WolfMan: Ok everybody it took me some time its finally here.
Carmelita sat down on the small cushioned office chair, smoothing out the wrinkles in her dress.
"What brings you here miss?" Harrison asked taking his seat behind his desk.
"I learned about this town at a poker game." Carmelita smiling innocently.
"Is that so? Well, I figger I can find ya a place to stay while ya visit our peaceful town" The moment he said peaceful town and bunch of wild drunks rode by, blasting their guns, laughing and singing. Harrison had a smile on his face, when he yelled loudly.
"Hey Tiny, bring the key in here!" Shortly after loud stomping was heard and felt from outside the door. The door swung open and a giant of a wolf darkened the threshold, he crouched and turned sideways to enter the office. Tiny dug around in his back pocket and pulled out a key and handed it to Harrison.
"Thank you Tiny, just wait over there." Harrison smiled, Tiny standing there like a stone statue. Harrison ducked down under the desk. Carmelita could hear him unlock something and shut it back shortly after. When he reappeared from under the desk, Carmelita slid her foot under the edge of the desk and lightly kicked something made of iron. Harrison slammed a heavy book down on his desk and opened to the middle.
"Ok, we have the special suite open and it's free of charge for you, miss?"
"Miss Fox." Carmelita said mentally shoving her finger down her throat by the idiotic bulls advances. He handed her the key to her room and returned the safe key back to Tiny. Carmelita took her key and went to her hotel room where her suitcase waited for her.
Her room looked unkept and dirty, and smell o must and mold lingered in the air worse than the stable that was up wind of her room. She slapped the bed and a plume of dust erupted from the ugly patchwork blanket. The only thing that was acceptable in the room was the wash pan on the small end table with a porcelain pitcher next to a mirror. Carmelita poured some water into the pan and used the wash cloth inside to wipe away some of the extra make-up from her face.
On the bad was her suitcase with a desert flower on top. She gave Harrison points for persistence but she still threw the flower into the trash. Opening the case she pulled out the hat she had been given back in El Paso, feeling the soft felt she laid it down on her bed and then changed into some new clothes, and slept the rest of the day, waiting for nightfall.
At the safe house, Sly lazed depressed on his bed with Bentley beside him trying to consol his friend.
"Come on pal she isn't worth it, so why mope?" Bentley said getting annoyed because this had been going on almost all day and now night was soon upon them and the job could start.
"She is more than worth it Bentley, she is the part of me that no other can fill." Sly replied his eyes bloodshot and gazing endlessly at the ceiling.
"Ok! If you won't believe me when I say that she will be the end of you I don't know what will bring you to your senses!" Bentley yelled at Sly. Murray who had been silent this entire time, stood and took his place near Sly.
"Hey buddy you know that Carmelita came here looking for you. And that she will be looking for us, so don't you think she will be around outside trying to find you?" He asked. Sly turned his head to look at his gang and then over to the window.
"Alright I'll go and we can get the job started and steal back Tennessee's treasure." Sly said sitting up and smiling at Bentley and Murray.
"Now you're talking" Murray said slapping Sly on the back, knocking over the edge of the bed.
"Whoops, sorry."
Meanwhile: Carmelita landed heavily on the rooftop, allowing her knees to bend, trying to silence the groan of the wood under her boots.
'This stealth stuff is harder than it looks when Sly does it.' She thought to herself, leaning forward to spread her weight, as she snuck across the roof.
"Ok, where is that bum who has the key to that safe?" She whispered. Seeing nothing, she rolled over onto her back and looked up at the stars. She was wearing the grey hat, a pair of dark snug fitting pants, a dark long sleeved shirt, and a grey vest. Plus a black mask similar to Sly's that she had cut and taken great care in making, in a sort of honor of her adversary and secret love.
Her peace was broken when a familiar stomping underneath her look-out point. Barely peeking over she saw Tiny standing guard.
"Ok, here goes." She thought climbing out on the rope hung between the next building and her's that was over Tiny. She hung upside down barely moving along the rope. Once above him, Carmelita dangled from the rope with one hand and both legs wrapped tightly around it. She couldn't reach, she let go with the other hand. The string on her hat kept it on as she hung there, still not far enough. She said a brief prayer and loosened her legs and she hung there by the ends of her boots. She reached for the glowing key in his pocket and gently lifted the key and stuffed it into her pocket as she bent upward and gripped the rope with her hands again and gave a relieved sigh.
Once back on the rooftop she quietly laughed as she thought of what she was doing. To think such a devoted police officer like her was having so much fun breaking the law. Butterflies danced in her stomach as she held the key and gazed at the stars. It had been a long time since she just watched them for a while.
She made her way to the hotel where Harrison's office was, and getting off the roof was harder than getting on. She climbed over and hung on the edge and dropped to ma wagon that was under her, upon landing one of the flour sacks busted and coated her in a cloud of white dust.
Carmelita quickly dusted off before crawling through the office window. Using the key she opened the safe and pulled out the hotel register. Her heart was pounding in her chest, the adrenaline rushed through her veins like lightning. She smiled as she opened the register and skimmed through the names, looking for anything that would give Sly away. When she came to the name Cole Ospry, unsure why the name rung a bell she took a piece of paper and pen off the desk and wrote down the name and shuffled around the letters to form a new name.
"Sly Cooper, so he is here." Carmelita whispered smiling as she checked the room number. She replaced the book and looked into the safe again and she saw a small book that had "journal" written on the spine. Curiosity got the better of her and she flipped through the book, reading through Harrison's thoughts. She was disgusted , about to close the book she opened to one page that told of a ruby.
"The Heart of the West. Is what that old codger rabbit called it when he ran out yelling. 'Go away, you ain't welcome here.' I told him I'd do what I dang well want to. So I stoled that there rock and put it up wherest no feller can find it."
After reading the passage, Carmelita no longer had only Sly on her wanted list but Harrison was going to join him in a cold jail cell.
Carmelita climbed out of the window and quickly dashed around the building to avoid someone following her to her room, all the while unaware of the figure hiding in the alley across the street. Sly sat in his hiding place waiting to see if the other thief would return. He was astonished that another thief was sneaking around, but he couldn't help but laugh to himself at how clumsy she was at doing so. Though he did complement her on her figure, he could tell that she managed her body well.
Still curious if she would come back ,Sly zipped across the street and through the office window. He ducked under the desk and opened the safe with ease, he then opened the and checked the register for Carmelita's room number. While thumbing through the pages, the paper with his name fell out from the spot where Carmelita forgot it. He picked up the scrap of paper and read his names.
"So I do have some competition, this should be fun." Sly said grinning. He checked the room number, and climbed back out the window. He crept along the building side the quietly scaled the side of the hotel, using the window sills as hand and foot holds. Peering through the second floor window, Sly saw Carmelita sleeping soundly I her bed.
Satisfied; Sly let go of the ledge and lightly landed on the ground, then he dashed off to the stables so he could ride to Harrison's stronghold no more than a mile out of town. The hideout was once a stone fort and if rumors were correct, where Harrison kept all of his more important items. Thanks to the pictures taken by Bentley's RC chopper Sly knew how to get inside. Over a broken part of the back wall, it was away from guard patrols and it wasn't far from the main building. Sly stopped Maverick next to the wall and stood on the horses back for a boost over. The main building was three stories high, well over the wall and there was light shining from inside the third story window.
Sly gazed out over the rest of the fort and saw a large corral and not far from it was the stable full of horses. Sly climbed over and took pictures of the main building, the gate and the stables.
"Alright , now how do I get up there?" Sly asked himself scanning the area for a means of ascent.
"Ok, this is going to be weird." Sly whispered, sneaking over to a hook and rope looped through a pulley. He attached the hook to the back of his gun belt, grabbed the rope and hoisted himself up with his feet dangling in mid-air. He stopped once he was even with the lit window then swung over to it and grabbed the lower edge. Sly saw Harrison at his desk asleep, so he crawled in with the hook still in his belt and began to dig through his drawers and files for anything that might disclose the where-abouts of the ruby.
With no results Sly looked at Harrison and realized that he was talking in his sleep. Sly listened to him closely until he got an idea.
"Hey Boss, where's that ruby?" Sly whispered in Harrison's ear trying to imitate a guard.
"Where nobody can find it." Harrison snored.
"Is there a map?" Sly asked.
"Yea, Tiny's got it."
"OK Boss" Sly said feeling very proud of himself. But unknown to Sly, a coyote guard found the other end of the rope wiggling around on the ground. The brown furred coyote pulled on the rope and began to drag sly out of the office. Sly grabbed Harrison's desk as he and it were pulled across the room. The guard then sharply jerked on the rope and pulled Sly out the window leaving Harrison in his chair still asleep with papers flying all around him. The guard thinking that the hook was only stuck for a moment, let go of the rope. Sly hurtled down trying frantically to stop, falling on top of the coyote. Sly sat up with the poor unconscious sap underneath him. Sly pressed the radio to his ear.
"Ok Bentley, I'm done here." He said sneaking back to the wall. Once he was over he saw Maverick waiting below. As Sly jumped Maverick quickly walked forward making Sly fall flat on the ground.
"We are really going to have to fix that." Sly said to the snickering horse.
The next morning:
Everyone in the hotel was in the dining room eating breakfast. Sly had only toast and eggs, Bentley was drawing up plans under a newspaper while crunching on a piece of bacon, and Murray was chowing down on a triple stacker of pancakes with bacon and eggs stuffed between the pancakes making it look like some strange sandwich.
Sly looked over to Carmelita across the room. She was wearing more casual clothes, she had on a pair of old western pants, a white long sleeve shirt and a brown vest over it. Sly couldn't help but watch her delicate movements, he was so used to the violent cop that chased him day in and out. The sun shining through the window made her seem even more like an angel.
Sly was snapped out of his day dream when Harrison came stamping in.
"Well it's that time of the year again!" Harrison yelled with his usual dopey smile.
"Tomorrow will be the annual rodeo, and as always it will be held at my place just out of town. The sign up sheet will be posted in the hotel lobby." Having that said, Harrison lumbered over and sat next to Carmelita. Sly suddenly felt sick again and so he turned to Bentley who started talking. "A rodeo would be the perfect distraction while we search for the ruby." Bentley said mopping up the left over egg yolk with a piece of toast.
"Yeah, I'll get the map from his goon and at the show one can compete and the other s can search for the treasure." Sly said headed to the lobby. He signed Bentley up for the trick roping, Murray for the clown performance, and himself for the saddle bronco riding and the marksman completion. And he returned to his friends and they began planning the big heist.