Disclaimer: I don't own any Sly Cooper characters; they belong to Sucker Punch Productions/Sanzaru Games.

Claimer: I own all of my original characters.

I meant to mention this last chapter, but this will be a change of perspective story. I've written one like this in the past, and it got a little confusing, so I've decided to put the name of who's narrating the chapters. But this is chapter two! A little longer than the first one, but they will get longer as the story gets rolling. So, with that being the only thing I needed to get out, I hope you read, review, and leave me some feedback on how I'm doing so far! Thanks!

Chapter 2: Shadows Against the Moonlight

Paris, France, July 26

10:34 P.M.

Sly Cooper

"Talk to me, Bentley," I huffed into my communicator as I darted down the streets of the city, "I can't find them." I quickly turned a corner and started climbing up the closest building. I hoisted myself to the top and pulled out my binoccucom. I quickly scanned the area, looking for any sign of the other thieves or at least a lead on where they were.

"Two streets back, headed south towards the town center." Bentley said after a quick pause. I turned to where my teammate had directed me and managed to catch a glimpse of one of the other members before they disappeared behind another building.

"Thanks, pal." I slipped my binoccucom back in my pack and headed off in that direction. It certainly wasn't anything new for use to be on the tails of the Bandicoot thieves, but considering this was the fifteenth time this month they'd managed to out-steal us, we considered it vital to get back what they'd managed to slip past us. Sprinting down the street, I caught another glimpse of the raccoon. I quickly redirected my path to chase behind the one.

By the time I rounded the corner, I realized it was only one there instead of the whole group; and it was my favorite member. Ramona Bandicoot darted quickly around corners, barely making a sound as she did. I followed behind her silently, trying to sneak up on the thief and steal back the Ming Dynasty vase I'd set out to steal in the first place. That particular vase was worth a pretty penny and I'd be dammed if I let another expensive artifact slip away from me…again. Keeping a reasonable distance from her, I tailed Ramona around the city as silently as a shadow. After past experiences I've learned not to alert her to my presence; otherwise she'd speed up and I wouldn't be able to catch her. She didn't look like it, but the woman was unreasonably fast. I'd lost count the number of times she's outrun me and remained completely undetected from police.

A bright half moon shone brightly in the sky, giving the streets some lighting; making it easier to both see where I was and see where the raccoon was running. She leapt silently to a building, climbing up swiftly and easily. I followed in suit and climbed the building myself to meet her. Ramona had a tendency to stick to rooftops and away from the streets, unless it was an alley. Given her athletic abilities, leaping from rooftop to rooftop was a simple task for her and most of the time she remained unseen, even from Bentley's surveillance choppers. I crawled over the ledge, grouching down to stay out of her line of sight. She was stopped along the opposing edge of the building, looking out over the city with a finger to her ear. She was speaking softly, more than likely to her brother or sister, and I saw this as my chance to strike. I crept slowly and stealthily behind her, my cane out beside me, waiting to slip into her satchel and snatch the vase. I held my breath as the tip of my cane slipped underneath the top flap of the bag. I eased it in slightly until I felt the edge of the cane touch the rim of the vase. However, before I could make another move, Ramona snapped her paw and latched onto my cane with a rather large smile across her face.

"Not today, Cooper!" she giggled lightly and flicked my cane out of her bag. I stood, half smiling as well, and twirled my cane in my paw.

"Now Mademoiselle," I cooed to her as she flattened the flap on her bag, "I see it only fair that I claim this artifact…considering I've given you the last fourteen." The younger female barked a laugh with a slight snort and simply shook her head.

"Gave them to you? Please. We've out done you for the past month. It's only fair if you can manage to get this satchel," she pulled her bag from her shoulders and held it up, "before I get home." she walked closer to her edge, a signal to me that she was ready to run, and I took a couple steps towards her, ready to be on her tail the moment the jumped.

"Maybe I've just been giving you benefit of the doubt, my dear," I said with as I stepped closer to her again, standing a few feet from her, "After all, pretty ladies such as yourself do make it easy to give valuable gifts to." She rolled her eyes and shook her head.

"Flattery won't get you this bag, Cooper." She said softly, gripping the strap firmly in her paw.

"Can't a man compliment his, possible, girlfriend on a lovely evening?" I said with a bit of confusion. It was true that Ramona would often spend the night together, but the status of that was still questionable. I wasn't sure if we were dating or simply friends with benefits.

"Oh he can," she said with a smile and a small saunter forward, "just not when he's trying to steal from her."

"Well if I do manage to outsmart you, Mademoiselle, am I still invited to spend the night?" she shrugged playfully.

"I suppose, only if you're on time for dinner, that is." I chuckled, leaning in towards her.

"I think I can deal with that." She snorted again with another roll of her eyes. I closed the gap between us and kissed her softly. After a moment or two, my palm slid down her arm, towards her satchel. Ramona was unfortunately too smart for that trick and caught on almost immediately. Before I could pull away, she tossed the bag over the edge of the building. I swiftly ended our kiss and looked to where she'd tossed it, expecting to see a shattered vase all over the street. I should have known better, however. By the time I was leaning over the building, I realized that it was a plan. Her older brother, who was probably communicating with her when I first reached the top of the building, had grabbed the bag once she had thrown it and was already setting off down the street.

"You really are some, Ramona." I said as I started to look back to the female. Ramona, however, was long gone without a trace or sound.

"Murray," I said into my in-ear communicator, "I've got one heading your way with the vase. Think you can get him?" I started to head back down to the street, hoping I could catch up with the second raccoon of the team.

"Don't worry, Sly, no one is a match for "The Murray"!" I chuckled to myself. Murray was one of my best pals, but he could certainly be over excited at times. I sprinted down the streets to see if I could meet up with Murray. Sitka Bandicoot was Ramona's older brother, and the eldest in the family, and was the over protective type. He and I generally didn't see eye-to-eye on most things and the fact I was regularly sleeping with his sister didn't help. In terms of their thieving team, Sitka was generally the brawn of the group, much like Murray was with us. He wasn't as strong as Murray, but the guy had enough muscles to get most jobs done and beat sense into anyone he figured was lacking it. Rounding yet another corner, I finally caught up to Murray. Murray was running as fast as he could in the direction of our hideout. He'd managed to take Ramona's brother by surprise and had the satchel in hand.

"Great work, big guy." I said happily to the hippo as I caught up with him. He smiled, too out of breath to speak, and we sprinted down the road. We weren't being followed so we could only assume they had either given up or were regrouping somewhere else.

"Hey, Bentley," I panted as I ran, "we have the vase and we'll meet you at the hideout soon." Bentley had stayed at the hideout on this mission so he could keep on eye on where the Bandicoot's were at any given time.

"Hey, Sly," Murray managed to gasp out as we were halfway home, "have you ever realized that they have the same sort of set up as we do? I mean, we both have the main thieves, which would be you and Ramona. We bother have the tough guys, so me and their brother. And then both Bentley and Charlotte are the brains." Charlotte Fox was the third and final member of their team. She, like her brother, is older than Ramona. Charlotte was vastly different from her siblings though. Aside from being an actual fox and having a different last name, she was both incredibly smart and incredibly clumsy. She was usually tripping over thing, running into corners, colliding with people, or simply getting turned around in a museum. Her lack of physical skills were greatly made up for in her brain power however. She could easily challenge the minds of some of the greatest scientists around and the mind of Bentley.

It had only been a few minutes of thinking about the klutzy fox when Murray and I had a run in with her. Literally. As we passed a street corner, I was hit from the side from a sprinting Charlotte. Not paying attention to where she was running, she ended up colliding with us. With her speed combined with ours, we ended up falling over each other in a pile in the street. The satchel with the vase in it was slung a few feet in front of me, but thankfully didn't break. The same couldn't be said for Charlotte's glasses; which had been smashed to pieces by Murray's massive hand. I took her broken glasses and handed them to her as she patted the ground trying to feel for them.

"Thanks," she said as she took them from me, "and sorry for that hit. I wasn't really paying attention." Charlotte greatly resembled one of their other sisters; the infamous Inspector Carmelita Fox. In fact, despite Carmelita being the twin of Ramona, she was a spitting image of her older sister. Only major differences were that Charlotte was a little taller, had much shorter hair and was a bit dumpier than the police officer.

"Don't worry about it," I told her as a placed my hat back on my head and grabbed my cane. I noticed the satchel lying on the ground a few feet ahead. I reached forward, ready to grab it back, when I noticed a nimble shadow leap over me.

"And thank you, Mr. Cooper!" Ramona's overly happy voice piped up suddenly as she landed in front of me from her leap. She quickly snatched up her bah, turned to me briefly, winked once, and bolted off down the street. Seconds later her brother did the same only grapping hold of her sister when he landed. He led the legally blind fox in the same direction as their light footed sister.

"You can head on home, Murray," I groan as we stood and the realization finally sunk in that we still lost the vase, "I'll be there later on." With a quick slap to my back, Murray gave me a smile goodnight and he trotted off towards our hideout. I stretched, groaned again, and dusted off my shirt. I strolled casually down the street, enjoying the warm summer air. I glanced up, looking at the moon, to see where the bright light was; giving me some kind of judgment on what time it was. I assumed it was a little past midnight. I was about to head to Ramona's apartment when something caught my eye. I quickly darted to a dark alley way and returned my sights to where I was just looking. I pulled out my binoccucom and set it to the camera. I zoomed in to the shadow high up on a roof of a building a little ways away. The shadow appeared to be of a woman. She was hooded, thin, a bit lanky, and strangely familiar. I quickly snapped a photo and put away the device.

"It's late," I whispered to myself, "it couldn't have been…her."