A Thief's Tale
Chapter 8: Battle Suit Showdown!
Sly quickly regained composure and leapt back to his feet.
"What's the matter Sly?" the figure asked, "Aren't you a master thief? Aren't master thieves supposed to be aware of their surroundings at all times?"
"Who are you? Why did you kidnap Carmelita?" Sly asked.
"I am Torigun Kazu, leader of the Krav Krox!" the figure bellowed, "and I am the one who will end the Cooper line! To succeed where Clockwerk failed! And there is nothing you can do stop it." He fired another burst of energy at the raccoon. Since Sly saw this one coming, he was able to evade it.
"Why did you bring up Clockwerk?" Sly asked, "How do you know that monster?"
"Now then Cooper, no reason to resort to name calling." Torigun said.
"What else would you call him? What else strives for immortality just to wipe out a family name?" Sly asked, "In my book, Clockwerk was a monster."
"To you, yes." Torigun responded, "But to all of us on the Krav Krox council, he was a brother. His goal to exterminate the Coopers was respectable. So we helped him replace his organic body parts with machines to accomplish his goal. So with him gone, it is up to the remaining members of the Krav Krox to finish the job. I guess we are lucky that he died with only one Cooper left to go." Unknown to Torigun, Sly sent out a signal through the biocom so the rest of the gang could find them.
"You…made him into that machine?" Sly asked astounded, "How…how could you! Why would you let something like that exist in the world?"
"What can I say, we could have stopped him, he'd have to listen to my family," Torigun said, "but life's cruel. Get used to it."
"If you think you're going to be killing me," Sly said, "You've got another thing coming." The rest of the gang reached the room at that point.
"Sly!" Bentley shouted as they entered.
"Guys, get Carmelita out of here!" Sly said, "I'll handle this guy."
"No." Murray said, "We're going to help."
"No! This guy is the reason Clockwerk was able to hunt my family for so long." Sly barked, "I want the pleasure of killing him myself."
"We are sorry Cooper," Panda King said, "Even though Clockwerk was my master at one point, you've shown me how much humanity matters. We shall all help you."
"Besides, even though this may sound selfish," Bentley said, "If Clockwerk wasn't allowed to hunt your family; you wouldn't have come to the orphanage. And meeting you was one of the best days of my life. And I don't have many days like that. So that's why we'll stand with you against this creep."
"Ah, I'm touched." Torigun said, "Is this 'friendship'? Don't make me laugh! No matter what you have, this armor will result in your death."
"We'll see about that." Sly said, "Murray do me a favor; get Carmelita out of those chains."
"With pleasure." Murray said ripping the chains apart.
"And Carmelita, you might need this." Sly said pulling her shock pistol out of his pouch, and tossing it to her, "Well Torigun, think you can stop us?"
"Easily." Torigun said firing off a fury of energy bursts. Each gang member took off in different directions.
"Let's finish this quickly." Bentley said readying a sleep dart, "Sly, keep him busy."
"On it Bentley." Sly said calling on the powers of his ancestors to disappear. He snuck up behind Torigun, and struck him with his cane. Not even causing Torigun to flinch. Remaining invisible, Sly rarely stood still so he could try different cane strikes. None of which were doing any good. Bentley carefully aimed the sleep dart at the mechanized foe.
"Sly, get away!" Bentley shouted pulling the trigger. In order to escape the fog created by a detonated sleep dart, Sly had to undo his invisibility so he could move faster. The sleep dart hit Torigun directly in the face, releasing its sleep inducing mist.
"A sleep dart? Did you really think that would work?" Torigun asked, "My suit not only has an air filtration system that can remove any pollutants, but my suit also has its own oxygen system."
"How did he know about my sleep darts?" Bentley asked.
"That would be my fault." Carmelita said, "He told me to give him all of your guy's files. He probably needed them to know what you guys use in jobs and combat."
"Why don't you tell them why you were willing to give me the files?" Torigun asked, "Or have you gotten to use to your lie?"
"What is he talking about Carmelita?" Sly asked.
"He told me that if I didn't help him he'd kill you." Carmelita responded, "But don't get any ideas Ringtail, I only did it so I can bring you in one day." She fired a few shots from her shock pistol, but each one seemed to be absorbed into his armor.
"Foolish girl," Torigun said, "My suit absorbs electricity and channels it into the power core. In other words, the more you try to hurt me with that toy of yours, the stronger I become." He fired another blast of energy, destroying the support beam Carmelita was hiding behind knocking her out. Followed by a shot to the ceiling above Carmelita causing hundreds of pounds of rubble to fall on her, pinning her to the ground.
"Carmelita!" Sly said running over to the trapped beauty. Sly's voice quickly turned venomous and rage-filled, "Why…why would you do that? She had nothing to do with this!"
"I couldn't let her live." Torigun said, "You clearly love her. You won't find another. So, with the only girl you love dead, even if you survive, the Cooper name dies with you."
"You're right about one thing." Sly said, "I do love her. She's the only girl I'll ever love. I would give anything to be with her. For a while, I even tried living on her side of the law. But I couldn't keep it up. I left her a note explaining everything. I don't know if she believed me or not, and I guess that I'll never know now. But if I knew that the bastard who let Clockwerk rampage would come gunning after her, I would have come right out and asked her."
"Well don't worry; you won't have to live without her much longer." Torigun said readying a super energy burst and aiming for Sly's head, "Goodbye Cooper." Before he could fire, he was hit with a full power firework cannon blast, causing the energy burst to shatter several support beams.
"What kind of man calls himself a warrior but attacks the only place one cannot defend, his heart?" Panda King asked, "Only a coward does that. I shall make sure you feel pain far worse than that you caused Sly."
"Carmelita, wake up, please wake up." Sly begged, "Come on, call me Ringtail, shoot at me, try to arrest me, anything."
"She's gone Sly." Bentley said, "I'm sorry, now come on, we've got to get out of here. The entire building could come down at any moment."
"No! If she's truly dead, then I want to make sure he dies too." Sly said looking over as Panda King tries everything to harm the battle suit wearing murderer. Guru swept his hand over Carmelita, and responded with his ancient language.
"We can still help her Sly," Murray piped up, "Master said she still has life force in her. When a living being truly dies, their life force fully leaves their body. That means if we can get her some medical help, she could survive!"
"Then that's what we have to do! Murray, get this rubble off of her." Sly said, "I think I know how to beat this guy."
"What are you talking about?" Bentley asked, "Nothing we're throwing at him is hurting him."
"I'm going bring the roof down." Sly said, "Now Murray, the rubble."
"Don't worry," Murray said, "The Murray can handle this." Murray began to throw pieces of rubble off of Carmelita.
"Panda King!" Sly said, "Help Bentley bring this building down, I'll distract this guy."
"Sly, I must protest." Panda King said. "I don't know how you could escape if you're distracting him."
"Just do it!" Sly shouted. Sly attempted several cane strikes, but none of them were hurting him.
"The best way to bring this building down is several well placed explosives." Bentley said, "We'll have to place them around while we escape. Hopefully Sly will be able escape in time."
Sometime later, outside Le Theatre Formidable…
"We can't wait any longer." Bentley said, "We have to detonate the bombs now."
"But Sly's not out yet." Murray protested.
"Guys. Blow the bombs now!" Sly's voice said over the biocom, "I can't escape without a diversion, and the only way to get that is by the building caving in on itself."
"Okay Sly." Bentley said, "Just get out quick." Bentley then hit the switch, detonating the bombs.
With Sly…
"No where left to run Cooper." Torigun said, "Now prepare to die!"
"Not quite yet." Sly said as large chunks of the ceiling began to fall. While Torigun was distracted by the cave in, Sly made a made a mad dash for the door.
"Where did you go?" Torigun said noticing that Sly had escaped, not noticing however, the large amount of debris falling upon him.
With the rest of the gang…
The entire building fell into a pile of concrete.
"No." Bentley said.
"Sly didn't get out." Penelope said.
"Well, come on, we still need to get Carmelita to a hospital." Murray said. Guru said something causing the gang to turn their biocoms to the rubble. They did it just soon enough to see Sly crawl out of the mess. The gang quickly made it to the van, spun by the former club, and picked up Sly.
"Why aren't you guys at the hospital yet?" Sly asked climbing into the van.
"We just wanted to make sure you were safe." Murray said stomping on the gas and they sped off to the hospital.
"I'm going to have to bring her into the hospital." Sly said.
"But we can't!" Bentley said, "You'll be arrested! And I don't know if we could break you out this time."
"But then how will we alert the doctors that she needs help?" Sly asked, "How is she doing Guru?" Guru muttered a few words meaning 'She's hanging on but fading'.
"Don't worry Sly," Murray said, "We'll almost at the hospital."
"Just hang on Carmelita." Sly said to theunconscious fox, "They'll have you trying to arrest me again in no time. Hurry Murray!"
"We're there!" Murray said as the van entered the ambulance zone. After Sly carefully placed Carmelita on the ground, Bentley set up a siren to alert the hospital staff. The van sped off before the first doctor came out.
"We need a stretcher out here!" The doctor yelled.
Two hours later…
Carmelita reawakened slowly in her hospital bed, remembering full well the events that just transpired.
"Hey there." The doctor said, "Do you feel okay?"
"I don't know," Carmelita said letting out a groan, "I feel like I was just hit with a dump truck."
"You may have well been," The doctor said, "We don't know much, but we do know that you were nearly crushed to death. But you're going to be fine, you'll just have to stay here for awhile to recover."
"That's good." Carmelita said trying to sit up.
"I still wouldn't try that just yet." The doctor said, "Your body will be pretty frail for some time. That's why we are going to have you stay here."
"But I'll be back to peak performance someday, right?" Carmelita asked.
"Oh most defiantly." The doctor said, "Now try to rest up."
"I will." Carmelita said, knowing the first thing she was going to do when she got out.
