A/N: Here it is, the next chapter. Now things should be getting real interesting now. I figured I'd try a different writing style since my other fanfic here, the Persona one, was a little too detailed in everything else but the story, resulting in the story being REALLY slow paced. So for this one, I'm keeping the minor stuff...minor stuff. That way the pacing doesn't come to a screeching halt. I did my best to proofread it without changing much of the style I originally intended when I drafted it.

Of course this is where the dark writing begins to show(it really rears its ugly head next chapter). Changed to M for explicit language and future upcoming things which I will not spoil.

But for now enjoy. As always, remember to read and review. I highly value criticism to improve my writing.

~CJ

P.S.: How's that cover image? I'm personally proud of it.


1: THE END OF THE BEGINNING

Morning began, signaled by the light seeping into the apartment window. A small groan could be heard as something woke up. No...not a thing, a person. A woman, to be more specific.

The woman slowly and groggily arose to a sit, stretching her arms outwards while letting out a prolonged yawn. She rubbed her eyes and turned to the window, its light blinding her. She covered her eyes before moving her arms again to her side once her chocolate eyes adjusted.

"Mierda!", she cursed under her breath. "God I need blinds…", she uttered as she turned away from the light and stood up. She strolled over to her small, yet cozy kitchen to brew some coffee. After this, she plopped on her couch and turned on the TV. As per usual, only the news was on. It's really the only channel she watches aside from a few entertainment-based ones.

A woman reporter spoke. "An unknown masked vigilante has struck yet again this midnight, stopping a crime before it even happened! John, tell us, what exactly happened?"

It then cut to the man standing before a large scale jewelry shop. In front of him were two white vans, with one of them having its side shown to have blood streaks. "Not this again!", she complained, now seeming to have fully awaken by the mere shock. Quite odd as the coffee didn't stir her, yet this did.

"Well Katelyn, last night these two vans were being used by an infamous gang of various criminals here in Paris, known as The Creed of Clockwerk. They are a cult organization dedicated to the now deceased crime-lord of the same name. It was here that they were preparing for their heist, before this vigilante interrupted before they could even start! Viewers, if you have children, tell them to look away."

The young brownish-orange vixen, sitting on the edge of her seat, completely zoned into the reporter's words. "He then opened fire on the van with machine guns from the rooftop. This very thing caused nearby citizens to panic and immediately contact the police. And when they arrived, cops found nothing but bodies."

It then cut to a random citizen whose voice was cracking from fear of remembering. "It was horrid. I saw the bullets bust through the windows and cause blood to spill out over the street. One of them tried to get away but...this guy jumped down to the street and shot him. And the robber dragged himself across the van before dropping! Then the masked guy climbed on stuff and escaped to the roofs!"

She shook her head at this. Why would he go so far as to kill them?

Then it cut to the reporter again. "That dragging and dropping of the robber caused the streak of blood you see now on this van. Police are still currently investigating, and their only clue is this calling card." He held up a card that was blue and white, with ears and a mask, shaped like a raccoon. "The police confirmed this calling card is of the currently infamous vigilante "Ringtail". So far, that is all the info we have right now. Back to you Katelyn."

The young woman zoned out the rest before rushing to her laptop. She opened it, causing it to come out of sleep mode. She typed immediately to log back in. The words, "WELCOME BACK, AGENT FOX, CARMELITA" were displayed on the screen by the OS. She had to look at the profile again, just to see if there was any update.

Ringtail's file showed up, and so far the only info updated was his usage of his calling card, and his recorded actions, including the recent incident. She sighed loudly. "Just what is this guy?" Her smartphone began rumbling and she quickly turned to it. Her eyes nearly bulged. "Crap! I'm late!"

The fox quickly rushed to the bathroom to shower, grabbing her outfit from the closet and tossing it onto the bed for later. After she finished showering and the rest, she came out of her apartment, ready with her shock pistol holstered. "I hope they'll forgive me for this…", she muttered as she jogged out to the elevator, pushing a button causing it to close and move. This was going to be one long day for Carmelita Fox.


A young, handsome raccoon clad in a blackish-blue turtleneck and jeans stood over the balcony of his penthouse apartment, looking out over Paris. He took in a deep breath. "Ah...nothing like the fresh city air and scenery.", he dreamily stated. The door opened, and he viewed the source to see his old turtle friend come in and place himself next to him.

He smirked at his handicapped friend. Of course the reason for his wheelchair still angered him to this day, but he forgot about it as soon as he thought of it. His green comrade didn't let that bring him down, so why should he?

"Bentley, finally using the key huh?", he chuckled.

"Yea. I figured after all the times you came out here and zoned out that knocking was pointless.", Bentley smiled at his coon friend.

"Do I really zone out?"

"Yea Sly. You kinda do."

"How badly?"

"To a point where waving a hand in front of your eyes is useless."

"Jeez, I may need to work on that."

"You really do."

"So how's Murray?"

"He's fine. He's demolition derby now after all those racing incidents."

Sly laughed. "Really? Heh. I need to go and see him drive sometime."

"You really should. A show's coming up next month. Maybe we can go together and cheer him on!"

"Alright, sounds good! I'll be there!"

"Promise your…", Bentley shifted around. "-alter ego won't come before him?"

"Of course Bentley. Friends come first, Bentley. I won't let this get in the way of us."

"OK. Just had to check cause of last time."

Sly shook his head and grinned. He was grateful to have friends like this. It was nice to have people that cared about you in this way.

"So you were all over the news again."

"Really? Maybe I should do things quieter from now on. All this media attention…it's really a drag."

"I know how you feel. If I did that kinda stuff, I'd wanna keep it on the down low too. But it is hard to keep things a secret from the news Sly. Just make sure you make it out to be like you were never there."

"Alright. I'll do that next time. I need to go back to my roots after all."

"Yea! Just like the old days!"

"Yea...like the old days…", Sly repeated, directing his attention back to the city.

A small silence intervened before the bespectacled turtle spoke up again.

"So, do you need anything else? Gadgets? Mods?"

"Actually yea. I do need one gadget."

Sly fished in his pockets and pulled out a blueprint.

"Think you could make this?", he handed it to Bentley.

"Hmm...where'd ya find this?"

"Found it on one of the big timers I busted last week. That crazy guy, Dr.M. See all the different things it has on it?"

"And how is this achieved?"

"Like this."

He pulled out a piece of paper with multiple writings all over it. Bentley studied the entire thing closely, making facial reactions to the systems it uses.

"Wow...really? That's quite a daring feat."

"Yea. It'll really do me some good in my operations. Think you could make it for me?"

"Yea...me and Penelope can do it. But...it'd take a while.", Sly remembered when Bentley met Penelope after they stopped their thieving. He thought it was the cutest thing ever when they got together.

"How long?"

"A year max with our genius.", Bentley bragged.

"Heh. I can wait then. Especially knowing you two, you'll add some extra stuff."

"Of course, Sly! And we have to improve it too!"

"Alright, thanks pal."

"No problem Sly! Well, I gotta get going now."

"Oh, one more thing before you leave."

Bentley turned around while the door was mid open to face his childhood friend.

"Yes, Sly?"

"Say hi to Murray for me. I'm sure he misses me. Tell Penelope I said hi too."

"Will do.", Bentley nodded. "See ya later Sly.", the door shut behind him as he wheeled off.

"See ya.", Sly waved before turning back to the city.

"Hmmm. Now that that's out of the way...I wonder what else I should do today? ", he put his index finger and thumb to his cheek. "Maybe I should get something nice for lunch…"


Carmelita and a figure sitting behind a large chair sat opposite of each other. The chair swivelled around to reveal the face of this man, a large gorilla in a pinstripe suit that had a gold badge pinned on it.

"You are almost never late Carmelita. You haven't made this type of mistake since your rookie days."

Carmelita sighed and looked down. "Yes Chief. I understand."

"I'm curious as to how this occurred. Mind telling me?"

"My phone acted up. The alarm sounded much later than it should've."

"Strange. Did anything happen to it?"

"No sir."

The gorilla snuffed and intertwined his hands.

"I shall excuse this. If it happens again, let me know. I'll have the tech department inspect it."

"Understood, Chief.", the vixen nodded and stared at her superior straight in the eyes.

"You are dismissed, Miss Fox."

Carmelita stood back up and walked out of the office back to her own, hands in her tight jean pockets, her boots making a clack with each step. She relaxed into her chair and let out a long breath. "Man this Ringtail thing is eating me alive.", a jangle sounded as her Interpol choker necklace dangled around.

She never understood what fed her obsession towards this masked "hero". Carmelita was never the type to read comics as a child, nor ever, so it wasn't infatuation with the narrative he formed. It wasn't because of some sort of attraction either. She did thought at one point he was built nicely, but the thought was erased before it could grow. So what was it?

There was really only one way she could explain it. The guy really wasn't a criminal. Sure, he did kill people, but he never harmed innocent civilians. This was proven time after time whenever it was investigated. Most of the civilians killed had a dark record or some unwritten horrid crime committed like mass extortions or rapes. Even at point, one of them was systematically plotting genocide, and was even about to try it too had it not been for him.

Vigilantism was illegal, that was right. But she felt this guy did her job better than she ever could in her life. And she graduated at the top of her class in the academy! She even had quite a record for the most amount of successful arrests! She gained a rep even among criminals! "A beaut of a fox who can catch you in a dead second". That was the way the crime lords described her.

But yet this guy was easily evading her. There were times where she headed an investigation and every time he escaped by the skin of his teeth. Somehow his technique was more refined than hers. He had this unknown edge against her, and what's more is that he's a stealthy little turd! It's no wonder why he does it at night!

But even then, he escaped easily even in daylight once thanks to a flash bomb he had on him. She had to wonder just what kind of a man he was to own ninja style throwing bombs. In fact, she wondered about a lot of things involving Ringtail way too much.

That was the cause for her determination and focus on it. That, and she was named the Chief Head Investigator for this, taking all the small information gathered from others and sometimes her own smaller operations to figure it all out.

But no matter what, nothing worked on this guy! No tactic could be used, no dirty trick left unknown and surprising. It's like he knew everything inside and out, like it was the back of his own freaking hand!

It frustrated her...but it was a nice challenge. Something she was craving for after all these years of easily catching people left and right. Yea...maybe that's the reason., she thought to herself.

As she sat there, chin on her arms, leaned over her desk, she snapped out of her self journey to hear a knock from the secretary. "Miss Fox!"

She immediately sat straight-up and her full attention was restored. "Yes ma'am?"

"One of your investigative teams discovered something. They think it might be a prediction for Ringtail's next move."

The Interpol Agent inwardly was giddy. Maybe now she could finally catch up to him and find out all about him. It might just end, or at least subside, her behavior towards him! Now that self-grounding in Paris was starting to finally pay off! "Thank you.", she replied.

The secretary handed her the dossier and walked off.

Thinking back on it, she initially thought that refusal was stupid, but now her mind had changed once more. She reminiscenced the idea as if it occurred yesterday. She was finally done with her training when the new Ringtail threat arised with bang. He had done smaller stuff before, but it was the big event of killing Muggshot's inheritor that put him on the map. The home force was begging her to stay since she was the only one capable of catching this guy, so she complied, thus "self-grounding". Interpol was waiting for her to finish so she could join them in their global efforts. Now it seemed she might finally get to her true calling as an agent of Interpol.

She scanned through the file and smirked. The Clockwerk cult was planning to meet inside an abandoned factory to deal with some gangsters for weapons. They intercepted a radio transmission to figure this out, thus allowing them to know the deal's purpose.

It was to arm themselves in order to enact revenge on Ringtail for ruining their robbery. Going onto the assumption that Ringtail did the same as the police to find this out, they presumed that his appearance would occur there.

"Hmm...no light source within the building but the sun. Daylight all around. Odd that Ringtail would do something at this time. Well, if I was Ringtail, I would hide in the building before someone spotted me, then go after the crooks and escape. I wonder how he'll do it at daytime with the expanded visibility."

She grinned with excitement at the idea. Now she could catch two-no, three birds with one stone. This would lead to the capture of the cultists, the dealer and Ringtail all in one setting! This seemed like a dream, and she even pinched herself to check. Thankfully, it wasn't.

"This time, you're mine Ringtail!", she muttered, making a smile so wide her teeth showed.


The police were right on their assumption. Sly was doing the very thing they expected. He was using his home computer and a set of tools disguised as audio recording gear.

He listened in carefully to the comms. "What will they do this time?", he wondered aloud as he silenced himself and pressed his headphone on his ear.

He turned a dial on a box and kept getting static. "C'mon stupid...computer...there!", his hands immediately jerked back away from the dial.

"So wut's da deal about, Boss?", a voice with an Austrian accent piped up.

"Dumbass, it's for Ringtail! We're gonna find that fucker and bust caps in his ass for trashing that robbery!", a loud American barked.

A hoarse Italian spoke up. "You shoulda known it woulda happened. Ringy's gettin' good. Real good."

"Well he won't be "real good" when he's in a 6 by 12 foot hole in the ground with a bullet in his dick!"

"Shtupid yank.", the hoarse voice hacked at him. "We don' use that shiet! Give us metrics!"

"Kiss my ass, Chef Boyardee! You got a nice phone there...try using Google instead of tryin' to be an argumental smartass!"

"Boss, wheh we goin' again?"

"We're goin' to that old factory."

"Which wun?"

"That food one. Down near the liquor store."

"Shnarkies?"

"Yeah. Snarkies."

"Awright, suh!"

"Those Russian asshats better give us those quality guns we ordered or hell will break loose!"

Sly then shut off the comms. "Thanks boys for playing yourselves.", he smugly retorted as he began to head out of his apartment, grabbing his keys along the way. He locked the door behind him and went to the elevator, riding it down to the garage floor. He walked over to his unit and pressed his keycode, making the storage unit door unlocked. He slid it open and then closed it.

He walked over to a bookshelf and pulled a thick, red book blandly labelled "Dictionary". It turned out to be a switch, as the bookcase swiveled around to reveal a short hallway with an elevator. After sliding through the hidden door, he closed and locked it behind him and headed for the elevator.

It zoomed down and stopped after ten seconds. The area Sly entered was a long and narrow passageway with concrete floors and walls that was at a length of around a football field. He turned and headed for the nearby farthest end.

There was a large pod containing his suit. A Kevlar vest of body armor, combat boots, many combat strap-ons, complete with pouches and other slots filled with items like cylinder-like grenades and spherical bombs, both full and mini sized. There was also a brown-ish red backpack complete with a lucky horseshoe attached to the back.

There were also his two SMGs holstered. Both of them modelled after the famous Vickers machine gun from the first World War. And of course, his helmet and cap. The helmet was modeled after his calling card, with ear holes cut out so Sly can hear. Many tiny unnoticeable holes were on the nose to allow him to breath, and the eyes were white tinted fiberglass. A pair of black gloves and a yellow scarf also was stored within it.

He pushed a green button on the console that opened up the capsule. He then stripped his pants and shoes off and began to to put on his costume. He began by zipping up the body armor first over his sweater, after rolling up the sleeves. He then put on (in this order) the boots, the strap-ons, the backpack, the holstered guns, and then the gloves. And finally, he grabbed his helmet, turning it around so the front could face him.

He stared at it for bit before flipping it back around and placing it on top of his head. Then taking the cap and firmly placing it over his left ear and winding the yellow scarf around his neck . He pushed the button again to close the storage pod.

After pushing a red button, a car arose. It was a 1959 Edsel Corsair with the overhead on, heavily modified inside and out, with colors and a logo that made it look like the gang's old van. He grabbed the keys off a small counter and headed towards it.

He opened the driver's seat and ignited it, the engine loudly vrooming. He then pushed on the gas pedal to quickly accelerate it after putting it in drive gear. He pushed a button on the dash and at the end of the passageway, a door opened, leading to a large incline.

Lucky this thing doesn't need gas right now…, he internally thought as he fastly climbed up the steep incline by slamming on the pedal. A hatch opened and he was in an abandoned garage, exiting out into the city streets, zooming towards the factory.

"Ready or not...here I come!", his voice changed from the usual soft, silky tone to a deeper, monotone and slightly gruff one.