herself a little less worried than she logically felt she should have been. Maybe she wasn't completely accustomed to all this, but she was getting used to it.

Outside the safehouse, the trio set their sights on the Lumberjack Games below them. "Okay guys, let's head down there and win those talons from Jean Bison. Sly, try to keep a low profile when we get close, Nyx is right; We don't want him to recognize you,"

Sly nodded. "Got it,"

The three then made their way through the camp, and down to the site of the Lumberjack Games. Bison was the only other person there. Apparently no one else was dumb enough to challenge him.

"Excuse me, sir," said Bentley as they approached Bison, trying to use his most 'macho' voice possible. "We humble lumberjacks would like to participate in your Lumberjack Games,"

"Think you got what it takes to win the Clockwerk Talons, eh? Well, I'm sure enough gonna let ya play. So long as you pay the entry fee,"

Bentley had seen this one coming, and had brought plenty of money with him. He produced some from his pocket, and handed it over. "Much obliged, partner. We'll uh. Just take our positions for the competition,"

"Enjoy the moment while ya think you're still got a chance. It's as close to winning as you'll ever get!" Bison then growled.

Bentley chose to not say anything to that, and just ushered his team over to their positions. From their ears, Nyx's voice came over. "Well, he's not a very good host, is he..."

Replying quietly, Sly laughed. "No, he's really not. I'll be glad to take him down a few notches,"

Nyx hummed in agreement, but said no more. It was best if her friends weren't caught talking to imaginary voices... The three waited for a short while, before the Lumberjack Games officially began. Jean Bison announced them loudly, calling all participants over.

"This year's first event will be a power choppin' contest! Not like anyone's gonna beat my record... But! Let 'em try!" said Bison, as Murray stepped up to the log, axe in hand.

Sly rolled his eyes at Bison's arrogance, but said nothing. Soon enough, Bison would know defeat.

The event started as soon as Murray took the first swing, and the hippo determinedly began swinging as quickly and precisely as he could. Not to mention powerfully. It was a power chopping contest, after all... He made quick work of the log, and soon enough it was chopped in two.

Murray turned to the judges as they raised their scoreboards; It was 10s all across. "Not bad, hippo," said Bison. "But watch and learn as I destroy that log without even breakin' a sweat!"

Man, was this guy full of himself. And it really showed in the way he strode up to the log, and began hacking at it. Though no sooner than he'd begun, Bentley had started sneaking up behind him, already having been in position.

Dodging the angry parents of the egg, Bentley quickly made his way to Bison, and slipped the egg into his pants. It took no time at all for the parents to start swooping down on him, disrupting and throwing off his previously perfect swings.

Bison ducked, causing the egg to roll from his pocket and into the snow. The eagle parents were quick to scoop it up and fly off with their offspring, but that was fine. They'd done their job; The judges were giving Bison flat out zeros.

Sly smirked smugly as Bison was given a bad score. But then Bison started glaring at the judges. "What?! I think you better rethink them scores, boys. What you intended to give me was perfect tens! Right?!"

Utterly and completely intimidated by Jean, the judges quickly changed their scores to tens, pleasing the large bison. Everyone present stared as this took place.

"That's not fair!" Nyx hissed through the binocucom. "That was an absolutely terrible go! Those eagles made sure of it! He thinks that's worth tens?!"

Sly shook his head. "He's so full of himself..."

"What if he keeps doing that?" Nyx protested. "What if he keeps threatening the judges? How are we gonna win?"

"Just stick to the plan," muttered Bentley, checking over the grapplings they were going to soon use to pull Jean off the ice wall.

There was a short moment of silence from Nyx, and then, "And what do we do if we don't win?"

"We improvise," said Sly.

Nyx sighed. "I was afraid of that..."

Jean Bison's booming voice then sounded, signaling that the next round was up. "So your pink friend knows how to handle an axe. Let's see how you handle a vertical wall of ice!"

Sly grinned, and headed for the wall. He stretched briefly, before beginning the long ascent upwards. Unsurprisingly, he was lightning fast, never lingering on one hook for too long. He reached the top in what was likely record time, looking pretty pleased with himself for it.

"Pretty good for a scrawny raccoon..." mumbled Bison, as the judges gave Sly perfect tens. "Now watch and learn as I demonstrate the art of power climbing!"

Using the Clockwerk Talons as his climbing device, Bison began climbing up the wall at an impressive speed for someone of his size.

Murray was quick to get on the grappling hooks, aiming them towards Jean Bison's trousers. Aiming at a rather fast moving target wasn't easy, but Murray managed to hook him with all three of the lines before he reached the top.

As the grappling lines pulled, Jean lost his grip, and went tumbling down. The grappling hooks came loose as he fell, allowing Murray to reel them back in, and leaving it looking like Bison had fallen due to his own lack of skill.

As per the plan, the judges gave Bison straight-up zeros for that performance. Of course, Bison wasn't having that in his own competition, and started pulling out the threats. "It seems you have pulled the wrong cards again. Did I ever tell any of you the story about the judge from last year's competition who mistakenly gave me a score other than ten?"

That had the judges quaking in their boots, and they quickly amended their scores to tens. That pleased Bison well enough, and he turned to his competitors. "I see we're tied with only one event to go... Unfortunately for you, I've saved my best event for last! The spinning log competition!"

It was Bentley's turn to step up to the plate here, though he was indeed a bit nervous. "Okay, looks easy enough... I just need to stay out of the water..."

As Bentley began the rolling log event, Nyx hissed into the binocucom. "He's gonna keep cheating the judges, guys... What happens if we end on a tie?"

"I dunno," Sly replied. "But we'll figure it out. We're not letting him get away with the Talons..."

Nyx sighed. "Yeah..."

Bentley proved to be rather good at keeping his balance on rolling logs, and earned their team another set of solid tens. "You're one lucky turtle, I'll give you that..." muttered Bison in response. "But now, watch how a skilled log roller does it,"

Bentley rolled his eyes, and rejoined his teammates. It was clear on their faces that they all felt exactly what Murray proceeded to say, "This is crazy! Jean Bison's got those judges so intimidated, there's no way he can lose!"

"You're right. Those guys need to go..." agreed Sly. "Okay, I'm just making this up on the fly, but... What if I were to lure the judges, one by one, into that cave? Once inside, you two will knock him out, and take their clothes,"

"...That's not a half bad plan B..." Nyx mumbled over the com line.

"It's ingenious!" decided Bentley. "When all three judges have been restrained, we'll be able to don our disguises, and take their place at the judges' table!"

Nyx hummed. "But how are you going to lure them?"

Sly chuckled in response to that. "Remember that alarm clock thing I woke you up with?"

"I considered throwing that out the window, y'know..." Nyx replied flatly. During their short break in which Nyx learned to actually be a member of the gang, Sly had thought it would be cool to place a rather loud alarm clock he'd gotten off ThiefNet right next to her... She truly had thought about throwing it out the window...

"Good thing you didn't. It ought to get the judge's attention just fine," purred Sly, producing the offending device from his pouch.

"You'll have to move fast," advised Murray, as Sly tossed the clock up and down. "Once Jean Bison finishes the log rolling event, the gig is up!"

Sly nodded and watched from the corner of his eye as Bison stepped up to said event. "Don't sweat it, pal,"

Bentley and Murray retreated to the cave, as Sly headed towards the judges. Using the alarm clock to catch the first judge's attention, Sly lead him back to the cave, where Bentley and Murray ambushed the duck. Once the guard was subdued, Bentley proceeded to take his place at the table.

The routine repeated itself, this time ending with Murray taking a judge's spot. From the safehouse, Nyx watched as Sly started leading the last judge, wondering if this plan was really gonna work... Jean didn't seem like the kind of guy to make idle threats...

There was no time to voice that concern, though, as the plan was already in motion. Soon enough, Sly had taken the third judge's place, just in time for Bison to finish. As he leaped back to solid ground, he scowled upon seeing the 'judges' giving him complete and utter zeroes again.

"What?! I thought I warned you judges about the consequences for incorrect scores!" growled Bison. As the 'judges' refused to change their scores, Bison's eyes narrowed with suspicion. "Wait a second..."

"Oh crap..." Nyx hissed to herself, leaning forwards towards the computer screen. The gig was up, wasn't it?

"You aren't the judges I hired! It's the scrawny raccoon and his annoying friends!" Jean Bison yelled. Yeah, the gig was definitely up... "Well, if you want the Talons, then why don't you just take 'em !?"

And then, in an obvious fit of rage, Bison threw his Talon-adorned staff at the people who dared try to rig his competition (Like he hadn't been doing so himself...). Before even Sly could react, the heavy object had clobbered all three of them, sending them spiraling down into unconsciousness.

I let out an undignified shriek as I watched Bison throw his staff and take out my teammates. The binocucom lines went with, likely damaged by the impact. That was not good, that was really not good...

I tried hard to not panic as I tried hailing my friends over the audio line. "Sly?! Bentley?! Murray?! Shit, can you guys hear me?!"

There was no response, even after I waited a few seconds. Okay... Definitely not good... My teammates were now incapacitated, and I had no idea what to do about that...

I thought about rushing down to the location of the Lumberjack games, but I then thought better of it. Rushing out of the safehouse didn't do me any good the last time... I needed to approach this logically... Which was hard to do when I was rather close to panicking, but I managed to hold onto some form of reason as I tried to think of a plan.

If my friends were still alive (Which I seriously hoped they were...), Bison would likely imprison them somewhere, right? The logging camp was pretty small, so there were only so many places he could do so...

But how would I find it... We didn't have much time before Arpeggio's blimp would be arriving, and we had to get into that battery beforehand... So how would I find them in time...?

I stared at Bentley's laptop screen for a moment, panic and vague concepts swirling around my head. For the first time, it was just me. Only me. I didn't have anyone else to help me figure this out. And it was a daunting task. After a few moments, I shook my head to clear it, and then started furiously typing in the binocucom system. There was a way to track the individual units, wasn't there? Maybe one of them would still be operational enough for me to get a signal from it?

But I had no idea how to work that feature of the binocucom program... Bentley just hadn't gotten around to teaching me that. No one had ever gone off the radar like this before...

I sat there for an unknown length of time, typing with shaking hands, trying to figure out what I was meant to do to help my team. I became absorbed in my task, not paying attention to anything else around me. Perhaps that was why I didn't immediately notice the sound of heavy footsteps marching towards the safehouse, and Bison's voice echoing through the camp.

Once I noticed it however, a sinking feeling settled into my chest... I froze where I was for just a second, before rushing over to one of the front windows. I glanced out, and saw none other than Jean Bison marching his way towards our safehouse, bringing a small army of men with him. How the hell did he know where to find us?!

That question was soon replaced by a feeling of complete and utter panic. I had to get the hell out of there, otherwise I'd end up captured, too! I rushed back to the table, and closed Bentley's laptop in a hurry. I was going to need it if I were to locate my friends.

With the laptop under my arm, I started thinking of how I was going to get out of there. As I looked around the safehouse however, a horrible realization hit me as my eyes scanned over the Clockwerk parts that were piled in the corner of the room.

If Jean stormed the safehouse, he was going to find the parts... We'd loaded nearly everything else back into the van before the Lumberjack Games, but since we'd parked in a more open area this time, we'd opted to keep them inside until it was time to go.

I couldn't just leave them there for Jean to have, could I? We'd fought tooth and nail for those things, they were the entire reason we were here... The reason we were heading for Arpeggio's blimp... We couldn't let them fall back into the hands of the Klaww Gang...

But there was no way I could get them out of here... I couldn't lift half of them, and Jean Bison would be arriving at any moment...

As I contemplated my problems, what was no doubt the Clockwerk Talons swung into the door, majorly splintering the wood and announcing that Bison had indeed arrived. I was out of time...

I stood frozen for a few more seconds, before acting on pure impulse, and turning towards the back windows. I was already cursing myself for this, and hoping that Sly would forgive me...

But I had to make a choice, and this one seemed more logical... It was the choice that resulted in me getting away to hopefully free my team so we could keep fighting back.

Wishing that Sly had properly taught me how to do it, I launched myself out of the window, just as the door behind me was forced open and reduced to splinters. I felt glass dig into my right shoulder as I broke the window, and a few shards nicked my face as I went through.

I landed on my back, cradling Bentley's laptop against my chest to prevent it from being damaged. Glass dug into my back, too, but adrenaline numbed the pain enough so I could work through it.

I dragged myself off my feet as I heard Bison start yelling for his men to find whoever had just been in the safehouse, and I sprinted away from it as fast as my legs would carry me. I had no idea where I was going, but I had to get somewhere safe... Clearly, the safehouse was no longer it.

I felt guilty for leaving the Clockwerk parts behind, but I also knew that there was nothing I could have done. If I'd stayed even a moment longer, Bison would have caught me, too.

It was best if at least one of us was still out there, trying to figure this out. I sprinted through the camp until I reached the far corner of it, coming to a stop behind one of the milling buildings. I pressed my back to the cold wood, panting heavily, and listened for the sounds of men coming after me.

I waited for what felt like entirely too long, waiting to hear footsteps rushing towards me. But they never came, and eventually I resolved to open Bentley's laptop again, and resume my search for my team's locations. I still listened around myself carefully, though, completely expecting an ambush. But the camp was suddenly rather quiet... I wasn't sure if that was more alarming than it would be if it was bustling with activity instead.

I frantically worked with Bentley's laptop for a while more, not getting anywhere with my search. The binocucom program was complicated, likely something that only Bentley truly knew how to operate. I really wished he'd at least given me a crash course in it... But we'd never gotten that far, somehow. After the prison, our training had mostly been in fighting and thief moves. We didn't have much time for computer lessons. And to be honest, I didn't expect to be put in this kind of situation, so I hadn't thought them necessary. I knew how to work the main console, how to monitor audio and video and the like, and that seemed like enough before now.

I was starting to get frustrated as the time ticked on, counting down the minutes until Arpeggio's blimp arrived and our only way of getting to him slipped away. I was running out of options to try, when my earbud burst to life with a familiar voice. "Nyx? Come in, do you read me?"

"Sly!" I gasped, entirely too happy to hear his voice. "Where are you guys?! I can't get the binocucom to locate you!"

"I don't think they're working right, but that's not important," Sly said, speaking quickly. "According to Bison, he stormed the safehouse and took the Clockwerk parts..."

I sighed harshly. "Yeah... I didn't have time to stop him before he burst through the door... I'm sorry..."

There was a brief pause, and a frustrated whoosh of breath. "Don't be. He sold them to Arpeggio, so we've got to get onto that blimp at all costs... We're almost out of this room Bison locked us in... But we're running out of time. Meet us at the battery, quick!"

"Got it!" I replied, closing Bentley's laptop and pulling myself to my feet. I sprinted off towards the battery on tired legs, vaguely remembering it's location.

When I arrived at the battery, I could see Arpeggio's blimp nearly upon us. We were really cutting this close... As I rushed to join my friends, Murray was in the process of helping Bentley inside the battery.

Sly looked relieved to see me as I joined them, but said nothing, just helped me into the battery, following Murray. There was a cold look on his face that I'd never seen before...

No one said anything as we settled into the dark battery. Bentley had been right about his plan to drain it working; That other three percent wasn't something we had to worry about. We'd made it... Almost hadn't, but we'd made it...

We waited in silence for the battery to start moving, and it felt like it took eternity to do so... But eventually, there was the sound of something hooking onto the battery, the force of it shaking the whole thing. Moments later, and we were airborne, being lifted off the ground towards Arpeggio's blimp.

I looked around the battery as we all silently sat there. And as I took in the state of my friends, I knew we all felt the same way. We'd failed. The Clockwerk parts were gone, after everything we'd done to get them...

Sly was tense and couldn't seem to stop twitching his leg. I'd never seen him look so pissed off before... I'd seen him get frustrated before, but this was a whole new side of him.

Bentley took his laptop as soon as he realized I had escaped with it, and started working on something, likely a plan to help us. But by the annoyed look on his face, it looked like it wasn't going well. He was probably just doing it to give himself something to focus on...

I, myself was fighting back the urge to cry. Everything had gone wrong in such a short amount of time, and I wished there was something I could have done about it... I found myself wishing that I'd been with this gang longer. Maybe I could have done something if I had more experience...

Out of all of us, however, Murray was definitely taking it the worst. He was silently sobbing, watching out the windows of the silo as the cherished team van floated farther and farther away. I'd been with them long enough to know that Murray was incredibly proud of that van...

Carefully and slowly, I reached out to grasp one of Murray's hands, drawing his attention to me. It felt wrong to see someone like him cry... I tried my best to smile at him, despite the fact that I, too, wanted to cry.

Murray tried hard to smile back, but it didn't reach his eyes, and the tears kept coming. I kept my hand in his, and squeezed tightly, trying to tell him that we'd be okay.

We sat like that for the longest time, before the swaying feeling of being airborne was replacing by the battery jostling around as it was set down and anchored to something metal. After that, the battery was still.

I looked to Bentley, and then to Sly. They both cautiously looked around as well, trying to deduce if the coast was clear. I chewed at the inside of my lip as we waited, half expecting to be found out.

But aside from the sounds of mechanical whirring, it was rather quiet outside the battery, and eventually Sly decided that it was safe. "Okay Bentley, what's the plan?"

There was an edge to Sly's voice as he spoke; He was trying to not sound as pissed as he truly was, trying to remain the calm and level-headed leader we knew him as. I wouldn't have minded if he'd chosen to express his anger, though; We were all pissed. But brash displays of emotion weren't Sly's thing, it didn't surprise me that he was staying rather calm through all this.

Bentley sighed. "I don't know. We're in a rather grim predicament..."

"...We have basically no supplies... And it looks like only the binocucom audio is working right now..." I said quietly. "Video went out when Bison clocked you, and I'm not sure what's up with GPS tracking..."

"I can't get it to work either... So I suppose that should be our first objective..." said Bentley. "Fix the binocucoms... But like you said, we have no supplies..."

Sly hummed. "There's gotta be tools somewhere on this blimp, right?"

"I would assume so, yes. But if we're to find them, I'm going to need you two to get out there and take some recon photos of the place," Bentley replied, nodding slowly.

I looked over to Sly, and then nodded firmly. We had no time to waste just sitting there... "Let's do it, then,"

Chapter Text

"So... We're heading east over the Atlantic, huh?" Nyx asked, trying to not focus on the fact that Sly was currently pulling glass shards from her back.

"That we are," replied Bentley, who was using stolen tools to repair their binocucom units. "I'd wager that we're heading back to Paris, judging by what Arpeggio and Bison said,"

Nyx raised an eyebrow, and then winced violently as Sly removed a shard from a rather sensitive spot. "Sorry, sorry," said the raccoon, patting Nyx's shoulder to get her to relax again.

Nyx sighed, and tried her best to not stay tense. That would likely just make Sly's job harder. "We know why Arpeggio wants to go to Paris?" she settled on asking.

"That, I don't have an answer to..." said Bentley. "But hopefully, we'll stop Arpeggio's 'final hoedown' before we get there,"

"Yeah..." Nyx mumbled, wincing as another shard was pulled free. She probably shouldn't have gone to do recon and steal tools with all the glass in her skin, but... She hadn't really thought about that at the time... Getting tools had seemed much more important. "So, who exactly is Arpeggio? Do we know anything about him?"

Bentley nodded. "I studied up on him before the Lumberjack Games. He's nothing short of a genius; He excelled in every subject at school. However, he couldn't physically compete or keep up with his fellow classmates. Later in life, he took to using his agile mind to find a cure for his physical weakness, drawing inspiration from Italian renaisennce masters. The Klaww gang took him on as their chief inventor in no time, and it's no doubt that he modified the Clockwerk parts for the others to use,"

"And now he's got all of them..." Nyx muttered, trying to put the pieces together in her head. When she did, her eyes widened and she looked up at Bentley with a gasp. "Do you think he's trying to put Clockwerk back together? He was the strongest bird known to man..."

Bentley nodded solemnly, his eyes straying briefly to Sly, who seemed much too interested in removing glass from Nyx's back, and also much too quiet. "That's what I fear... Clockwerk is likely the ultimate symbol of power for Arpeggio... And a man like him wants all the power he can get..."

Nyx stared ahead for a few moments, before her brows knit together. "We can't let him. We can't let him bring that terror back into the world!"

"We won't," said Sly, his voice too brisk and with too much edge. Clearly, the mere suggestion of putting Clockwerk back together had him on edge. Their current situation - Stuck in a battery with little tools or intel - likely didn't help.

"Damn right we won't," Nyx hissed. She'd seen only hints of the trauma that Clockwerk had put Sly through, and she'd be damned if she was going to let him come back to do more...

Bentley nodded, agreeing with the both of them. "Once I fix up the binocucoms, Sly will head out to check out one of the smaller blimps that's attached to this one, I'm picking up strong magnetic fields from it,"

"Sounds like a plan," Sly said, pulling the last shard from between Nyx's shoulder blades. He then reached for the anti-septic, and started cleaning the wounds.

Nyx winced as the cold anti-septic stung the open wounds, but tried hard to not curse the raccoon who was trying to help her. She idly thought about how the blimp in question was likely where Arpeggio was trying to reassemble Clockwerk. But she didn't want to say it out loud. It was a subject that Sly clearly didn't like.

"We don't have much intel to go on, but our main goal here is to take back the Clockwerk parts," said Bentley. "Without them, Arpeggio's scheme will likely become a moot point,"

"The problem is gonna be getting them - And us - Off this blimp..." Nyx mumbled.

"We'll... Burn that bridge when we get to it," replied Bentley. "Right now, we need to focus on finding the parts,"

Nyx bit her lip. Did Bentley actually have a plan for getting them off the blimp? Or were they going to have to hijack it or something? She shook those thoughts from her head as Sly did his best to wrap the majority of her puncture wounds with gauze.

"There," Sly said after a few moments, patting Nyx's shoulder. "Try not to go out anymore windows, okay?"

"Yes, please don't," chimed Bentley.

Nyx rolled her eyes and reached for her torn shirt. "It was my only option. Maybe we wouldn't have this problem if someone taught me how I'm supposed to do it,"

Sly snorted and stood up. "I promise I'll get to it soon,"

"You better!" said Nyx, pointing up at the raccoon as she put her shirt back on. "It's apparently a useful skill!"

Bentley shook his head and rolled his eyes as he fiddled with Sly's binocucom. After a few moments, he had the device put back together, and was running some tests.

"Are we in business?" Sly asked, sounding hopeful and eager.

Bentley was silent a moment more, then grinned. "That we are," he tossed the binocucom to Sly, who caught it without issue. "Head on out to that blimp, and let's see what Arpeggio is up to,"

Sly grinned, though it didn't exactly reach his eyes. He put his binocucom back where it belonged, and then headed for the door. "Be back before you know it,"

Once the raccoon was gone, Nyx turned to look over at Murray, who had been much too quiet this whole time. He was taking this situation a lot worse than the rest of them. She reached out to grasp his shoulder.

The hippo looked up at her, the fact that he'd been crying apparent. "You okay?" Nyx asked softly.

Murray nodded. "Yeah... I think so..."

"It's okay if you're not," Nyx replied. "I know I'm not okay. I'm pissed. Sly is, too..."

"Yeah... I haven't seen him this mad in a long, long time..." Murray said, nodding slowly. "Not since before we took Clockwerk out..."

Nyx was silent a moment. "...Was he different then?"

"Kinda. He was more tense, y'know? Had the weight of his dad's death on his shoulders and all..." replied Murray. "I guess wanting revenge does that... But things got better once Clockwerk was gone... And now..."

"Now he might be a threat again... I get it. And we've... Lost everything trying to stop him..." Nyx mumbled. Then she sighed. "But we're going to. We're going to stop him. We're gonna win this,"

Murray nodded. "I know. Thanks,"

Nyx smiled, and then turned to listen to Bentley talk to Sly. "If Arpeggio's already started reassembling Clockwerk... That blimp is where you'll find him..."

"Sounds good. I'm on my way," came Sly's reply.

"Don't waste any time here, Sly," Bentley warned. "Get to the blimp and take some recon photos. To build a plan, we need to know how close they are to reviving Clockwerk..."

"Relax, Bentley. I've got it under control," Sly responded, though he didn't exactly sound relaxed himself. He was trying to though, for the sake of his team.

Bentley rolled his eyes, and let Sly begin the mission. There was nothing to say in the safehouse as they waited for Sly to board the blimp and get some recon photos. Nyx rotated her shoulder, trying to see how bad it still hurt. Running around doing recon and the like with the glass still in had really hurt after a while, but the pain seemed to be at a minimum now that the glass was gone. She could pull a job if they needed her to.

After a few long moments, Bentley's face twisted into something like complete horror. Nyx felt her heart sink as the turtle opened his mouth. "I... I had no idea they could reassemble Clockwerk so fast!"

Nyx and Murray both scrambled over to Bentley to see the video that was coming through Sly's binocucom. "Holy shit..." Nyx breathed as she saw it.

In the few short hours that they'd be recouping and getting themselves set up, Arpeggio had entirely put Clockwerk back together... Almost...

"Calm down, Bentley..." said Sly, but once again he himself didn't sound it. "He might be in one piece, but he doesn't appear to be... Y'know... Alive . Let's stick to the format here... How about some recon photos?"

"You're right," Bentley sighed. "We need to be informed to create a plan of action... Get some shots of anything that looks important in the room..."

"Got it," replied Sly.

From the spot Sly was currently at, he focused his camera on some spinning thing that was rotating around Clockwerk's body. Nyx had no idea what they were, but Bentley did. "Those magnetic inducers seem to be holding the Clockwerk parts together..."

Sly waited for the guard below him to turn around, before dropping to the walkway below. He looked around, before taking a picture of some strange egg-like metal things that were in a room below where he'd come in from.

"I'm sensing radio activity from inside those mech-eggs... I wouldn't get too close..." was Bentley's comment on these.

"What to do you think those are for...?" Nyx asked slowly, as Sly dodged guards to get farther into the room.

"I don't know," Bentley replied honestly. "But hopefully, we won't have to see them be used,"

Nyx sighed as she watched Sly take a photo of the unmoving Clockwerk. She didn't even need to be in the same room as the huge bird to be creeped out by him. The eyes alone were enough to send shivers down her spine. They were creepy enough when they weren't attached to him...

"Clockwerk appears completely inanimate!" marvelled Bentley. "We still might have a chance!"

As Sly looked around for other things to photograph, the sound of voices at the front of the blimp caught his attention. It was muffled by the glass door, though, so Sly slipped closer to investigate.

Through the thick glass, they could see a small bird sitting in a custom bird cage, affixed with wheels and the whole nine yards. They knew this was Arpeggio, they'd seen him at Rajan's ball. They entirely expected to see him in his own blimp, but it was the person he was speaking to that they hadn't anticipated.

Sly didn't miss a beat as he photographed the purple tigeress.

"Neyla?!" Bentley exclaimed. "Neyla's here, too?! I can't believe it! She must have been working with Arpeggio all along!"

"What is she, then?" Nyx asked. "A triple agent? Quadruple agent?! She's been hiding under so many layers of cover! How'd we fall for it?"

Bentley sighed and shook his head. "She's good,"

"Too good..." Nyx mumbled, a layer of contempt in her voice, obviously aimed towards Neyla. She'd wronged them one too many times...

"Not too good for us, though, right?" Murray asked hopefully.

Bentley and Nyx both shook their heads. "Absolutely not," said Bentley.

"We're gonna take her down," hissed Nyx, clearly taking Neyla's crimes rather personally.

Sly proceeded to take a photograph of Arpeggio, not like they didn't already have some from the ball. "There he is," commented Bentley with a sigh. "The mastermind behind this blimp, and the source of all our problems... I don't need to study those photos to see the writing on the wall. Clearly, Neyla and Arpeggio have conspired together to rebuild Clockwerk,"

Bentley paused for just a second. "And it looks like they're dangerously close to realizing their goal..."

"Look Bentley, I know it's not your style, but I need a quick plan of attack," said Sly, sounding just a touch desperate. "Try to think of a way - Any way - To stop Clockwerk from getting reassembled,"

Bentley had to pause and think about it for a moment. "Well... Those magnetic inducers seem to be holding the parts together. If you reversed their polarity, it should pull Clockwerk apart. Unfortunately, the inducer speed control station appears to be locked down tight..."

"No problem," said Sly. "I'll bet the guards here have the keys. I got it covered,"

And without further delay, Sly was off to pickpocket the big guards who were armed with what appeared to be rocket launchers. Nyx didn't want to think about what those guards would do, were Sly to be caught...

Moving near silently, Sly slipped around the room, expertly relieving the guards of all their keys. Once he had all four in hand, he slipped over to the inducer control station to use them, and slow the inducers down to a much more reasonable pace.

"Now that the inducer decks are spinning slower, get up there and reverse the polarity of each deck," instructed Bentley.

"Consider it done," replied Sly, leaping over to walk along Clockwer's inanimate wing. From there, he climbed up one of the support cables holding the bird up, and leaped to the first deck as it went by.

Sly flipped the switch on the deck to reverse it's polarity, and then leaped back down onto Clockwerk. He half expected the bird to jump to life, but it was a fear he shoved back as he climbed the other support cable to leap onto another magnetic inducer, and flip it's switch. Two down, two to go.

The process repeated for the other two, and when the fourth one was reversed, Sly leaped back down to Clockwerk's wing, before quickly leaping down to the semi-safety of the floor below.

With a crash that shook the floor and left the guards running for their lives, Clockwerk's frame went slamming into the ground, leaving impact marks in the floor. But... The Clockwerk parts had not been pulled apart the way Sly had hoped...

As the glass doors at the end of the room opened to admit Arpeggio and Neyla, Sly ducked behind the archway at one end of the room. "What's all this, then?" Arpeggio demanded. "The magnets have been reversed! But... By Jove, it seems to have locked the Clockwerk parts into place! Excellent!"

"No..." Nyx hissed, digging her claws into her palms as she watched this all unfold. She wanted to sprint out of that battery, climb her way to that blimp, and have a go at Arpeggio and Neyla... Every muscle in her body screamed for her to do it, but she bit her lip and stopped herself. That wouldn't do them any good, if she just rushed into battle... She knew where it had gotten her last time...

As Arpeggio and Neyla walked down the ramp to inspect the Clockwerk frame, Sly revealed himself to them, for reasons unknown to his comrades in the safehouse. Maybe he wanted a go at the two masterminds he was dealing with? Neyla, especially...

"Sly Cooper?!" Neyla exclaimed, sounding thoroughly surprised to see him there. But the surprise didn't last long, and her voice took on a harsh bite. "Of course this'd be your doing,"

"Ah, Mr. Cooper," hummed Arpeggio. "No doubt you believed a reversal would pull the old bird apart, eh? But it seems to have had quite the opposite effect. I'm truly grateful... When fully powered up, I'll join myself to it's circuits and be born anew!"

Yeah, that was an idea that didn't sit right with any of the four thieves who heard it... This guy... Was perhaps a bit crazy. "All this... Because you can't fly? You're pathetic," said Sly.

Nyx was almost surprised to hear Sly flat out insult Arpeggio. But then again, the raccoon was well and truly pissed, not to mention ten feet away from the thing that killed his father...

"Immortality!" corrected Arpeggio. "Immortality is what I seek. The other Klaww gang members were much too short sighed. They were satisfied using the Clockwerk parts to drive their various trivial schemes. But not me, no. I saw them for what they really were; The keys to life eternal!"

"So... What? You had Neyla put me on the scent back in Cairo, and then waited while I stole the parts from the other Klaww gang members..." questioned Sly, crossing his arms. He couldn't believe he let himself and his friends be used like this... "All the while not arousing any suspicion that you were behind it all?"

Neyla wasn't even looking at him as she replied. "You make it sound easy, Cooper. I had to carry your pathetic gang through that first set of heists. I was overjoyed when Arpeggio let me toss you in jail! I could finally go after the parts myself..."

Nyx grit her teeth, the urge to march down there and kick Neyla's ass growing stronger. Her ears were flattened against her head and she swore she'd never been more pissed in her entire life. The two sat next to her seemed pretty steamed, too.

"Ah, but acquiring all the parts was only half the equation," said Arpeggio. "Think, Cooper. What kept Clockwerk alive for thousands of years?"

After a short pause, Sly muttered a response. "He was fueled by his hatred for my family..."

"Splendid, that's right!" exclaimed the bird in the perch. "Hatred! Putting his gears and wires together was child's play, compared with accumulating that much hatred,"

Sly shook his head at Arpeggio. "You can't make people hate,"

"Oh, my poor, naive boy," tutted Arpeggio. "My meticulous mind has found a way. As your Hippopotamus and feline friends will attest, spice consumption makes you both angry, and susceptible to hypnosis. The Contessa, hypnotist extraordinaire, devised a way to command people through the use of flashing lights. I've created this blimp to be a massive transmitter of those precise light frequencies. The only problem I faced was finding a suitable source of lightwaves,"

"The Northern Lights!" exclaimed Sly, finally starting to figure out how this was all tying together. "You've been collecting Northern Light energy so that you could hypnotise everyone beneath the blimp!"

"Any of what he's saying making sense, Bentley?" Nyx asked, gritting her words through her teeth.

Bentley hummed dejectedly. "I'm afraid so... He's a true genius..."

"Ah, hypnotise those who's eaten food covered in illegal spice! Thank goodness for Dimitri, through his nightclub, he got the whole city to consume the spice,"

"You're going to Paris to unleash a hypnotic light show of hate... That's outlandishly cruel!" hissed Sly. This guy was not only insane, but he was selfish, to boot.

Arpeggio didn't seem to really agree with that. "Cruel, perhaps, but necessary to give Clockwerk his spark of immortality. Ah well, my new body awaits me. Be a dear, Neyla, and keep him covered. Ta-Ta!"

Arpeggio started wheeling himself towards the Clockwerk frame, and Sly was approximately half a second away from tackling the bird to the ground - Cage and all. But before he could, Neyla had beaten him to it.

"Stupid Arpeggio," Neyla spit. "I double-crossed the Cooper gang, Interpol, and Carmelita... What made you think I wouldn't do the same to you?"

And then the tigeress had sprinted across the room, and into Clockwerk's body, before even Sly could react to stop her. Seconds later, and the Clockwerk frame slowly began to rise off the floor.

"This is preposterous!" yelled Arpeggio. "You're my protege! Not the next candidate for my immortality! I demand you exit the Clockwerk frame or... Or...!"

Before Arpeggio could think up a suitable threat, a metallic talon came down upon him, crushing both his perch and him like they were nothing. With blood on her talons, Neyla rose the Clockwerk frame into the air.

"Behold! Clock-La is born!" Neyla shouted, her voice having a layer of mechanical jitter to it.

Clock-La flapped her wings a few times, before ramming through the front of the small blimp, taking to the skies around the larger one that housed it. Sly sprinted after her, but there was nothing he could do to stop her. She was gone, and a new menace had just been unleashed into the world.

"You sure you can do this?"

Nyx rolled her eyes as she waited for Murray to pry the heavy metal door to the engine room open. "You think Bentley would give me this job if I couldn't?"

"Yeah, I know..." Sly sighed. "Just be careful,"

Nyx snorted. "I will. Though aren't you the one carrying TNT and charging it up with magnetic whats-its at this current moment?"

"...That's not relevant," replied the raccoon after a short pause.

"Uh huh," Nyx drawled as Murray finally hefted the door open. "Well, you be careful, too, got it?"

Sly snorted. "Will do,"

"Alright, you're up, Nyx," said Murray, gesturing to the now open door. "Good luck,"

Nyx nodded to the hippo, and stepped towards the door. "Thanks. Probably gonna need it,"

She hesitated at the door for just a moment, before taking a breath and stepping inside. She walked through a short metal passageway, not unlike a large air duct, before coming out into a circular room with two floors. The floor directly below her feet was grated metal, but there was only a small section of it. The rest of the room was made of solid metal, and it...

"Be careful, Nyx, that room is packed with laser security..." said Bentley over the audio line.

"Uh, yeah..." Nyx mumbled as she stared at the setup before her. "I can see that..."

"First, you'll need to make it to the far end of that room, then get up to the second floor to get at the engine room control center," instructed Bentley.

Nyx sighed heavily as she observed the obstacles she had to get through. Oh boy, was this gonna be fun... "Got it. Thanks, Bentley..."

What Nyx assumed was the engine was in the middle of this circular room, and there were an insane amount of security lasers surrounding it... Red beams on the floor, circling around the proposed engine like a wheel, and complete circles of laser beams that moved vertically from the engine, to the outer edges of the room and back... Yeah, that looked fun... Not to mention the literal walls of red death that were circling the engine. She didn't even know that lasers could do that!

For a few moments, Nyx stared at the death traps she had to get through... For one of those moments, she wondered if she could do this. The next moment was spent telling herself that yes, yes she could. She'd gotten through the death traps in Contessa's castle, she could get through these. Another moment was spent analyzing the lazers, trying to figure out the best way to get through them. And a final moment was then spent checking over her gear to make sure nothing would fall off or get in her way.

She eyed the lazers just a second more, waiting for the right time to jump in, before she ignored all self-preservation, and did exactly that.

Once she was in the field of lazers, she had to keep an eye on exactly where she was, and what the lasers were doing. The circling ones were coming at her from the front, making them easy to jump over. But the ones moving vertically came at her from either sides, making them a bit harder to get through. She had to sometimes sacrifice progress through the room to avoid tripping the lazers. But she also had to move fast, lest one of the red walls of lazer death be allowed to catch her. There was no dodging those.

Nyx's heart was pounding out of her chest as she stood in the middle of a minefield of lazers, but she fought back every urge she had to panic. She'd done this all before, she could do it again. She had the ability to get through this. And there wasn't even a Kracken to get in the way this time! It was just her, and the lazers. No tricks, no gimmicks.

Slowly but surely, she made her way through the room, and to the little alcove at the other side. Once there, she then climbed her way up to the second level, and gawked at what she saw.

Blades. There were spinning blades. Why blades? Was this Arpeggio's idea of security?! The lazers were logical, but blades? If Arpeggio were alive, Nyx would have wanted to question him about this. She also would have asked about why the floor was electrified, and why there were more red walls of death...

Nyx sighed, and hailed Bentley. "I'm at the upper level. What now?"

"Alright, the control center is opposite your position in there... With some well timed spire jumping, you should be able to get acess,"

Nyx stared at the blades for another long moment. She was supposed to spire jump on those? She sighed, and ran her hands back through her hair. Idly, she thought about how it was so much longer than it had been when she'd met the Cooper gang. It had been boyishly short then, and bleached blonde. Now it was a rather long pixie, and the previously blonde parts had been dyed a medium brown.

She'd been with the Gang for almost four months now, hadn't she? She'd changed a lot in that time frame. And that was why she was here, in this engine room, about to spire jump on blades that ocassionally spun at breakneck speeds.

She was very hesitant to do so, but Sly had done it back in Canada, hadn't he? Surely she could do this. Bentley knew the schematic of the room, and he wouldn't have given her a job she wasn't ready for.

Nyx shoved back every other thought in her head, and started studying the blades, making note of which ones moved when. It took her time, but she eventually found the pattern, and devised a route. She took a long and deep breath, and then went for it.

She was lucky that spire jumping was the one move she'd taken to rather naturally. Cats are naturally rather good at perching in precarious places. The rail walk was another one she'd taken to somewhat easily, though her balence when in motion needed work.

Thankfully, it was the spire jump she needed here. She would have hated to walk on blades... That would require even more balence and precision that she wasn't sure if she had yet.

At least she was semi-confident about what she was currently doing, as she leaped from dangerous saw to dangerous saw. Like before, she had to sacrifice progress here and there, jumping back and forth to wait for the red wall of death to move farther forwards, but as long as she didn't mess up the pattern of the spinning blades, she was good. She was of course, concerned about messing up that pattern, but she managed to reach the other side of the room without incident

She leaped into the engine control room, almost not believing that she'd managed that, and pulled the lever to deactivate the engine. The background noise of the engine's hum died as she did, leaving the only sounds being the whirring of the blades, and an occassional beeping.

"This engine's done for," said Nyx, turning back towards the blade room. The electrified floor and lazers were thankfully gone now...

"Great job," said Bentley. "Sly's almost done with the second engine..."

"And you're sure this blimp will still fly without these engines?" Nyx asked, as she was able to just walk between the blades to get back downstairs.

Bentley snorted. "Absolutely,"

"I sure hope so, I'd hate to crash into whatever city we might currently be over," said Nyx as she walked right through the lower section as well, and back out the door she'd come in through.

No sooner than she'd exited, and before Bentley could say anything about her crashing comment, there was a loud explosion on the other side of the blimp. Nyx snorted and looked in the direction of the smoke that was now floating up into the sky. "I take it that was you, Sly? Not blown yourself up, I hope,"

"Nah," Sly replied. "But no one's putting that engine to use anymore,"

"Well, that's what we wanted, right?" Nyx asked, heading back for the safehouse. There was only one more engine to take out now, and that one was up to Sly and Bentley. After that, Nyx assumed there would likely be another slideshow, to detail the next part of the plan.

"Exactly. But this is the only one we get to blow up," purred Sly.

Nyx rolled her eyes, but chose to not reply to that. She was out in the middle of the blimp now, and she had to stay sharp. There were many guards around, not to mention Clock-La circling the blimp like a hawk. And being out and about with Clock-La around was making Nyx insanely nervous... She kept expecting the bird to swoop down upon them at any moment, and it was unfortunately a rather real possibility.

Nyx made it to the safety of the safehouse this time around, however, as did Sly. When she entered the small battery, Sly and Bentley were already on their way out. "Taking out that final engine, huh?"

"Mhm," hummed Sly. "We might be a while, don't wait up for us,"

Nyx rolled her eyes as the raccoon laughed and followed Bentley towards the final engine. She then retrieved Bentley's laptop, and started monitoring their progress. Her eyes strayed to the time, and she realized that they didn't have much of it left before the blimp would be arriving in Paris... And they needed to take out Clock-La before they got there...

"You worried about something?" Murray asked, looking up at Nyx.

Nyx sighed. Had it been that obvious? "Yeah... We're running low on time... And we're still in the first phase of things..."

Murray nodded. He understood her fears. "Yeah, I know. But we've pulled some tough jobs and gotten outta a lot of tight jams before. We got this,"

Nyx sighed again, but nodded. "I sure hope so,"

There was another moment of silence, before Bentley's laptop started beeping, and a notification about an incoming transmission popped up. It was coming in via the shortwave radio Bentley had rigged to connect to the binocucom system... Nyx stared at it with confusion for a brief moment, and Murray raised an eyebrow at her.

Being that Bentley wasn't there, Nyx decided to respond to the transmission herself. She had no idea who might be sending it, but it was probably worth knowing who knew how to contact Bentley... "Hello...?"

"This is Inspector Carmelita Fox, do you read me?" came the reply that was slightly garbled by radio static.

"Carmelita?!" Nyx hissed in surprise. "Yeah, I read you. How'd you get this frequency?"

There was a pause. "That's not important. Where's that turtle? Bentley?"

Nyx floundered with words for a brief moment, before she was able to respond. "He's out taking care of.... Business..."

Carmelita sighed, a sound that came over as mostly just radio static. "You're Nyx, right? The one who tackled Neyla back in India?"

"That's me, yeah," Nyx replied slowly. "What do you need, Carmelita?"

"I tracked down Neyla. I think she's on a blimp owned by a man named Arpeggio. He's part of the Klaww Gang, so I take it you guys are there already?" questioned Carmelita.

Nyx didn't even wanna know how Carmelita tracked down Neyla, but it was strange that she could easily assume where they were. "Yeah. And Neyla's... Neyla's here, too..."

Carmelita was silent for just a moment. "I sense a 'but' coming..."

Nyx sighed heavily. "Yeah. She joined herself to the Clockwerk frame and murdered Arpeggio... And the short story is that if we don't stop her before we reach Paris, she'll unleash Arpeggio's master plan... And thus become immortal..."

"No way," Carmelita hissed. "That is not gonna happen. I've got a helicopter and I'm trying to find you guys, but that blimp isn't showing up on my radar..."

Nyx hummed. "I'm sure Bentley can think of a way to send you a signal, as soon as he gets back,"

"I figured as much," replied Carmelita. "I'll maintain my current direction, in the meantime. I'm heading towards Paris, but I don't know where you'll be approaching from,"

"Got it. I'll have Bentley contact you when he returns," Nyx said.

"You better. I want in on kicking Neyla's ass," came Carmelita's almost threatening reply.

The line then went dead, and Nyx looked over to Murray, who looked just as shocked as she did. Nyx then hailed Bentley. "Hey, Bentley. You're not gonna believe who just contacted us..."

Bentley and Carmelita had a nice long chat after he returned to the safehouse. They used a lot of words I didn't understand, but I got the jist of what was going on. Carmelita had a chopper with a lot of firepower, and she was willing to take Sly up to fight Clock-La.

We just had to let her know where we were. That was the second half of the conversation. Bentley said that if they could boost the four local radio towers on the blimp, that Carmelita ought to be able to locate us with her chopper's radar afterwards. Of course, he used a lot bigger words to describe it.

Sly was the one tasked with climbing up to the radio towers and boosting their signals. It was only minutes afterwards that Carmelita confirmed that she could now see us on her radar, and was heading in our direction. We hoped she wasn't too far away, Paris was approaching fast.

"You think you and Carmelita can take her out?" I asked Sly, as we sat on top of the battery, waiting for Carmelita to arrive.

Sly nodded slowly. "Yeah. I beat Clockwerk once, by myself. And he was more powerful than Clock-La is,"

I nodded minuetely in response, staring down at the walkways below us. "I really hope you're right..."

Sly was silent a moment, before clapping a hand onto my shoulder. "Don't sweat it, okay? We can handle one over-sized bird being piloted by an egomaniac,"

I snorted and gave the raccoon a shove. "Don't get too cocky, now,"

Sly made a 'pfft' sound. "When am I ever cocky?"

"All the time," I replied, doing my best to grin at him.

Sly rolled his eyes, but the sound of a helicopter engine cut off whatever he was going to say next. We both turned to see the Interpol chopper arrive, with none other than Inspector Fox at the controls.

We both leaped off the battery, and climbed over to the small building Carmelita was hovered near. "Good to see you, Inspector Fox," Sly purred.

"Look, Sly, for once let's just cut the flirty chit-chat and get down to business," said Carmelita. "I need an experienced tail gunner. Jump in and grab the gun. We've got a bird to take down,"

Sly raised an eyebrow. "That's not flirty chit-chat?"

"Just get in," hissed Carmelita.

Sly grinned, and moved towards the helicopter. I stopped him before he climbed in, grabbing his arm. He looked back at me with a concerned look.

"Be careful," I said, staring sternly into his brown eyes. "Don't you dare die out there,"

Sly looked a bit confused for a moment, like he didn't know how to respond to that. Then he grinned. "Don't worry, we've done this before,"

And then he was in the chopper, said aircraft immediately taking back to the skies to confront Clock-La. I watched as they went, hoping to every known deity that they'd be okay. When the shooting started, I quickly headed back for the safehouse, ducking into the battery where it was some kind of safe.

"Don't look so worried," said Bentley, no sooner than I had entered. "They've... Done this before. They can do it again..."

Bentley didn't sound entirely convinced of his own words, but I nodded anyways. "I know..."

As Bentley's laptop battery slowly died, we used what was left of it to monitor the fight going on around us. The sounds of gunfire and explosions could be heard throughout the entire blimp, but via the binocucom we could hear Carmelita's excited shouting as she and Sly peppered Clock-La with heavy machine gun rounds.

An unknown ammount of time passed, the air filled continuously with the sounds of aerial dogfighting above us. Eventually, Clock-La went plummetting down, crashing into a section of the blimp as she went. The whole blimp shook around us, and we could only imagine how much was actually left of the section she'd crashed into.

"You should have been a cop!" cheered Carmelita. "That was some terrific shooting!"

For a moment, we shared in Carmelita's excitement, before we heard the metallic screeching of Clock-La. Bentley and I both glanced out the window, and nearly had a heart attack.

"Sly! Sly! We've got a serious problem here! Clock-La is still alive, and she's looking mighty upset, and I think she's going to take it out on us...!"

Clock-La was on top of us no sooner than those words had left Bentley's mouth. Her talons punched into the roof of the battery, and she ripped it straight away from the blimp. I shrieked as everything violently tipped and shook, losing my balence and falling over in the process.

The feeling of being airborne like this was not pleasant. It wasn't like being lifted up to the blimp on a controlled line. This was like experiencing a massive earthquake during a hurricane.

"I'm coming, guys! Hold on!" Sly's voice came in over the audio line, and I could only guess as to what he might be doing. But if there was any one thing I knew, it was that Sly would definitely come for us.

Seconds later, and Clock-La began to dive, causing us in the battery to be smashed against it's roof. I hit my head as we went, and maybe I blacked out for just a short moment, but I came back around just in time to crash back onto the floor and have Bentley's laptop land on my head.

Before I could even move, we were being flung to the other side of the battery, and my right shoulder smashed into the steel walls. Pain exploded through it, and I shrieked again.

"Hurry, Sly! This is getting... Kinda outta hand!" Murray proclaimed, as he was flung around the battery like a ragdoll.

"Kinda?!" I yelled back, clutching my shoulder and forcing back tears. "This is way outta hand!"

"Just hang on a few more minutes, I'm nearly there!" Sly replied, sounding pissed and panicked. I'd never heard such an urgent tone in Sly's voice, and it didn't help me to stay calm in any way.

Clock-La's flight pattern continued to throw us around the battery, which did nothing for my messed up shoulder. After banging it against a few other walls, I couldn't stop the tears that started streaming down my face. I was pretty sure something was broken by that point... And I'd hit my head a good few times, too...

"I'm hyperventilating!" Bentley yelled after a while. "I need a paper bag!"

I wanted to say something to Bentley, who had retreated into his shell, but my mind was rather clouded by pain, and I couldn't even focus on Bentley's location for too long, before the battery started tipping in another direction and sending us all flying.

It felt like forever that we were in there, but eventually we could hear something going on above us. "You want a piece of me?!" that was Clock-La shouting, though it was a bit muffled. "Don't worry, there's plenty to go around!"

"You might have a new body, Neyla... But you're still the low-down, back-stabbing coward we've beaten time and time again!" Sly yelled, his voice clearer to us thanks to the binocucoms. "This won't be any different!"

"Be brave while you can, Cooper! I might not have the immortality born of pure hate... But I feel something... Some power growing within me!" growled Clock-La.

There were no more words after that, just the sound of Clock-La firing some sort of projectile, and the sound of Sly's cane smashing repeatedly into Clock-La's head. It wasn't until there was a loud explosion, and we started going down, that I realized something bad.

Without Clock-La able to fly, we were going to crash. And crash we were absolutely going to do.

I squeezed my eyes shut as we entered a free fall, entirely expecting to die from the impact. Murray managed to grab onto me and Bentley, and he held us close as we fell, as if that would do something. Regardless of if it saved us, having them both there was comforting as we plummetted to mother earth.

The fall was short, but felt like it took forever. The stop was jarring as the battery embedded itself into some unknown part of Paris. Having previously been plastered to the roof of the battery, gravity claimed us and brought us crashing down to the floor as soon as the crash landing was over. For a few long moments, we all laid there, each likely trying to figure out if we were alive. It was the frantic beating in my chest and the pain in my shoulder that told me yes; I was alive.

"Guys!" Sly's voice reached my ears after a few long moments, and then the sound of the battery door being slowly pried open.

Murray scrambled to his feet to help Sly with the door, while I tried to get Bentley to come out of his shell. Eventually, the turtle peeked his head out. "Are we alive...?"

"Yeah..." I sighed. "We made it..."

Bentley sighed. "That. Was the worst thing I've ever experienced..."

I nodded and sighed an agreement, but said nothing as Murray and Sly got the battery door open. "Are you guys okay!?" Sly demanded as soon as the door was open enough for us to get out.

"I think we're fine..." said Bentley, leading the procession out of the battery, seemingly rather eager to get out of it.

Murray helped me out of the battery, and then followed suit. The first thing I noticed as I exited the battery, was that Clock-La had crashed not even fifty feet away from where our battery had landed. And she looked pretty motionless...

I slowly walked towards the small clearing she'd crashed into, staring openly at the massive Clockwerk frame. I was somehow glad that it had been Neyla piloting it, and not Clockwerk himself...

The others followed me, coming to join me in observing Clock-La. "We... We did it!" said Sly, almost not believing it himself.

"Right on!" cheered Murray.

I gave a breathy laugh that jostled my shoulder, but I didn't care. We'd done it. This whole thing was finally over... After months of going through everything imaginable... It was over...

"It's an emotional moment..." sighed Bentley.

Of course, that was when Clock-La's eyes lit back up, and lazers shot out from somewhere in the Clockwerk frame. Sly yanked me by the bad arm to get me to move, dragging me back to the safety of our battery crash site.

"Die, insects, die!" Clock-La was screaming. "My hate will smash you!"

"Watch out," hissed Sly. "That thing's still kicking!"

We stared as Clock-La guarded herself with lazers, despite the fact that she seemed unable to otherwise fight back. Okay, so this wasn't quite over with yet...

"Clock-La mentioned something about a hate chip..." mused Bentley after a few moments. "It sounded like the source of her power,"

Sly nodded. "If we remove it, she might stop attacking,"

"Then let's do a little open head surgery!" exclaimed Murray, pounding his fists together. "I'll pry open that beak so that Bentley can go to town with his bombs!"

There was a moment of silence as we all looked to each other, before silently agreeing on that plan. It was all we had.

Murray and Bentley carefully crossed the field of lazers, and Murray proceeded to pry Clock-La's jaws open. Inside the robotic beak, was a holographic projection of Neyla's head.

"I hate you, Cooper Gang!" she screamed. "I will find you in your sleep and I will destroy you! You will never know a moment's peace for the rest of your short, miserable lives! Clock-La will know revenge! I am revenge! I am the Alpha and the Omega! Clock-La!"

"Well..." I sighed to Sly. "She's gone off the deep end..."

"You think?" Sly muttered back as we watched Bentley bomb the devices that were emitting the lazers.

Removing the lazers didn't seem to do much to Clock-La, considering the fact that she continued to scream and yell. "I still have my hate chip! You will not defeat me! Ever !"

The hologram of Neyla's head then faded, and Bentley proceeded to climb inside Clock-La's mouth to start prying something out from inside. With the lazers now gone, Sly and I joined Murray and Bentley, to watch the turtle pry what I assumed was the hate chip from Clock-La's head.

It was a few moments later that the chip came loose, and Bentley turned around to show it to us triumphantly. "Let's get out of here! She's about to explode!"

As Bentley began to exit Clock-La's mouth, I was going to say something about how getting out of there sounded like a really good idea. Before I could say it, however - And before Bentley could get out of Clock-La's mouth - The beak slammed shut.

Bentley cried out as he was trapped and likely crushed inside, and there were protests of alarm from the rest of us. Sly's were the loudest. For a moment, we all feared that Bentley was dead, before his weak voice broke the silence. "My glassess..."

"Hang on, Bentley! I'll get you outta there!" exclaimed Murray, starting to pry Clock-La's jaws open once again. Sly and I stared in horror as we watched, unsure what state Bentley was going to be in once we got him out of there...

I gave a horrified gasp that didn't have my permission to leave my mouth when Murray got the jaws open and we saw just how bad Bentley was hurt. It looked like his legs had been completely crushed by the force of the huge metallic beak... I swallowed hard and tried my best to not cry.

"Pick me up..." muttered Bentley. "I can't walk..."

Carefully, with tears in his eyes, Murray did as instructed, lifting the injured turtle into his arms. "Come on, guys," Murray said, trying to sound less upset than he looked. "Let's get outta here..."

We didn't need to discuss that one, considering the fact that Clock-La was clearly about to blow. We sprinted back towards the battery we'd called our safehouse for the past few hours, and watched as Clock-La exploded into a spray of robot bird pieces.

When the smoke cleared, we could see various Clockwerk pieces floating in the waters around us. They were on fire, smoking and sparking, but somehow...

"They look... Unharmed..." I mumbled, almost not believing it. Despite being shot at and blown up, the Clockwerk pieces looked no different than they had when they were in our van. They looked like they could easily be put back together again, given enough time.

"It's as if... Nothing can ever hurt them..." Sly said, sounding hurt and confused.

With my good arm, I grasped his shoulder, not sure what to say. He reached up to put his hand over mine, accepting the silent consolation. I really wished I knew what to say, but... After everything that had happened to those parts... If all of it hadn't destroyed them... What could?

As we watched the heaps of Clockwerk parts float around us, the sound of a helicopter engine caught our attention. Landing just a few feet away from us, was Carmelita's chopper. It was a bit damaged from the dogfight, but still operational.

"Is it over?" Carmelita demanded as she climbed out of her chopper, her hair a complete windblown mess. "Am I too late?!"

"Afraid so, Carmelita," said Sly, looking over his shoulder at her, appearing more serious in her presence than he'd ever been.

Carmelita growled, clearly cursing herself. "Maldicion!"

I had no idea what that Spanish word was, but by her tone, I could guess that it was a curse word. Sly vaguely smirked, likely knowing the word that was foreign to me. He then held up the hate chip for Carmelita to see. "There's still this - The hate chip,"

Carmelita looked at the chip for a moment, and then stalked towards us. "Give me that,"

Sly gave a grin that didn't reach his eyes, and handed it over. "Be my guest,"

Carmelita snatched the chip from Sly's hands, and looked it over for just a few seconds. Then she tossed it to the ground, and brought her booted foot down on top of it.

There was a crunching and cracking sound as the chip was reduced to just pieces and fragments, and Carmelita seemed rather pleased with herself. She hadn't been fast enough to get any personal hits in on Clock-La, but at least she was the one to destroy Clock-La's source of power.

It had another side-effect though, one that we didn't exactly anticipate.

There was the sound of screeching metal, and we all turned to watch as the Clockwerk pieces around us decayed rapidly, as if time had finally caught up to the centuries old avian. In a matter of seconds, the plague that had cursed the Cooper family name for generations had been reduced to nothing but twisted and eroded metal.

We all watched speechlessly as it happened, almost not believing that it had been that simple. Without that one essential piece, Clockwerk was done for. And he'd taken Neyla down with him. Finally... Finally, this whole thing was over. For us, and for Sly's family.

"Freeze, Cooper gang! Get your hands in the air! You're all under arrest!"

Okay, maybe I spoke too soon, again... True to her nature, Carmelita was now pointing her shock pistol at us, attempting to arrest us for everything we'd done. Somehow, I wasn't surprised.

Sly looked over to us, for a moment looking like he was planning something. But as his eyes settled on us, that look faded. And I knew damn well why. We were a mess. Murray was in tears as he held the crippled and barely conscious Bentley in his arms. My right shoulder was likely broken, preventing me from using my dominant hand. And we'd all taken a good beating as we were thrown around the battery.

We really weren't in any shape for a fast getaway. And Sly realized it the moment he turned to us.

Despite that, I stared back at him with a solid look. There had to be something we could do, right? We couldn't just give up after coming this far, could we? Even though I was injured, I was ready to fight back. I never wanted to go quietly ever again...

Sly shook his head at me, slowly. As if he knew what I was thinking, and was disapproving of it. He then turned to Carmelita. "Listen, Carmelita, how about we make a deal?"

"A deal? I don't deal with criminals," Carmelita replied, glaring at Sly over her pistol.

"I know," sighed Sly. "But hear me out, here. If you let them go, let them get medical attention, I'll go quietly. No tricks, no gimmicks,"

My eyes widened as Sly made his offer. "Sly, n-"

Sly turned to give me a stern look that was almost a glare, and it stopped the words from coming out of my mouth. Sly held my eyes for a few moments, before firmly flicking his gaze to Murray and Bentley, then back to me.

It took me a moment to realize it, but he was giving me a job. He was asking me to take care of Murray and Bentley. Get them to safety. Slowly, I nodded at him. I didn't like it, I didn't want to leave him to be arrested, but I understood now, why he was doing this.

Carmelita studied Sly for a moment as she contemplated his offer. Her eyes flicked over to the rest of us, and then she sighed. "Fine. I'll take your offer. You three better get out of here, before the rest of Interpol shows up. They won't be quite so nice,"

My eyes flickered to Sly for just another moment, wishing there was something I could do... But then I nodded, and turned away from Sly and Carmelita, motioning for Murray to come with.

Before we went, though, we stopped to remove our gear and leave it there. If we were lucky, we could get into a hospital under the guise of a car accident, and then get out before any bolos went out on the rest of the Cooper gang... I wasn't holding my breath on it, but it was worth a shot.

We limped away from the crash site slowly, and it took all of my willpower to not look back at Sly. This was temporary, I told myself. It wasn't the end. We'd get Sly out of jail, I knew it.

As we went, we heard Interpol arrive on-scene, bringing an entire squadron of cops with them. That was when I turned back to look. I couldn't see Sly amongst all the commotion anymore, but I could see Carmelita shaking hands with some short man. I supposed she'd managed to clear her name by arresting Sly. That had probably been another reason why he'd turned himself in, I figured. He was just a little too attached to Carmelita, I'd learned.

"Nyx..."

I turned back to my friends as Bentley croaked out my name. "Yeah, Bentley?"

"You don't plan on leaving him there, do you...?" Bentley asked quietly.

I silently stared at the ground before us for a moment. Then I turned back to Bentley. "You got a plan?"

Bentley gave a weak smile. "That I do..."

Nyx drummed her fingers on the steering wheel of the mini-van they'd rented from some mom-and-pop car rental company. The car wasn't the most upkept thing she'd ever rode in, but it wasn't flashy and obvious, either. And that was exactly what Sly had wanted. A car that no one would remember seeing in the hospital parking lot.

It had been seven months since the Clock-La incident. Seven long months since Bentley's injury. They'd slipped into the hospital to see him many times over the months, and they'd had plenty of time to come to terms with the fact that he was never going to walk again.

It was something that broke all their hearts, but they tried to stay strong for Bentley. The turtle himself wasn't too sure how to feel about it. It would likely take him a little more time to come to terms with it himself, and get used to his new way of life.

Normally, Sly would've wanted to get Bentley out of the hospital as soon as possible, but with the extent of his injuries, he needed all the rehab time he could get. Nyx herself spent only two days in the hospital, due to her dislocated shoulder. Getting her out had been a cakewalk, thanks to her bright idea of checking Bentley in seperately from herself, so it looked like they didn't know each other. It also helped that she pretended to have amnesia and not know her own name.

Of course, the dislocated shoulder had put Nyx out of commission for the next three months, with her arm immobile and stuck in a sling. She'd absolutely hated it, so Sly had decided to fill the void by finally teaching her to speak French. And if she survived that, Murray promised he'd teach her how to drive.

And though her sanity had worn thin, Nyx survived the recovery of her shoulder, and the French lessons. Therefore, Murray had taught her to drive, which was the only reason she was behind the wheel for this rescue mission.

Sure, there was the fact that she didn't legally have a driver's lisence yet, but... That was honestly the least of her crimes, probably. She had a fake lisence, but she still wasn't legally listed as having one. So god forbid she got pulled over...

As she waited for Sly and Murray to spring Bentley, Nyx ran her hands back through her hair. And she'd thought it was long back in Arpeggio's blimp... It had barely reached her chin then, and now the back was just barely brushing the tops of her shoulders. She'd since dyed it all back to her natural dark brown, and she wasn't too sure what she was doing with the style. She was just letting it do whatever it wanted, really.

But when she compared the length of it now, to how short it had been when she'd met the Cooper gang... It reminded her just how far she'd come since then. She'd been a lost teenager when she'd met the gang. A nervous civilian who had no idea what her role in life was supposed to be. She'd moved to Paris trying to chase some miniscule dream that she thought might work out for her.

Now, a little over a year later, and she was a wanted criminal. She'd helped rob and take down the Klaww gang, and was now a valued part of the infamous Cooper gang. She'd almost expected them to part ways after the Clockwerk/Klaww gang thing was taken care of, expected them to drift away now that there was no true reason for her to stick around. But it had turned out the exact opposite; They wanted her around more than ever, and Sly was forever sharing thief tips with her whenever he got the chance. She was part of the family now, something she'd clued into when Sly had all her personal belongings dragged to their non-job safehouse.

It wasn't exactly the way she'd planned for things to go, if she was being honest. She'd never imagined herself as a criminal. After all, before meeting the gang, she'd thought that criminals were terrible people. But now that she'd met the Cooper gang, her opinions had greatly changed. Now she couldn't imagine anywhere else she wanted to be.

Sure, it created a little tension between her and her mother, whom had learned of her daughter's involvement with the Cooper and Klaww gangs via the news and was... Understandably not pleased... But Nyx was solid in her decisions. The Cooper Gang was where she wanted to be, and she made sure her mother knew that this was where she belonged. Where she could do the most good for the world. Her mother didn't understand, but she gave up trying to convince Nyx otherwise after a few months. Her daughter had gone off the radar for four months, and had then reemerged from the waterworks as someone completely different, and she didn't quite get why. Nyx hoped that maybe one day she could introduce her mother to Sly, so she could see just why Nyx had chosen this gang.

But that was something that would have to wait a good long while. Right now, their current focus was Bentley. And Nyx was starting to wonder why it was taking them so long to get him out... Sure, there were definitely police officers guarding his door, but it couldn't take too long to get rid of those guys, could it?

Nyx was just about to hail Sly via the binocucom, when the audio line burst to life with the raccoon's voice. "We've got Bentley, and we're headed your way! Get that engine going!"

"Got it," Nyx replied, turning the key in the engine as she spoke. The mini-van rumbled to life, and Nyx gripped the steering wheel tightly, ready to make their grand escape.

It wasn't long afterwards that Sly and Murray came sprinting out of the hospital, with Bentley in Murray's arms. They sprinted to the inconspicuous mini-van, and Murray and Bentley dove into the back seat. Sly ignored the passenger's side door, and just dove through the open window to land in the passenger's seat. "Punch it!"

Nyx slammed her foot down on the gas, and sent the car speeding through the hospital parking lot. Out of the rear-view mirror, Nyx saw two Interpol agents burst out of the hospital, trying to locate where their charge had been absconded to.

But they were already halfway out of the parking lot by then, and even the cops weren't bold enough to try taking a shot at them. Nyx made a hard left out into the streets, and started speeding back towards their safehouse. It was the middle of the night, so there weren't many cars out on the streets, just as Sly had planned. They could drive fast and not have to worry about hitting too many other cars.

Backup was no doubt being called to chase them, but they were already putting the hospital far behind them. Nyx was driving way above the speed limit, something that she normally wasn't a fan of doing, and it was hopefully making them hard to track.

Nyx turned onto a dark side street, not turning her headlights on so they couldn't be seen quite so easily. Her feline night vision allowed her to navigate the streets just fine, and come to a stop next to a small town car that was parked by a vacant house. This was phase two of their plan.

Nyx and Sly climbed out of the car, and Murray carefully removed Bentley from it. Nyx procured the keys to this new car, and waited for Murray to get Bentley situated in the small red vehicle. She then tossed the keys to him, and let him take the wheel.

Sly and Nyx quickly piled into the car, and Murray got the engine going. He quickly pulled the car away from the vacant house they'd parked in front of, and back down the dark street. If Interpol found their first car, hopefully they would stop to check it, and perhaps investigate the empty house it was left at.

Murray drove just below the speed limit now, hoping that the cops wouldn't catch onto their car swap. No one had seen it happen, so hopefully they'd be long gone before anyone figured it out.

There was a long span of silence, before Bentley leaned around the passenger's seat he was in, to look at Nyx. "Who taught you how to drive?"

Nyx laughed, long and hard. Yeah, this was definitely the place she wanted to be.

Chapter Text

"Okay, Nyx, so to throw good punches here's what you gotta do. You're right-handed, right?"

"Yeah," I nodded at Murray, who had recently become my very enthusiastic fighting teacher. I wasn't sure what right/left-handedness had to do with fighting, but I decided to not question it; Murray knew what he was doing.

"Okay, so turn your left side towards your opponent, then. Not a lot, just a little. And then lean back on your right leg for stability," Murray instructed, standing beside me and doing exactly that as an example.

"Alright..." I said, rotating to the side and leaning on my right leg like instructed.

"Now put your dukes up! Left hand up near your eye, and right striking hand by your chin," Murray demonstrated this next step as well, and very enthusiastically at that. He was probably the most cheerful fighting teacher in the whole world.

I did as told, looking over to Murray to silently ask if I was doing this right. Fighting very much put me out of my element; It was clear to everyone that I had no idea how to. And I was pretty sure that learning was going to be tough, but I was willing to deal with it.

I had committed myself to this, and damn if I wasn't gonna do it right. I was clearly going to need to know how to fight at least semi-effectively. Especially if more of Contessa's henchmen were going to be involved...

"Yeah, just like that!" Murray commended me for getting it right so far. "Now, don't tuck your thumbs into your fist, that'll just break 'em. Wrap your thumbs around your other fingers. And make sure to punch with the part of your fingers between the first two knuckles, for maximum kickass-ness!"

Again, I did as instructed. So far, the whole posture and pose thing was pretty easy. But as soon as we got to the actual fighting, I was prepared for things to take a nasty turn.

"Great! Now, if you wanna throw a good punch, you gotta lean into it with your lower body just as much as your upper. Step into your punches and launch your fist straight at your foes!" Murray explained, throwing a few punches at the air as an example. "Keep your arm straight; Just aim right for 'em!"

Yeah, here it was. The part where I figured things would go a bit wrong. Maybe I knew how to do this in practice, but I probably wouldn't be strong enough to put up an actual fight, would I? Regardless, I followed Murray's example, albeit with more hesitation and less power.

"Yeah, awesome! Though you wanna put more oomph into it! You're beating up bad guys, you gotta knock 'em down for the count!" Murray advised, then tapped his chin thoughtfully. "I think there's a punching bag in the van, lemme go get it!"

And then he was off, searching for his 'bad guy' analog. I relaxed my posture as I watched him go, and brushed my hair out of my face. Probably should have found a hairclip or something...

"Having fun?"

I jumped a bit at the voice that came from behind me, before remembering that Murray and I weren't alone. "Jesus, Sly, I almost forgot you were here,"

The raccoon laughed from where he perched backwards on a chair. "Yeah, I'm good at that,"

"Yes. Yes you are," I replied, sighing as I calmed down from that little scare. "But I guess I'm having fun? Haven't broken anything yet,"

"Let's hope it stays that way. If you break something other than your enemy, you might be doing it wrong," Sly said, giving me one of those sarcastic smirks that he's so fond of.

"Yes, I am very aware of that, Sly. Thank you," I replied sarcastically, smirking back at the raccoon.

Sly shrugged. "Just making sure,"

"Found it!" and then Murray was bounding back into the room, carrying a beat-up punching bag over his shoulder (How I missed seeing that in the van I'll never know). He proceeded to hang it from a hook on the ceiling. "Okay, Nyx, you ready? Show me what you got!"

"Yeah, I guess so," I sighed, getting back into proper stance. Okay, had to give this my best shot, right?

"Remember; Don't break anything," and there was another sarcastic comment from Sly...

"Thanks for the reminder, Sly," I replied dryly. I then took a breath, and threw the hardest punch I felt I could manage at the punching bag.

"That was great!" was Murray's response. "And you're only gonna get better!"

"Well, I certainly hope so," I replied. "Would suck to learn something and never get any better,"

"Which you will! Mark my words!" Murray responded. At least one of us wholeheartedly believed that.

I nodded. "Thanks. I'm gonna try to remember that,"

Murray smiled at me, and then dove into the next section of his lesson. "Alright, so now you know how to throw a punch. But where do you hit? You go for the soft spots! The nose, the ribs, the throat, stuff where bones aren't all in the way!"

"Don't forget manhood if you're fighting a guy. That'll definitely take him down," Sly chimed in from his perch.

"Wow, didn't know that you condone fighting dirty, Sly," I laughed.

Sly shrugged. "Hey, if it gets you out of a fight alive,"

"Yeah, that'll work if you've gotta, but that's a cheap move!" Murray said, waving it off with his hand. "If you've gotta go below the belt, a kick to the shins will work, too,"

"Okay, I think I got all that," I said slowly. "Ribs, nose, shins, throat, and if absolutely necessary; Kick him where the sun don't shine?"

"Yeah, you got it!" Murray replied. "And don't forget to make super quick jabs at your foe. Make 'em quick, but make 'em strong!"

I nodded again. "Quick and strong, got it,"

"And don't forget your head! If you smash your forehead against a guy's nose, that's gonna hurt a lot!" Murray added.

"Gives a new meaning to using your head I guess," I said. "Let's hope my opponents aren't five miles taller than me,"

"Even if they are, a few good body blows should bring 'em down so you can reach," Murray suggested. Meanwhile, Sly was busy laughing at my 'using your head' joke.

"M'kay, note taken. What's next?" I asked.

"I'm glad you asked! Fights aren't gonna stay in one place, right? So you gotta keep moving! Duck and weave, and keep moving all around your foe; Make him guess at what's coming next!"

"Hey, that might be the easiest part!" I gleefully decided. "I'm a cat, we're meant to be quick,"

"Yeah! Natural skill!" Murray excitedly agreed. "Now, you know the basics, now use 'em! Let the punching bag have it!"

Feeling a bit more confident about this idea, I moved back into fighting stance, and started giving the punching bag the best beating that I could. It probably wouldn't be much, but I was at least determined to give it my best.

"There you go!" Murray cheered as I assaulted the punching bag. "Now move around! Get 'em from all angles!"

Oh yeah, had to move around, fights don't stay stationary. I did as instructed, and began darting from side to side, still throwing punches; Low to high and everywhere in between.

"Alright, you've got it! Now throw some kicks in there!" Murray advised.

So I did, I gave the punching bag a low sweep to the left, and then punched it back to the right. And then I kicked it head on, which would have send a person tumbling back.

And then I had to stop for air. Yeah, I'm not the most in-shape person you'll ever meet. I was seriously wondering how Murray kept up with someone like Sly.

I brushed my hair out of my eyes again, and wiped the sweat off my face. I pushed my glasses back up onto my nose, and tried really hard to catch my breath. Fighting is hard, I decided then. Really, really hard. Even when it's just a punching bag, keeping up stamina and going long enough to actually win a fight was not easy.

"You okay?" Murray asked, placing a large hand on my shoulder.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm good," I panted. "Just let me catch my breath,"

"Take your time, you're doing great!" Murray said, lightly clapping me on the back.

"Yeah, but punching bags don't punch back," I laughed. I may have been laughing about it, but I was indeed worried about how I'd fare again another person who was actually fighting back.

"That's why I'm here,"

I looked up increduously as I watched Sly get up and cross over into our little fighting ring. He'd left his cane over by his perch, too...

"You're not serious?" I demanded.

"'Course I am. Figured it'd be more fair to pit you against someone a bit more your own size," Sly replied, grinning at me.

"But. But I. I can't fight you, Sly! You're one of my best friends, I can't just go all out and fight you!" I complained.

"Sure you can. I can take a hit, trust me. I've been electrocuted, remember?" Sly said. "Now c'mon, show me what you've got,"

And then Sly did one of those cocky 'bring it on' hand flaps that you see in movies all the time. I sighed. "Alright, fine. But only because you're too cocky for your own good,"

"See? You've already got a reason to wanna win," Sly replied, grinning and moving into his fighting stance. "Come at me,"

I sighed again and fell into stance as well. Okay, this was a real fight now. I didn't want to hurt Sly somehow, but I needed to learn how to fight against an actual person who wouldn't severely injure me if I lost.

Sly raised an eyebrow, clearly waiting for me to throw the first punch. Ladies first, right? I took a quick inventory of the raccoon; His stance was rather low, as he was used to fighting while also being stealthy. Which made anything other than his face hard to aim at...

Deciding to just go for it, I aimed a quick jab at Sly's face, making sure to not put too much power behind it. This was just a sparring match, right? We weren't meant to actually hurt each other.

But Sly apparently wanted to make it incredibly hard for me to just land one hit. As soon as I moved, so did he, dancing around my fist like it was nothing.

"Be prepared for everything," Sly purred. "Did you expect me to stay in one place?"

And then there was something sweeping my legs out from underneath me, and I was laying on the floor in literally no time flat. I hadn't been expecting that at all...

"You alright?" Sly moved to stand in front of me, offering me a hand up.

"Yeah, I'm fine," I replied as I gave him my hand and let him pull me up. My butt hurt some from where I'd landed on the floor, but I was otherwise fine.

"Good to know that you can take a hit. Figured that dropping you to the floor was better than knocking you out," Sly replied.

"And they say that chivalry is dead," I jested, raising an eyebrow.

Sly shrugged, grinning. And then he did something that I did not expect Sly to do, considering what he'd just said. It took me a moment to process the action and the pain, but then I realized what he'd done right before my knees hit the floor.

He'd sucker punched me. The dirty little...

I couldn't find the words to finish that thought as I tried to catch my breath. Right, so he'd dropped me on my ass to make sure I could take a sucker punch? Man, what a gentleman? I knew that learning to take a hit was part of the training thing but geez, Sly. I couldn't help but be a bit mad at him.

As I wheezed and tried to catch my breath, Sly knelt down to be eye-level with me. "Remember; Be prepared for everything, Nyx. When you're out there fighting, it might not be a fist coming at you,"

Right, it might be a knife or a gun. "Yeah, I knew that. But damnit, Sly, was that necessary?" I panted, looking up at the raccoon through my bangs. Man, my hair was getting long, I definitely needed hair clips...

"Sorry," Sly replied softly, clearly meaning the sentiment. "But experience is the best teacher, they say,"

Then he was offering me a hand up again. I sighed and took it, letting him pull me back to my feet. My abdomen still hurt from where he'd hit me, but I figured I couldn't lay on the floor forever. Had to learn to take a hit and keep going. I'd barrelled through that window and kept going, right? Just had to apply that to other stuff.

At least Sly hadn't punched me as hard as he could have. I'd seen him fight before, and I knew that he could put more power behind a punch than that. Murray might be their strongman, but Sly is a force of his own. I'd seen him take out dudes twice his size with one sweep of that cane.

And I needed to learn how to effectively do the same thing.

In the moments between Sly pulling me up, and our hands disconnecting, a devious idea crossed my mind. And before I could change my mind, I decided to go for it. As Sly opened his mouth to say something, I very quickly landed a punch to his ribs, catching him somewhat off-guard.