Chapter 1
Thievius Raccoonus
Karyra: I had a dream with this idea, I can only pray that I don't butcher it.
Rei: Whoa! Where did I come from! You flipped a coin didn't you?
Karyra: Stop making sense! I own you and Michel.
Rei: You don't own anyone else though.
Karyra: Stop. Making. Sense!
(Updated to my new evil plan.)
*`*`*Blue auras*`*`*
Ten Years ago
The rain was harsh upon the earth, like the heavens themselves were crying. Happy Campers Orphanage had been on the brink of closing down for a few weeks now, and the caretaker sat at her desk. The kindly old mouse wore an apron covering work jeans and a small T-shirt. She looked sadly at the meager amounts of money the orphanage had. The doorbell rang, a small buzz emanating through the small place. She sat up from the chair, her bones aching.
"Coming." She called out. She began her journey toward the door, wondering if it was like the movies where a child was placed in front of the door in a basket. However, when she opened the door, a small child no older than ten stood out in the rain, her small hand clinging to the cane with a hook on the tip. The cane was almost as tall as her.
"What's your name child?" The elderly woman asked.
"Rei Cooper." The child answered. The last name was familiar, but the woman couldn't place where.
"Where are your parents?"
"I don't know."
"Do you know where they are?"
"I can only remember my name ma'am." Her wide eyes betrayed that they had seen her parents, but something tragic happened to them. Maybe the child would remember with time.
"Come inside from the rain, Rei. You'll catch your death out there."
"Do you know my mommy and daddy? Are they here?"
"No, but they might come soon." Rei nodded and came inside as she was told. However, her mother and father never came, and as the years slipped by, she tried to find out what happened, even who they were. The elderly mouse watched her grow, at first she tried to figure out what was so familiar about the young raccoon the grew up thinner than a stick, but she soon gave up, and watched her make two lifelong friends.
*`*`*Blue auras*`*`*
Present day
Inspector Michel Fox with Interpol sat up from the dream he had a few minutes ago. The fox had a yellow brown jacket that was open, revealing a dark blue shirt with jeans that lead down to hiking boots. He shook his head detaching the papers clinging to his face. The office was small with a wall vault concealed behind some Picasso in one corner, and in the other papers were strewn about a window took up the wall opposite the door. Some papers said 'Rei Cooper'. The cork board held newspaper clippings of a shadowy figure and police arresting criminals. He stretched and grabbed one of the newspaper clippings.
"I'll catch you one of these days Rei Cooper, I promise you that." He muttered to it. The twenty year old was the youngest out of the academy. Ever since they slapped the file on his desk, he's been dogged in his pursuits. Little did he know that Rei Cooper was waiting out on the balcony.
*`*`*Blue auras*`*`*
(Rei's POV)
"Are you ready to blow up the fountain, and make the cars in the parking lots sing la bamba?" I asked into my comm.
"All set, but-" Bryce said on the other end, or the twitchy little mouse in overalls and a bandana over his head who was in the parking lot. He could make a working plane using paper, and rewire car horns to play la bamba, but he's not the action kind of guy. That would be Murph; the lovable lion who is the only one of all of us who can drive stick shift.
"You shouldn't worry so much. I mean, it not like I'm busting into a police station without a plan." I said to Bryce. "Also, it's my face on the security cameras, why are you worried?"
"Just get that file, before I die from sarcasm."
"Fine, over and out." I said, as I braced for the bombs to reveal themselves. Sure enough, the small explosion drew Inspector Fox out of his office. In fact, it was personal record for me to draw him out as fast as I did. I closed the small screen displaying his office, and strapped into my bungee gear. I placed suction cups on the tips of my boots. The black skin tight suit I usually wore came down to the top of my boots, the middle of my thigh, and the sleeves ended at the elbows with a belt in the middle and a bag strapped to my right thigh. Emblazoned on the chest, was a cartoon raccoon face. The main part was shaped like a football split in two, with two triangles coming off just above the eyes, which were near the line dividing the two halves. I shifted my floppy hat, which could explode on command, and adjusted my mask. In reality, everyone already knew my name, the mask just makes it fun to be a thief.
I let myself fall to the fifth floor of the building before stopping myself with the suction cups. I reached into my bag, and pulled out a glass cutter, I made it revolve around the center once, and removed the small circle of glass from the pane. The hand sized hole was positioned over the lock, so I reached in and unlocked it. Sliding the window open, I made sure to order his papers in such a way that he could never find them when he needed to. The Picasso imitation in the corner made me laugh at his attempts to hide the evidence from me. I had learned that Inspector Fox had found a book, in which held the instructions for becoming a master thief. No other thief would dare to even break into Interpol, so it was like a rite of passage for me.
I pulled the painting down exposing the safe behind it.
"Not a painting combo, you have got to be kidding me."
I pulled out a magnifying glass.
"I don't know why I packed it, but thank you God."
"Hurry, they've stopped the car alarms."Bryce said over the comm.
"Stall, it's a painting safe, you know how bad I am those." I responded.
"Hurry, then. I'm going to drop a Sheldon."
"Bryce!" I said, astonished. He'd never play the "nerd who's so annoying you hate, but can't get rid of" card. Too late, I could heard it over the comm.
"Sir," The police officer started to say.
"That poor police officer."
"My car just played la bamba, are you sure that it'll be all right? I had some valuables inside, could you help me check for them." I had the combination, I had to spare the poor guy from inevitable geeking.
"Sure, what kind of valuables?" The cop answered.
"First number is in..."
"My model ocarina from ocarina of time. It was made from-".
"Second number..."
"Sir, that is not a valu-"
"Third in."
"YOU SHOULD CARE SIR! It an original model..." I had it open, the book in my hands, it was lighter than I thought it would be, but I didn't have time. "...that was in mint condition!"
"The box is in the coffee cup." I said over the comm. I heard a click, Inspector Fox!
"That guy must be a master at organizing people. That or walking really fast."
I placed a paper version of the thing I wore on my chest inside the safe and began to run out. I slipped between the gap in the closing window and the window.
"I'm out Murph, ready the getaway van." With that I pressed a button on my suit, on the left shoulder, opening a parachute to slow my descent. I turned my feet to land on my feet. Ready for a running start when I hit the ground, I heard the unmistakable sound of a charging shock pistol.
"He's fixed the whining, it's much less obvious, but not by much."
I pressed the button again and the parachute wound up back into the bag. I pulled out my cane, ready to use it. I pressed a button on the side, which made it elongate to half my size. The golden crook on the top was a half circle, but at the top, it went down in a straight line. It was the only other thing I could remember from that night when I had been found at the door of Happy Campers Orphanage. I could only remember fire, screaming, a flash of metal, and the door. The zap from being near where the inspector shot jolted me back to reality.
"You kind of suck at aiming." I said as I slung the cane over my back.
"That was a warning shot Rei, surrender or I'll use this." Michel said.
"I don't feel like it today, I want some decent food, Chinese take-out maybe?"
"I hear jail has some decent food."
"Nah, I hear the food is actually made by children, I don't want to break any more child labor laws." I reached inside my bag again.
"I must have a never ending bag... I must thank Bryce later."
"No, I hear the prisoners make it themselves." I pulled out three small pellets.
"No wonder it's so lousy." I threw the pellets to the ground, causing the gas inside to release; hiding me from the inspector. I ran out of the narrow alleyway, turning on my heel. "MURPH, I NEED THAT GETAWAY VEHICLE..." I yelled over my comm. Hey, when your cover's blown, you should most definitely yell at your team to wake them up.
"Maybe I should write a book on how to steal from Interpol, it's not hard."
Another zap told me to stop worrying about books, and start to avoid being shot by the Inspector.
"Murph you had better get the van running..."
The rev from behind me made itself known by making Michel avoid it by leaping out of the way.
"Watch where you're going you-!" Michel began yelling before he saw me climb inside the van. I gave a mock salute before closing the doors behind me. We zigzagged through the city of Paris before heading for the hideout. It was an old apartment which nobody ever bothered to check for vagrants. As I flung open the door I cried:
"Honey, I'm ho-ome!" I pulled out the Thievius Racconus, ready to read about how to become a master thief. I then realized there were only ten pages in the thick backed book.
"Funny, with a cover like this you'd think there were more pages than ten."
I leafed through the pages.
"Ninja spire jump, rail walk, rail slide? Wait. There's different writing on this one."
The cursive blue handwriting was much newer than the other nine entries.
Dear Rei,
This book is yours now, if I am standing over you, watching as you look through the numerous pages, I want to stress that we only steal from criminals, regular people just aren't as fun. However, if I am not, be aware, Clockwork, or Clock-la is back.I don't know how he came back, but enclosed is a pair of criminals who could help you, I don't know their current location for sure, but tell him that Sly said hello.
There was an address, and a couple names; Bentley and Penelope.
I can only hope that you find out what happened, and try to stop Clockwork/Clock-la.
I love you honey. Tell (the name was written, then scratched out.) that everything's okay.
Love,
Sly Cooper,
Dad
My mind was reeling. Clockwork? Clock-la?
"What are you trying to say Dad?"
I read through the other entries, looking for some clue about Clockwork, Clock-la, or even my Dad. There wasn't any. I had worked late into the night, and nobody bothered me about it.
"I need to clear my head."
I grabbed my bag, cane, and hat -I had taken it off earlier-, and left. I found a wire suspended above the street and practiced my rail walk. It would require the spire jump -a jump with a spin to help point your toes- and balance. After performing the spire jump, and not landing on the ground below as a splat, I put one foot in front of the other, gently walking across the wire. An alarm rang out urging me to stop the criminals.
I may not have super powers, but anyone could see that the police were inept at catching them themselves. So I swooped down landing on the speeding car, and proceeded to smash out the windshield. They couldn't see so they panicked and pulled over to the side. They left the car; gun in hand, I went on to smack both of them about the head with my cane. I tied them up, left my signature raccoon face, and left. The sirens and yells for a lawyer resounded around the area. I smiled, a job well done.
There was someone up on the roof next door, he was too well concealed to see who was watching, but I tried to sneak over to where he was. He laughed.
"I would have put in a quip or two." He said as he vanished from sight.
"Wait, who are you?" I yelled down below. He had escaped anyway. "Damn." I muttered under my breath.
"What a weirdo."
I ran and jumped across buildings on the way to the safe house, focusing only on the muscles doing what they did best. I tried out new techniques I learned from the Thievius Raccoonus, but there weren't many and I was halfway to the safe house before finding the address I was going to tomorrow. It was a beat down house with boarded up windows. It looked like it had been abandoned for a long time.
"Maybe I can get a clue of the old owner's whereabouts."
I landed on the roof before going in. Going in the roof is much better than going in the front door, anyway. Pulling out my cane again, I hooked onto the side going hand over hand down. I lowered myself to the nearest boarded up window. I tried to pry away the ancient boards. Failing to do so made me smash my foot against them.
"Wow, that was subtle."
That was the thing, I could get mad very easily. Bryce told me to get anger management classes, but what would I do? Walk in and say, 'Hey there, I'm the worldly infamous -at least I think so- thief Rei Cooper.' ….No...
"Crunch. Crack."
Wait, when I smashed the boards that was the Crunch. What was the Crack?
"Oh damn it."
The boards were tougher than I had originally thought. I had potentially broken my foot. I don't have X-ray vision, so I couldn't be sure. Dangling from a building, not being able to walk into a hospital, and being several miles away from the safe house.
"I guess I really do need anger management lessons."
The window sat exposed.
"I broke my foot, must be worth investigation. Also, I do have a cane. It's not like I can't use it like that for once.
I hopped inside, cursed several times about my foot, and hobbled to the other side of the room.
"I just had to break my left foot." I muttered darkly.
"Dad must be so proud. I'm swearing like a sailor."
The only light coming in had been from the window. I was not surprised to stub my toe in the dark, but I did cuss a lot more than I had coming across the room.
"Young lady, I will not tolerate that kind of langauge in my house." Said a thin reedy voice coming from the darkened door way. It was too dark to see who exactly said this, but in the next moment I heard a dart come across the room. A small pinprick told me that it found it's mark in my shoulder.
*`*`*Blue auras*`*`*
Karyra: Yay!
*Michel pouts in corner as a small party goes on*
Karyra: Come party! The launch of our new story is up!
Michel: …
Karyra: Here, listen to pandora for awhile.
*Karyra stuffs earbuds in his ears*
Michel: ):
Rei: He's such a downer.
Karyra: He's your-
*Karyra sticks her head inside a bucket of ice water*
Rei: Why'd she do that?
Michel: I don't know.
Karyra: KITTY!
Rei: No one here is a cat...
Karyra: TURTLE!
Michel: No turtles either.
Karyra: FOXES!
Rei: There's only one here. You scare me.