Murray had put some new gadgets onto the van, thanks to Otto Van Cooper's section of the Thievius Raccoonus. We'd gotten a turret, and a battering ram. We'd gotten to the base of the volcano, when Clockwerk's giant death ray started shooting at us...just our luck. "I though Cinamark had clearly stated that no one should build death rays," I said. Bentley just looked at me funny, and went back to his buisness. At least Murray had a sense of humor, he gave a small laugh to make me feel like I said something histerical. It almost worked too, but then we were attacked by automatronic falcons. I guess Clockwerk didn't want us getting in, or he thought that we weren't the trouble for him to kill himself. When Sly's fancy shooting had taken out the final falcon, the death ray shot at some over hanging rocks; I suppose Clockwerk thought that maybe we'd be buried in an avalanch and that he wouldn't have to deal with us. He thought wrong. We blasted the oncoming rocks that came close to the van and kept going right up to his front door. We'd gotten inside, and we needed to grab some data to get farther into Clockwerk's lair. Problem was, giant magma slugs were trying to stop us from getting the computers. When it came down to it, Murray had saved our skins.

Sly and I got inside the compund...that's right around the time I noticed Carmelita. "Sly, look! It's Carmelita," I said, directing his eyesight with my finger. "We gotta help her," Sly said, but then Bentley said, "Sly, it could be a trap! you'd be playing right into Clockwerk's claws!" he retorted with, "A ninja Spire jump here and a railslide there, I've done this a thousand times," then started off, with me close behind. We shut down the alarms and tried to get Carmelita out of her bounds. Carmelita and Sly shared a beautiful conversation before the door shut behind us and Clockwerk came on the moniters. He said something about epathy, but I was to buisy trying to bust out. Sly and I were slowly choking to death from the gas. it was at least a minute later, when the gas shut off, and Bentley told us to get up. "Thanks, Bentley, I owe you one," I muttered, getting up from the floor. Sly bashed Carmelita's bounds and all three of us got out.

"Why did you free me? Even after all this time of chasing you down," Carmelita asked. Sly replied, "You're not the enemy, Clockwerk is." Soon after, a falcon swiped his cane. Then Carmelita shot it down. "I need that cane! Its been in my family for generations," Sly exclaimed. "Don't worry ringtail, i'll help you, we'll call it a truce until this is over," said the inspector.

Then I heard the words, "10 second head start," and I knew we'd have fun. Sly went for the cane, and Carmelita covered him. I stood back, waiting to see if carmelita would shoot him; but she was true to her word. She didn't do anything to arrest Sly...yet. He got to the cane, and ran out of sight. Carmelita told me that she hid her jet pack on top of the now crumbling death ray...then slapped the cuffs on me. "We had a deal: 10 seconds," I said. She replied, "I promised Cooper, not you, Wolf. Let's go." She draged me down to a landing, where we watched Sly confront Clockwerk. I'm telling you, he seemed so familiar to me...

It seemed like Sly won, when the hate-fueled bird came up from the scorching lava, and started another onslaught. Sly quickly defeated him, and scrambled to stop him from rebuilding himself. Sly clambered up onto the ancient owl's back, and bashed in his head. He then snatched the remaining pages from his wretched claws. I saw the van pull up. Carmelita was true to her word with Sly, and have him 10 seconds. 10...9...8...7...6...5...4...3...2...1. He then surprised her with a kiss, cuffing her to the railing. I took that moment to make a break for the van. As Sly got to the van, I was still trying to get the cuffs off, when I remembered how to squeeze out of them. All I can say, is that my wristes were bigger than my hands. I sat on my haunches, put both of my feet against the chaines, and pushed. They flew off and clattered against the side of the van. "Huh, our very own pair of hand cuffs," I said, twirling them on my finger. We were getting away from this place as fast as we could.

1 year later

"That was too close, Conner," Sly said, out of breath. I nodded, but showed him that I still had the loot. "It was worth it, Sly," I said, smiling. I was pretty much winded too. Bentley was typing on him computer, as usual, while Murray was getting us a good distance from the scene. Sly got up to the passenger seat, and slept like the dead. When we got back to the safehouse, I put the loot in the safe, and locked it up tight. It was about that time that we'd be heading for another safe house. It was growing more and more dangerous staying in the same Safe house for a long period of time. I loaded the safe into the back of the van, Sly packed up his sleeping bag and his other personal belongings. Bentley packed up his electronics, and Murray had already transferred most of his things to the next hideout. I grabbed my things, and took another look at the gang. I said, "We have to get to the safe house seperatly, if we don't then we won't have a good chance to escape if we are all together. I'll walk, Sly, you take the rooftops, Murray gets the van, and Bentley...you get the sewers. We'll all meet up at the new hide out," Sly nodded, and slipped out the window. Murray, cracking his knuckles, went out and took to the streets. I led bentley out to the sewer grate, opened it and he slipped into it. "You got the map," I asked. He nodded and went along his way. I locked the safe house doors and windows, then walked away from the place I had souught refuge. I walked along, thinking about our adventures together, so far. Things were going well.

It was about 2:30 in the morning, when I started to notice people following me. I slipped into an alley way, and used Slytunkhamen's Shadow power technique. They turned into the alley, and looked confused. "Where'd he go," one of them said. The other just shrugged and said, "search the alley, he couldn't have gotten far." That's around the time, when I snuck up the fire escape. Thankfully, there was a release lever at the top and wouldn't allow the ladder to drop and make noise. I got up to the rooftops, and I saw Interpol everywhere. I hoped that Sly, Bentley and Murray weren't caught. Then again, I was followed. If I was, then they had to have been too. "Ringtail, this is Lupo, come in," I said into my binoc-u-com. Sly picked up, "This is ring tail, go ahead Lupo," he sounded winded. "Ringtail, there's Interpol everywhere, were you followed?"

"Yeah," he said.

"How far are you from the safehouse," I asked, walking along the roof. He responded, "I'd say about, a block away." I told him to contact Murray, and see if he was alright or if he had made it to the safe house safely. Meanwhile I would contact Bentley.

"Bentley, this is Lupo, come in," I said, switching channels. "I'm here Lupo, but unfortuately, I can't talk long, Interpol is close by, and I'm almost to the safe house. Don't worry about Murray, he contacted me and told me he was in the safehouse. Now, I'll see you there," Bentley explained. That cleared up my questions. I was closer to the safehouse than Sly was, so I should be seeing him soon. I rail-slid down to the street, used shadow power, then snuck around the Interpol officers. I saw Sly, but he looked like he was running from someone. My first thought was Carmelita, but he had a concerned look on his face. When we saw me, he gave me the, "Get going or something bad's gonna happen, " look. I nodded, then slipped into the safehouse. Bentley had made it, Murray was in the kitchen, and Sly would be here momentarily. the window opened, and he slipped in. "They knew we were switching safehouses. They had set up patrols all over the city. I had to make a detour past the Eifel Tower before coming here," he said, falling down onto the couch. I said, "I had to use the roof tops to escape. What about you Bentley?" Bentley explained that he had used his explosives to get Interpol of his shell. Then Murray told us that he used his driving skills to evade the cops. This was gonna be a long night.