Chapter 2- Out of the Frying Pan…

Sly raced headlong along the rooftops, disregarding all pretenses of stealth and subtlety entirely. Coming to the end of the long apartment building, he planted his cane at the lip of the roof, and vaulted over it, landing on the opposite roof 2 stories down with a grunt and a roll. He quickly righted himself and tried to keep a slow breathing pattern so as to keep up his long sprint.

His footfalls were heavy as he coiled his body like a spring. Releasing all of his energy at once, he leapt from the building and shot out his cane, hooking it to a gutter spout which groaned loudly as the weight of his body was put on it. His momentum spun him around but he loosened his grip at once to begin sliding quickly down it, his cane sending sparks in all directions as it scraped down the side. The sound of sirens and the roar of the blazing inferno only 30 yards from him grew deafening as he raced towards it. He ran up to an EMT that was on scene and spun him around. Grasping the startled ermine by the collar, he yelled at him over the blaze.

"Has everyone been evacuated!" he yelled, his voice laden with concern and what seemed like anger to the ermine in his hands.

"N-no! There are several officers still unaccounted for!"

Sly threw the uniformed EMT from his hands, who hit the side of a nearby ambulance with a resounding thud. Turning quickly on the balls of his feet, he shot towards the entrance to the large, burning building. He passed several officers on his way, which all shot him surprised glances as he passed by them at a sprint. "Is that Sly Cooper?" one of them yelled as he passed by, but it fell on deaf ears as Sly was only concentrating on what he would do as soon as he got inside.

He took the steps 2 at a time as he raced up to the entrance of the building. Throwing his shoulder against the fire weakened door, it burst open in a flurry of sparks, and he ran inside.

The realization of what he was doing was slowly sinking in, but he dismissed it almost instantly. All that mattered to him was that he made sure Carmelita was safe, it didn't matter how much danger he was in or how many police officers saw him. Surprisingly, the main foyer wasn't very smoky, so he stopped momentarily to get his bearings. He quickly walked up to the receptionist's desk and grabbed a clipboard that had a list of all the employees on it. Flipping quickly through the pages, he scanned them all looking for the name and office number of one Carmelita Fox.

"Max Edin… Gary Farns… No, no… Joseph Forcen… Aha! Carmelita fox, office number 122." Stealing a quick glance at the office map on the wall to his left, he made a mental note of the way to get to her office, and then took off up the stairs to get to the second floor. Under different circumstances, he would have found the situation humorous; he's been to her office many times before in the past to deliver bits of evidence and small trinkets of his affection, but he has always come in through the window, and never had to make his way through the building before.

As he made it halfway up, the fire eaten stairs collapsed underneath him with a loud crash. With a grunt of exertion, he leaped up and grabbed the banister of the floor above him as flames from the newly collapsed stairs began to lick at his ankles. Aided by the sting of fire, he hauled himself up onto the second floor and rounded the corner to make his way into the east side of the building. An explosion from one of the offices to his left shot shards of glass at him which he quickly deflected by bringing an arm to his eyes. Panting heavily from the heat, and short of breath due to the heavily smoky air, he pounded down the hallway, leaping over a burning snack table as he found Carmelita's office. Grabbing the side of the doorway, he slingshot himself inside, only to come crashing down as something hit his head. Hard.

"Sly?" came a familiar voice, with a hint of a Spanish accent to it. "What the HELL are you doing here?" She grabbed him by the shirt collar and heaved him bodily inside of her office, narrowly dodging a smoldering ceiling beam as it fell and sent up a shower of sparks and embers, barring the doorway.

Sly Came to his senses, shaking his head to uncloud his vision. "It's good to see you too, Carmelita," he said, holding his throbbing head in his hands. "Sorry I don't have a vase to hit you over the head with," he said, grinning sheepishly and gesturing to the flower vase that Carmelita held loosely in her hands.

"Now is definitely NOT the time, Cooper," she said, dropping her impromptu weapon and taking a nervous glance through a broken wall in her office, looking down the hallway.

The fire was still raging around them, but Sly was glad to see that she was ok. He was slightly puzzled as to why she looked so nervous, and that hit over the head certainly wasn't something he had expected. What was going on? "What's going on?" he asked. "Why were you so ready to attack?"

"If we make it out of here alive, I'll tell you later, but we HAVE to get-" but she was cut off when a loud crack came from above them, and another charred ceiling beam fell down and struck her on the head. She collapsed onto the ground with a sigh and lay motionless, not reacting a bit when the red hot beam landed on her leg. Grabbing the beam, he threw it from her, scorching a hole in his gloves and burning his hands in the process. The fire began to lick into the room that they were in, showing sly that time was certainly of the essence if he wanted to make it out alive. Placing one arm beneath her shoulders and another beneath her knees, he lifted her easily off of the ground. He was surprised at how light she really was, but there was no time to be thinking about that now, he told himself, he needed to concentrate on getting out. Shifting around, he kicked the door to the small office, but found it blocked.

"Of course," he mumbled to himself. He took a few steps back, and then made a leap through the flames of the broken wall. Landing hard on the opposite side, he looked down the right side of the hallway he was in, but found it hopelessly shrouded in smoke and flame. Turning to his left, he took off at a sprint towards the end of the hallway. Small explosions started going off all around him, singing his fur. The roar of the fire grew even more deafening, and the cracking of the floorboards could be heard as his feet pounded away at it as he sped down the hall.

At the end of the hallway was a small window; double locked and flame licked.

"Well, only one way out!" he yelled above the blaze. His legs were working like double pistons, picking up speed as he raced to the window. Taking a small leap forwards, he planted both his feet firmly on the ground and then sprang forwards towards the closed window. An earsplitting explosion rent the air behind him, and he was propelled forwards by the blast.

He yelled out in pain as bits of glass and wood embedded themselves into his unprotected back, and then shot him through the window. It broke open with ease, shattering at the force of the explosion and Sly and Carmelita's limp bodies. They fell 2 stories, and then another as they broke the surface of the water in the canal beneath them.

The world grew quiet around them as they shot beneath the surface of the icy water. Debris fell down all around them, some larger pieces hissing loudly as the fire that engulfed them was extinguished. Sly readjusted his grip on the limp form of Carmelita, and then kicked his legs to propel himself upwards. Breaking the surface with a loud gasp, he swung his head to the side to rid his eyes of water. Rolling onto his back to keep Carmelita's head above the water, he began to kick his legs in rhythm, and he slowly made his way towards the shore.

He reached the pavement on the opposite side in short order, and then lifted Carmelita's limp form up out of the water. Gasping for breath, he hauled himself roughly up, and lay down alongside her trying to put as little pressure on his injured back as possible.

Laying there for only a few seconds, he then with much effort got to his knees and placed his arms underneath the soaked, barely recognizable form next to him. Her fur was matted and sticking up in all directions, and her left leg had a nasty burn on it. He bent his head down and placed it on her chest, and let out a sigh of relief when the sound of a heartbeat graced his ears. With much effort, he got to his feet. Fox in arms, he began to limp towards the direction of the safehouse, the sound of the raging inferno growing ever fainter in the distance.

A/N

Ok, so I lied. This chapter was almost exactly the same length as the other and it said nothing about the title, but at least it was more action-tastic, right? So, what do you think is going to happen when they get back to the safe house? Will having Carm there make the rest of the team go into a frenzy? Will they accept her like one of their own? Will she storm off in a huff? Who knows! I sure don't. The next chapter will be entirely off the top of my head, because I honestly have no idea what to do with it. So wish me luck, whoever may be reading this. R&R, and I hope you enjoyed this chappy!

Foreshadowing quote:

"In times like these, it helps to recall that there have always been times like these."

-Paul Harvey