DT: Okay, so this is the second chapter I've edited. lol. This is such a slow process, what with essays, projects, and all sorts of other stuff, some days I just want to take a break; play Petville for a while and just read some fanfics. Oh, by the way, I got my deviant art account up and running. Go check out my Furry drawings! lol. Unless you're not into that sort of stuff... then just disregard the last sentence. So anyways, enough of my blabbing. Go and enjoy the revision of my chapter!
The Louvre is one of the most widely-known museums across the world. In the middle of the day, the pyramid shape outside
of the Louvre shone beautifully under the sun.
"This place holds so many memories..." Sly swooned sarcastically.
Sly and the gang stood right outside of the museum's entrance in their best disguises. They stopped to look at a rather large sign placed right at the museum's entrance, which read:
"Come see the newly discovered Renaissance painting! Artwork is being auctioned tonight at 8:30!"
The painting had been privately shipped from Italy itself, so that alone made it a wondrous (and mysterious) piece of artwork to behold!
People who got the chance to see it said it was truly an astonishing painting.
And "astonishing" was a big enough reason to have it stolen and written about in the Thievious Raccoonus!
Sly casually strolled into the museum, disguised as a wealthy English aristocrat. Murray, disguised as a giddy tourist, stepped towards some of the artwork and began randomly taking pictures with his fake camera. Bentley rolled in with his wheelchair, keeping up his simple look ("Honestly, who would suspect a handicapped turtle in a wheelchair?" he told them repeatedly). Usually, their comfort zone consisted of stealing at night, but since this was a special painting, they decided to treat the heist as such.
It didn't take them long to find said painting, as it was being heavily guarded by their most favorite form of security: Interpol.
The Cooper Gang could handle them.
There was nothing they couldn't do when they put their minds to it! After all, they had managed to stop the Fiendish Five, the Klaww Gang, and Dr. M.! Robbing museums were a cinch now. They walked into the heavily guarded room and got their glimpse of the painting. It was a wonderful picture, full of shades and hues of a variety of colors depicting a scene of Renaissance Italy. There were little houses drawn beautifully near the base of a mountain, overlooking a beautiful blue sky.
And right then and there, Sly knew he just had to steal that painting!
It was almost as beautiful as Carmelita...
"Hey, where is Carmelita?" he asked surprised, "It's been about a week since I last saw her."
"Who cares, Sly?" Bentley protested, "We're on a job here. There's no time for that! I need to think... how do we get past those guards to steal the painting?"
"That was cold, Bentley," Sly pouted, crossing his arms.
"Let me take a crack at'em!" Murray suddenly burst, "'The Murray' can handle these guys with one hand tied behind his back!"
"No!" Bentley hushed before his pink friend nearly charged in the direction of a rather large-sized guard, "There's too many of them here!" he lowered his voice as he continued, "Given the size of this room, there's no way we'd be able to take them out, grab the painting, and make a break for it all at once. No, this requires a more subtle approach."
He pointed to the front door where a computer stood all by itself.
Sly and Murray looked at each other, confused.
Bentley continued as he walked over to the computer, "With this computer, I can get rid of the guards by setting off the alarm to—"
"Hold up a sec, Bentley" Sly interrupted, "You're going to set off the alarm?"
"Yes. We've done it before."
"Okay," he said disapproving, "You're the expert."
"Thank you. As I was saying, I'll set off the alarm to make the guards leave their posts. I'm 95 percent sure that there are a wide variety of alarms I can choose to set off."
Sly put on a smirk. "Ah, I see where this is going," he said, "You're going to make it so the guards go to the farthest room at the farthest end of this museum, correct?"
"That is correct, Sly. While I do this, you and Murray should probably go and hide somewhere, as they're sure to start evacuating people out. I might get taken out along with the rest of the crowd too, so if that happens, it'll be up to you and Murray to retrieve the painting. In the meantime, I'll get the van started and wait for you around the front."
"Alright, Bentley, just don't get yourself caught while hacking."
The turtle scoffed, "As if the slow dogs of Interpol could catch me, a technological, hacking genius!"
Sly waved him off while he and Murray found a group of barrels lying about near one of the exhibit's entrances. He and Murray managed to hide in them without getting spotted, while Bentley typed away on the computer. Sly glanced back at the heavily guarded room with the painting. He made out a thin, slender figure in the midst of the bulky guards.
'Ahh… even in the distance, I can still find my sweet Carmelita…' he thought.
Knowing that his love was only a short distance away from him, his mind now went at ease, even when Bentley successfully set off the alarm and sent the tourists and sight-seers screaming and running about. As the turtle had predicted, the Interpol officers wasted no time in trying to evacuate every civilian out of the museum. Both Sly and Murray watched the Interpol officers rush down the hallways, pushing civilians out the main entrance of the museum, Bentley being one of them. He gave a quick wink to his teammates, letting him know he would be alright, as he disappeared out of the museum. Sly glanced back over to the rare painting's room. The meanest and toughest-looking guards began conversing with each other before running at a full sprint down the long corridors, disappearing into the distance.
Only four guards were left to stand watch over the painting, one of them being Carmelita.
"Nice thinkin', Bentley." Sly congratulated in his headset.
"Less talking, more stealing!" his friend retorted, the static muffling in his ear.
With a chuckle, Sly glanced back into the now-nearly-empty room.
"I can take out these guards easily," bragged Murray.
"Don't forget that the lovely Carmelita's here too," Sly warned, "Wouldn't want to get her hurt now, would we? Just leave her to me, Murray, and you can take out the rest."
"Got'cha!" his friend replied with a confident grin.
Slowly, the two made their way closer to the room. A wide smirk curved across his face as he glanced at an elongated pipe strand leading from along the side wall to the corners of the ceiling. Without a second's delay, he grabbed hold of the pipe and pulled himself up. Soon, he managed to reach the ceiling, and just above Carmelita's head.
"FEAR THE MURRAAAY!" His hippo friend shouted before throwing his fist into one of the guards, knocking him out cold. The other guards were too stunned to even move! But Murray quickly took care of them as he slammed two more fists into the guards. He let out a hearty, triumphant laugh as he put his large boot on top of the unconscious men, all lying about in a pile.
But the moment was short-lived when he heard the sound of a gun being cocked. Murray turned around and stared hard at the shock pistol…
"Freeze," came the wielder's elegant voice.
But then he glanced at the woman holding the shock pistol…
"Hey, wait a sec…" Murray stared quizzically, "You're not Car—!"
"HELLO LOVELY LADY!" Sly shouted from above, cutting his friend off.
He noticed a thin wire a little ways off from the dangling pipe, so he hopped off and landed smoothly on the wire's slim edge. The woman officer turned around quickly to face the raccoon above her, but to Sly's surprise, there was a drastic change in his pistol-wielding lady.
"Hey! You're not Carmelita!" He finished Murray's sentence.
"No. Not exactly," She stated matter-of-factly, "I'm her replacement."
"'Replacement?'" Sly repeated, "You mean she was fired?"
"Again, not exactly…" Her voice was soft and soothing to the ears, even more so than Carmelita's.
She swung her gray and black, bushy tail back and forth against her thighs. The color of her fur was of the same shade as Sly's. It took him a moment before he realized that she was a raccoon just like him! It was as if she was his double! The black, mask-like shade around her eyes was almost identical to his. The eye color was the same, the bushy tail… even the devious smirk the she put on was just like Sly's!
Though she bore some of Carmelita's features as well...
She had long, bluish-black hair that stretched past the middle of her back, and had subtler, more feminine eyes, even though they looked identical to Sly's. She even carried the same badge Carmelita wore. It had a slick shine as it lay across her black jacket. The only thing keeping her from being a clone was the green sleeveless shirt she wore with a pair of regular jean pants. Sly even managed to see a faint tip of a necklace around her neck.
It was in the shape of a Cross; very plain and very thin… possibly made of gold.
"So you're the famous Sly Cooper that I've heard so much about?" She asked him curiously.
"Indeed I am," he replied, "But perhaps I can get a name from you, lovely lady?"
"It's Mae," she said, "Mae Hayate. And I'm afraid you won't be seeing Carmelita for a while."
"And why is that?" Sly asked a little concerned now.
"Sorry, but as much as I'd loove to stay here and chat with you, I've got a criminal to catch!"
She aimed the gun at his head and fired a warning shot. Sly immediately took a few steps back while dangling on the rope. Murray tried to intervene before she shot again by throwing a swift punch at her, but she easily slid out of the way, causing the pink hippo to trip over his own two feet.
Sly blinked.
Mae then climbed up a nearby pipe, quickly reaching the other raccoon, before she jumped off and landed gently on the wire.
Again, Sly blinked.
She rested in the same position as he did, standing still and holding onto the rope with just one hand, while aiming a shock pistol with the other.
The raccoon thief was too stunned to move.
"Sly Cooper, you and your gang are under arrest!" she shouted, snapping him back to reality… but only slightly.
He was still lost in thought.
How could someone other than himself do this? There was no other raccoon on earth that came even close to looking like him, let alone bearing the same talents as him! He was an only child; he was in a class by himself. So... why now, all of a sudden, has this girl shown herself? She couldn't be related... could she?
No. That was impossible.
He was an only child. As much as he hated to admit that fact, he had no one… except his beloved Cooper Gang.
"Sly! GET DOWN!" Came Murray's booming voice.
Snapping back to reality again, he glanced back down to the ground. Murray already had the painting removed from the wall and under his arm while his other arm coaxed his friend to get off the wire and make a run for it.
"Don't even think about it, Cooper," Came Mae Hayate's voice, "If you so much as even flinch, I'll shoot! Just come along quietly and we can—"
But Sly had no intentions of cooperating. He violently shook the wire with his foot, causing it to snap and break. Mae gasped and fell to the ground hard, being taken aback by such an unexpected maneuver. Sly gently landed on the floor and immediately went into a sprint, catching up with Murray as the two began heading out of the room. Unfortunately, they couldn't even reach the end of the hall once they realized that ten guards had come back to check up on the artwork.
An awkward moment of silence fell on all of them.
"'The Murray' can take you all on!" Murray shouted too confidently.
The guards' expressions became hard and all of sudden, they pulled out their weapons, pointing them straight at Murray's head. But before anything more could be done, a smoke bomb suddenly came out of nowhere and clouded everything! Both sides of the law were baffled as to what had happened. Sly quickly pushed Murray along past the smoke. As soon as his hippo friend was out of the way, he tried to make his own way out, but was swiftly brought back in. He tried to pull away fiercely, but the smoke was so thick he couldn't see anything.
This was not the kind of smoke bombs he used while stealing.
He felt a sharp pull on his left arm when Mae's voice crept into his ears. He turned towards her direction, but he could only make out a foggy silhouette of her figure.
"I'm only letting you go now because I have unfinished business to discuss with you later," she said sternly, "Now go!"
With that said she gave him a forceful shove and sent him out of the smoke. Sly wanted to go back there and say a few things of his own, but thought it was better to get Murray out of there, since he was standing around, confused as to where his raccoon friend had gone off to.
"There you are!" he shouted happily, "C'mon! We gotta go now!"
The two hightailed it out of there, greeting Bentley who sat along the outside of the van.
"Get in quick!" he shouted, "The cops'll be crawling all over this place in any minute!"
They wasted no time in climbing inside the van. Murray took over the driver's seat as he floored the gas pedal. It wasn't until they were four miles away from the Louvre before Sly started to relax a bit.
'Did a cop just help us out?' he thought to himself, 'This can only mean trouble in the end. The last thing we need is another girl cop trying to help us out…'
—
Mae put on a curious, devious smirk on her face. The guards coughed and choked just as the smoke was beginning to clear.
'I guess the Cooper Gang can say they live up to their reputation… for now,' She thought, 'Though a second look wouldn't be too bad either….'
She turned to face the guards with their distraught-looking faces. They stared long and hard at the blank, empty wall.
"The painting!" one shouted, "It is gone!"
"Of COURSE it's gone, you idiot!" she shouted cruelly, "I should have you ALL fired for such incompetence! WHAT ARE WE SUPPOSED TO TELL THE PEOPLE READY TO AUCTION OFF THE PAINTING NOW, HUH? I asked you a question! Answer when spoken to! Ken will have your HEAD for this! ALL of your heads!"
—
The Cooper Gang drove all night until they reached the abandoned caboose, their old safe house back in Paris… just for old time's sake.
They were surprised at how little things changed since the last time they came: Bentley's papers were sprawled out everywhere (probably from trying to find different ways to commit heists in Paris), Murray's exercising equipment was chipped and broken all over the place ("'The Murray' has shamed you once again!"), and Sly's television set was still turned on. Murray and Bentley took a seat on the old couch while Sly leaned against the wall of the old caboose's dirty, stained interior.
"Thanks for the quick escape, Sly," Murray congratulated, "You saved our butts back there!"
"Hold on there, Murray," Sly confessed, "That wasn't me who threw the smoke bomb."
"Well," his pink friend stammered, "If it wasn't you… then who threw it?"
"The only other raccoon there: Mae Hayate."
"What?" Bentley shot in, "What 'other raccoon'?"
For the next few minutes, Murray and Sly had to explain the situation to Bentley in order to calm down his curiosity.
"So," he muttered, "This Mae person… you say she looks like you and has some of the same abilities as you… how is that even possible?"
"Not sure," Sly replied, "All I know is that she was the only other person I could think of who might've thrown that smoke bomb… There's some connection here that I'm missing, and I don't know what it is!"
"I think you're just missing Carmelita a bit too much." Bentley chuckled.
"Hey, I'm serious!" he laughed, "What if there's another Cooper out there? Maybe there's more than just one?"
"It's highly unlikely," the turtle shook his head, "Clockwerk managed to kill off all of your family members, keeping only you alive."
The raccoon lowered his head at that. He looked away from his friends and glanced out to the caboose's window, staring at the bluish-black sky hovering over the darkened frames of Paris' buildings.
"I really do hate to tell you this, Sly," Bentley continued, "But you're all that's left."
"That's not exactly true, Bentley," came a voice from the caboose door.
The sweet and tender tone shocked the Cooper gang as the three of them turned around to the direction of the voice. To Sly's amazement, there stood Carmelita's replacement.
"Mae Hayate…," Sly growled.
"Oh how sweet," she swooned sarcastically, "You still remember my name!"
He continued to growl at her as he stared at her new outfit. She wore all black: black T-Shirt, black shorts, and black shoes. The look was entirely sultry, giving her the vixen charm of a fox despite her natural gray raccoon look. To her left, stood a short creature that appeared to be a dog. His fur was of a black color as well, and in his tiny little paws, he held an even tinier laptop. He was too busy clicking away to pay anyone any attention.
"How did you manage to find us so quickly?" Sly demanded, his friends nodding in agreement.
"You know, for a sneaky thief, you don't really think things through, do you?" She laughed.
"Just answer us!" Bentley shouted.
Suddenly, the black dog sat his head up, glancing fiercely at the turtle. Bentley arched an eyebrow at him, frowning. The dog's eyes were beady and just as tiny as the rest of him.
"Well if you must know," Mae cut back in, "I followed the tracking device on your arm."
She pointed directly at Sly.
"What?" he gasped, "What tracking device?"
"At first, I wasn't sure if the smoke bomb trick would work, but I guess I was wrong…"
"So the smoke bomb was you!" Sly's face was stern.
She smiled, "Indeed it was."
Sly smiled back, "So how did you manage to get the tracking device on me?"
"When I said that I had unfinished business to discuss with you…"
Knowing exactly what she meant, he checked his left arm where she had grabbed him earlier. Soon enough, he found the tracking device, laying beneath the folds of his blue outfit. It was as tiny as a bug with a small, red, glowing dot on its back.
"Pretty clever, don't you think?" she asked with a smirk.
"So that was the real reason why you grabbed my arm!" he chuckled, "You sneaky little devil!"
"Well sometimes, we Coopers have to be extra sneaky…"
"What?" Sly looked directly in her eyes.
She tilted her head with a smile.
DT: So please read and review my revised chapter. lol. I spent the past two weeks working on it. Now, chapter three might take a little longer, cuz a lot of my class assignments are due this week and I gotta focus on'em, but AFTERWORDS, I should be getting to work on that! lol. Sorry to disappoint my Thiefshipping audience who are waiting on the next chapter to Mayonaka. That's gonna take extra time and personal care. But hurry up and read my other works! You'll find them VERRRY interesting!