Disclaimer: (Which I forgot to add in the first Chapter. Mea Culpa) All characters and Game dialogue belongs to Sucker Punch Productions. I own nothing except my ravishingly good looks.

Chapter 2: Change of Plans

Sly stayed still, waiting for the all-clear he knew was forthcoming. In the meantime, he worked on fraying the ropes holding the cane to his back by rubbing it against the broken door hinge. After a few moments, Sly heard the soft chuk-chuk-chuk sound of an RC helicopter, the whistle as bombs fell, and the panic squawks as of the Contessa's vulture guards as they were knocked unconscious by Bentley's friendly salutations from the sky. Finally, after about thirty seconds of dead silence, the COMlink hidden in Sly's ear buzzed to life for the first time in weeks.

"Sly? Do you read me?" came a familiar nasally voice from the COMlink.

"How I've missed that sensuous voice of yours," Sly grinned as he kicked down the door to his cell and headed outside for the first time in twenty-four hours, stretching his limbs in relief.

"Let's keep the jocular comments for later," replied the voice of Bentley Turtle-Main, technological wizard and tactician extraordinaire, with an audible smile. "Do you see that hook above the train?"

Sly glanced around to see a large train sitting in the middle of what used to be one of the sturdiest walls in Czechoslovakia. So that was the large crash he heard. "Yeah."

"It's your only means of escape. Swing on to the back of the train. I've already established a safe house and downloaded its GPS coordinates into your binocucom. We'll rendezvous there."

Sly didn't hesitate to make another witty comeback, but leapt at the hook, his cane, successfully removed from his back, connecting perfectly and swinging him onto the body of the train. Once over the wall, Sly pulled out his binocucom (which the guards had stupidly let him keep) and checked the location of the yellow holographic marker that signified the location of his little green friend, remarking into his Comlink as he did so, "Wow, you've really thought of everything."

"Don't I always?"

"Yeah, You do," Sly said sincerely as he ran, leaping from rooftop to rooftop, sticking to the shadows as he made his way across to the safe house. "Thanks for busting me out," he continued, without an once of his usual cheek.

"Oh...well," Bentley stammered, unsure how to take genuine praise from his closest friend, "You know the old saying: If you can't count on a friend to bust you out of Jail, what kind of a friend are they?"

Sly dropped in front of the door of the safe house. "Truer words were never said", he replied as he opened the door, "Wizard." Bentley turned with a smile to the Raccoon left breathless by his dash across the rooftops.

"You called me Wizard!" he said in a proud and nearly teary-eyed voice.

"Oh," said Sly with a huge smile, "sorry. Blizzard."

"Sly!" The exasperated turtle spluttered, shrugged, and than bolted across the room as fast as his little legs could carry him and gave his best friend a bone-crushing hug Murray would have been proud of.

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A few minutes later, after hugs, thanks, and even some tears had been exchanged; Sly was settled with his feet on the table as Bentley set up his projector for the usual slide show of reconnaissance photos forming his plan. Bentley was in his element, General Patton explaining the battle plan to his troops.

"Okay, here's the situation. I've done some deep database crunching and found out that Murray is doing time in Cell Block "D". Getting him out is going to be tough. As you know, he's not very…light on his feet. First we'll need to get Murray into an isolation cell, away from the other inmates. Second, I'll need you to get a sample of the Contessa's encryption algorithm." Seeing the look of confusion on the code-illiterate Sly, Bentley sighed and continued: "Don't worry, I'll explain later. Third, you'll need to pickpocket a few keys from the Contessa. But watch out for her pack of bodyguards. And fourth, you'll have to deactivate her giant attack robot."

Sly stared at Bentley and the projected an image of an innocent-looking water tower for exactly three seconds before bursting out laughing.

Bentley frowned. "No, really, Sly, I'm serious, the Contessa has a Giant Attack Robot. It just looks like a water tower." He proceeded to draw an angry face on the projected image with a digital pen, the sight of which only made Sly laugh harder. Bentley gave a short sigh of exasperation, and, waiting until the laughing raccoon had run out of giggles concluded his game plan. "Now once you've pulled off all these jobs, we'll be ready to make a play for the big guy."

"Great plan Bentley," said Sly.

"Thank you."

Sly paused, not quite sure how to change the subject to the thought that had been pounding in his head for the last hour. He decided to play it smooth.

"Bentley," he said casually, "What about Inspector Fox?"

Bentley looked up, confused. "What about her?"

"Is she locked up in that mausoleum, too?"

Bentley consulted his laptop, where the prison records had been hacked.

"According to this, she's in solitary confinement. She beat up a few guards. Why?"

Sly knew from the shrewd look in the turtle's small eyes that this wasn't going to be easy. So he just said it.

"We have to get her out of there."

"What?"

"We have to get Inspector Fox out of there."

Bentley just stared at him.

Tick.

Tock.

Tick.

The watch on Bentley's wrist ticked an audible three seconds before the frazzled genius finally blinked and said "and why should we risk our butts doing such a strange and frankly idiotic thing?"

Sly rolled his eyes. "Oh, come on, Bentley. She's helped us out before."

"She's also been trying to get you in jail for three years."

"Ok, yes, she has. But we still have to get her out of that prison."

"I re-iterate. Why?"

"I just said why, Bentley. Besides, would this job really be as fun without Carmelita on our tail?"

"Maybe for you, but I would probably have about ten less ulcers a day."

"Bentley!"

"Sly!"

"Bentley!" Sly sighed, this was getting him nowhere. He'd try tactic #2. Logic.

"Look, Carmelita may be annoying, but that doesn't mean she deserves to be in jail. You know that and I know that. And Carmelita's helped us out before. Remember Russia?"

Bentley looked at him for a long moment, and then, very calmly, spoke.

"Carmelita, Sly? Since when where you on first name terms with Inspector Fox?"

Sly was taken aback. "Well, I-"

"Oh my god." Bentley dropped his head in his hands. "You have a thing for her."

"WHAT? That's…that's ridiculous!"

"You know, grey fur doesn't do much to hide a blush, Cooper," Bentley teased. "You have a thing for her, Don't you?"

Sly glared at his childhood friend.

"I absolutely do not have a thing for Carmeli-for Inspector Fox."

"Suuuurre you don't."

"Bentley! Stop trying to change the subject! We're getting her out of there."

All joking aside, Bentley turned to him. "Sly, I'm not going to endanger this whole operation so you can get the girl of your dreams out of jail."

"Bentley-!"

Bentley cut him off, firmly. "We have to save Murray."

"I know"

"We can't waste any time. They're probably upping security as we speak thanks to that little train stunt I pulled. We don't have time to pull off two jobs when we're down a man. "

Sly sighed. Ah, screw it, he thought, looked the turtle straight in the eye, and told the truth.

"Bentley, we can't just leave her there."

"Again, why?"

"Because it wouldn't be right. Because I owe it too her."

Bentley looked confused. "You…owe it to her."

"Do you know why she got arrested?"

"Yeah. I heard the whole thing"

"She was arrested because of me. I was using her as a distraction, and it got her arrested. It's my fault she's in there, and I'll be damned if I'm going to walk away scot free while she's left to rot. I have to get her out of there. And I need your help to do it. And you know that if Murray was here, he'd say the same thing."

Bentley looked at Sly. He was unnaturally serious. He looked at his shoes, then sighed.

"I hate it when you get moralistic."

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COMING SOON, IN CHAPTER THREE:

Bentley gets in touch with his inner master-of-disguise, Sly gets in touch with his inner negotiator, and Carmelita gets in touch with her inner lawbreaker.

Portions of the Dialogue, namely Sly and Bentley's exchange over the COMlink and Bentley's "Game Plan" were taken directly from the SLY 2 Game script. Which is why they work so much better than anything written by me.

Oh, and please forgive Bentley's really Crappy last name. It was the best I could come up with.

Please review. You will be given bagels if you review.

More soon,

The White Mask.