Hey guys, sorry for not uploading anything for a while, but school started up again and now I have a lot less free time for writing. I'm thinking about a chater a week, but we'll see. Anyways, hope you enjoy ths chapter. I got a bit of writer's block half through so it might seem a bit choppy. Sorry about that. Thanks for reading.
"Where are you?"
Luna spoke quietly as to not be heard. She stood over Sly and Carmelita with one hand placed on Sly's head. Around her hand was a dark aura, a shadow magic that penetrated into Sly's mind. She could see his memories and his dreams, but she was looking for something very specific. The dark witch concentrated as her magic continued, until at last she found what she had been searching for.
"There…wait…ah, he doesn't know himself but…hmm, interesting, wha!"
Luna pulled her hand away from Sly and her eyes went wide. The image of what she had seen burned in her mind. She looked down at Sly, a mix of shock and fear covered her eyes.
"You poor soul…you poor, poor soul."
She backed away from him slowly as if he were awake and ready to kill her. She took a moment to regain her composure before closing her eyes and taking a deep breath. She had what she came here for, but what she had learned frightened her more than anything. She wanted to end him there and prevent such a future from occurring, but it was not for her to decide Sly's fate. With a final breath, she opened her eyes and looked down at Sly one more time before departing.
"May the darkness take you quickly, Sly Cooper, for you are to be its slave."
With her final, eerie words, Luna departed into shadows and faded from existence. A few blocks away, the dark sorceress reappeared next to Emily.
"About time. Did you learn anything?"
"Yes…I know where the plans are but…Emily."
"What?"
"…he's the one."
The next day went by very well for the Cooper gang. After waking up at around 11am, Carmelita helped Sly around as he gave her an official tour of the safehouse. They toured the secret basement, where they found Bentley and Penelope working on some crazy new invention. Penelope was a scarred at first when she saw Carmelita, but after they told her about what was going on, she quickly relaxed and was very polite with Carmelita. She was a smart and cute young mouse, and someone Carmelita believed she could get along with perfectly. After Bentley shooed the two of them away, Sly and Carmelita headed up to the third story; Sly's palace as he called it. Carmelita just rolled her eyes as him but followed as he showed her around. She was genuinely surprised to see how modest his room was. She had expected to see piles of gold and stolen goods piled up in the corners, but instead she found a modestly sized room that held all the basic necessities. The only unique things were a special holder for his cane, and a bookshelf that held only about five books. His bed was also rather small, at least not big enough for two people to lay in comfortably. She helped him over to his bed and he sat down while taking a breather. He was still very sore, especially his ribs. He didn't think any of them were broken, just bruised and tender. She stood in the middle of his room awkwardly for a moment before she heard him speak.
"So, what do you think?"
"To be honest, I didn't think it would be this…bland. I expected to see a king size bed and a giant flat screen TV."
"I don't care much for TV, and why would I need a bed so big? It's not like I sleep with other people."
The two grew silent for a moment. It was weird and not needed, but what he had said kind of made them realize something. For Sly, he realized that now he wasn't really alone anymore, love wise anyways. He didn't need to sleep alone anymore, nor did he want to. For Carmelita, his words meant something else. For the longest time she always thought Sly was…well, a ladies man. He had been all over the world, and he must have met at least a couple thousand beautiful women. Carmelita always assumed Sly had slept with many other women before during his life, but the truth was he never had. Sly was a virgin, just like her though she didn't know it. His words proved to her that she wasn't just another woman to Sly, she was special. After another minute or two of silence Sly pushed himself up and walked toward the bookcase. Carmelita had offered to help but he just told her to go sit down and wait for him on the bed. Reluctantly, she walked over and plopped herself down on the bed. She waited, nervously rubbing her hands, until Sly came back and sat down next to her. In his hands he held a rather large book. The first thing Carmelita noticed was the large raccoon symbol on the front that Sly used as his calling cards. The second, and most important, were the two words printed in bold blue and gold letters on the front.
"THIEVIUS RACCOONUS"
Carmelita's eyes went big. She had heard about this book but always thought it was more Cooper nonsense. Over the years she had gathered as much information about Sly as she could, and only a few times did she ever hear mention of book. She turned and looked at Sly with an unsure expression.
"Sly, is thi-?"
"This is the Thievius Raccoonus, the greatest heirloom of my family. In it contains all the techniques and abilities that my ancestors created and mastered. It is passed down to each Cooper who is then responsible for contributing something new to it."
Sly opened up the book and turned to the first entry. Slytunkhamen Cooper I were the first words that appeared at the top of the page. Under it was a very old drawing of Slytunkhamen holding his two small canes in hand. Even for a three-thousand-year-old drawing, it remained almost perfectly intact and showed great detail of the first legendary thief.
"Slytunkhamen Cooper the first, the creator of the Thievius Raccoonus. He lived roughly thirty-three hundred years ago in ancient Egypt. He was the first Cooper to record his adventures and techniques he learned before passed it down to his son. Since then each Cooper has filled its pages with their own adventures and abilities they created before handing it down to the next Cooper. This book it what made me the thief I am today."
She turned and looked into Carmelita's eyes. She could tell he was nervous, and she could guess why. This book held all his family's knowledge and secrets, and now Sly was letting her look at it, despite the fact that she was a cop. It was like sharing your deepest darkest secrets with someone else and hoping they would not instantly grow to despise and hate you. She felt honored that Sly would show her this, but she didn't even know why he was in the first place.
"Sly, why are you showing me this?"
"Well, you know…so you have evidence when you finally arrest me."
Sly gave her a sheepish grin, but not a very convincing one. His ears flattened as she gave him a stern look before he spoke again.
"The truth is…I want you to understand what it means for me to be a Cooper. My family, we're not just thieves, we do a lot more than that. Here look."
He turned a few pages of the book and pointed to a paragraph. Carmelita ran over the words and read what was said. It was an entry by Slytunkhamen talking about how he exposed a corrupt pharaoh who had been stealing gold from past pharaohs' tombs. It was said that Slytunkhamen battled over a dozen of the pharaohs royal guards at once and defeated them all without breaking a sweat, then he threw the pharaoh out of the palace where the citizens ended up burying him alive. After his burial the people wanted Slytunkhamen as their new pharaoh, but he vanished from the city along with the royal scarab jewel. He was hailed as a hero for a long time but then branded a traitor and a thief by the next Pharaoh that came. After Slytunkhamen fled the city he settled down and got a wife and had a child, Slytunkhamen the second. His son continued the family tradition and the Cooper's continued on as they always had.
Sly flipped through the pages of the ancient book and showed Carmelita more of his ancestors and the adventures they had in life. Each one was unique and skilled differently, but they all grew to be master thieves, and each created their own special ability that would then be passed down. For many of these Coopers, thieving was not all they did. Many of Sly's ancestors played important and unknown parts in many of histories grandest moments. Sir Galleth Cooper had once served under King Arthur and fought in many battles with the famous king, until he stole the royal crown and was forced to flee the kingdom. Otto Van Cooper had been a spy for the Allies during WWII and snuck in food and medical supplies to many war-torn villages that were within German controlled territory. These and many more were just a few acts that Sly's ancestors had done. They weren't just thieves, though that was the main family business and priority. They were soldiers, spies, diplomates, scientists, engineers, hell there was even a brief time where the Coopers were kings and queens. Many Coopers had contributed greatly to how history would later shape out. Without many of the acts and deeds done by the Cooper clan, much of the world as they knew it today would not be the same.
Carmelita began to realize why Sly was showing her all this. In the eyes of the law, and history, the Cooper family had been seen as nothing more but criminals and thieves, people who only care about themselves and their wealth. It was what Carmelita had believed for the longest time, but now she knew the truth of the Cooper clan and how important they really were. There was much more that Sly wanted to show her, just to try and sell his point even more, but Carmelita finally stopped him and made him listen to her.
"Sly enough, I get it and I understand."
"I just…I want you to kn-"
"Shhh…it doesn't matter Sly. I accept you for who you are and the family you come from. I don't want you to change and give up everything your family has worked for and achieved."
"But…us? I just…I don't know how this is going to work. None of my ancestors have ever fallen in love with someone on the right side of the law…"
"Then I guess you will be the first Cooper to do so. Sly, I won't ask you to change, and I doubt you want me to change either but…I have begun to realize that you do my job better than I do without even meaning to."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean…you stop bad people from doing bad things, and you do it in a way that I never could or would be able to. You're not confined by any rules or laws that tell you what can and can't be done. When you see something wrong you fix it, even if how you do it seems like the wrong thing to do. I don't know, I'm just…I'm tired of feeling like no matter how hard I try, things always get worse and there is nothing I can do to change that…maybe I need to reconsider my career in life."
"Carmelita, you can't really mean that?! Your family has been in Interpol for four generations, you can't just leave and let crime grow. God knows no one else in your damn department does anything anyways."
"But look at you Sly, look at everything you have done! You really think I could ever have beat Mugshot, or the Panda King, or even ClockWerk myself? The best Interpol could do was monitor them and wait until we actually had proof they were involved in any criminal activities. While we waited and watched for years, you just snuck your way in and took down each one by yourself. The only reason we could arrest them was because we charged most of them with attempted murder on you."
Sly was shocked to be hearing this from Carmelita. He always assumed she valued her job above everything else, and now she was talking about just leaving it all behind. He knew he couldn't let her make such a bold decision, it would ruin her reputation and the reputation of her family.
"I know I am a fourth-generation cop at Interpol; big whoop. I bust crack heads and pedophiles for a living, same as my father did and his father and his, but how does that compare to what you and your family has done? Your ancestors have altered the course of history! They have helped stop many world changing events, and they all did it because they knew it was right. How different do you think things would be right now had you not defeated ClockWerk, hmm?"
The question caught Sly off guard. He had never thought about how different things would be had he never gone after the fiendish five. He never would have grown to become the thief he was today, and the world would be all the lesser for it. The five would still be terrorizing people and using his family's secrets to better their own wealth and power. Who knows, with enough time and planning, ClockWerk could have very easily taken over the entire world by now. No else knew how to stop him, only Sly knew or could, and even then, he was only able to with the help of his friends. If ClockWerk had an army behind him, he could have started with taking over Russia and moved on through the rest of Asia and into Europe. The idea was frightening to Sly, but it made him realize just how much he had changed things. Carmelita was right, his ancestors had done many things that had changed the world, and perhaps he had done so as well. He usually ever saw his actions as having that much of an affect on others, but the more he thought about it, the more he realized how much he had prevented. He was lost in his thought but brought back to reality as Carmelita spoke.
"I don't know what I want to do with the rest of my life, but I know that I want you to be a part of it. Maybe I need to stop acting like a fox…and start acting like a raccoon."
Sly's eyes went wide as he starred at her. She wasn't honestly suggesting what he thought she was suggesting, was she? He didn't get an answer as Carmelita leaned in and kissed him. He was still stunned by what she had said but quickly returned her kiss as the two embraced one another. After a long and heated minute, the two broke away with smiles on there face. Sly was about to speak but never got the chance.
"Don't think about it to much right now ringtail. I'm still a cop, and until further notice, you're still MY criminal, understood?"
"Yes, officer Fox."
Carmelita leaned in and nuzzled herself into his neck and under his chin. The two of them had one of the strangest and most complicated relationships in the world, but love perceivers through any challenge if it is strong enough.
The rest of the day went by rather quickly. Sly spent a couple of hours stretching out his body and helping speed up his healing process. By the end of the day he was able to walk normally, though he still had a bit of a limp in his step. Later that night Murray baked home-make lasagna for everyone. They all ended up putting a cover over the pool table they had and used it as a large dining table. Bentley was still a bit nervous with Carmelita around, but as the night progressed they ended up having a very serious and enlightening conversation. Bentley gave Carmelita some tips on how she could better improve Interpol's response time when a call came in about a crime being committed. Carmelita was surprised at how knowledgeable Bentley was and made sure to write down his suggestions so she could present them to the chief in the morning. When everyone had finished their food, Murray brought out a special dessert. To Carmelita they were just a bunch of cookies, but to the rest of the gang they were much more. Murray had learned the recipe for the cookies the gang had stolen when they were all in the orphanage, and every once in a while, Murray liked to surprise the others with a small batch of the famous cookies. Carmelita had to admit they were pretty good as far as cookies went, but she only got to eat two before the rest were eaten up by the rest of the gang. Sly gave her a crumb-filled sheep smile when he realized they had eaten them all. Carmelita simply rolled her eyes before letting out a big yawn. It was getting late and she would need to be up early for work tomorrow. Sly led her upstairs and showed her to the guest bedroom they had. It was about the same size as Sly's room with very little furniture, but the bed was cozy and soft just how she liked it. The two of them exchanged one final make-out session before Carmelita kicked Sly out and told him to go to bed. Sly just chuckled and went to his own room and laid down. Normally he was still very awake and active, but his damaged body coupled with the food he had just ate had made him very sleepy. He let out a small yawn before closing his eyes and drifting off to sleep. That night he had no dreams and no nightmares. He slept calm and peacefully, something that he had not had in a long time. Tomorrow would be a new day, but none of them could have been ready for what would happen.
Carmelita walked through the office with her head held high and a smile on her face. While the past few days had not gone exactly how she had wanted them to, she couldn't complain about the outcome. Sure she had been kidnapped and almost killed, but that sort of thing was strangely normal for her, or at the very least it had happened enough times where she wasn't fazed by it as much. She still held a huge grudge against the wolves, especially Octavia. Oh how Carmelita wanted to slam her foot into her perfect little face one more time. She would make sure to tell the chief everything that had happened that night, and she was sure he would put the entire department on the case. Carmelita hadn't been awake the last half-hour or so during the wolf incident. The last thing she remembered was Sly helping her to a chair and after that she woke up in the gangs safehouse. She hadn't even thought to ask Sly what happened afterword's, but it was to late to ask now. She just needed to make sure the chief was made aware of the events that had transpired. She passed by a few of her fellow co-workers and saw them all glaring at her. It wasn't anything new. All the women hated her and thought she was a total shut in, and all the men tried to hit on her. This time though the glares were different. It wasn't just jealousy or childish envy, but she could tell people seemed to be really angry and tense when she walked by. She began to feel uncomfortable not knowing what the big deal was. She was about to arrive at her office before a large Rhino stepped in front of her and blocked her way. He starred down at her with narrow eyes and a piercing glare.
"I didn't actually think you'd show up Ms. Fox."
"Would you move Derrell, I have a lot of work to get done."
"Oh I think you've done plenty of work already Fox."
"The hell are you going on about Derrell?"
Carmelita noticed a bit of movement from behind her. She turned her gaze and saw the hallway behind her now blocked by two more of her coworkers; a Buffalo names Jim and a Cheetah names Kim. Now Carmelita was getting very worried, but also defensive as she was being cornered.
"We all had our doubts when you brought Cooper in and made him a cop, but we went along with it because the chief believed in you. Now Cooper is back out there thieving AND he knows everything about Interpol. Just how stupid are you!"
Derrell ended up shoving her back and stepping forwards. Now she had even less space and could really feel the tension rising. Carmelita was both scarred and furious. How dare any of these lazy assholes put their hands on her and yell at her.
"You know I bet you let him get away don't you? You must love the thrill of the chase, or maybe you actually have feelings for that lowlife scumbag. I wonder what the chief would say when he heard you changed your name to Carmelita Cooper!"
Carmelita's rage reached its tipping point as she jumped up and punched the rhino sure in his cheek. Carmelita was stronger than most people gave her credit for, and the blow ended up bring the rhino to his knees. She raised her fist again to strike another blow before hearing the chief scream.
"INSPECTOR FOX IN MY OFFICE NOW!"
The rhino looked up and spit out a bit of blood from his mouth. He gave her a hate filled glare and a wicked grin. Carmelita just gave out a lough huff of anger as she walked past him and towards the chief's office. There was a sinking pit-like feeling in her chest. She just attacked one of her fellow coworkers, a cop no less. If she wasn't in trouble before, she was now. The confidence she had when she first walked in the door had all but faded and had been replaced by a growing anxiety for what was about to happen. She reached chief Barkley's office and knocked before entering.
"You wanted to see me chief?"
His office was, as always, filled with smoke from the cigars he consumed. Chief Barkley sat at his desk, and in front of him was a strange character Carmelita had never met before. He was a short, gold furred Jackal wearing a black officers dress uniform with matching hat. He wore many badges of military honor and prowess. Carmelita could tell he was no ordinary military officer, not even a European one at that. He was American given the eagle patches sown into his uniform.
"Please come sit."
Carmelita closed the door behind her and sat next to the Jackal. He seemed somewhat young, maybe late twenties or early thirties. Older than her to be sure, but much younger than Barkley.
"Carmelita, this is general Mathew Jenkins."
The Jackal reached out and shook Carmelita's hand.
"It's a pleasure to finally meet you Ms. Fox. May I call you Carmelita?"
Mathew's voice was very mild and calm. He spoke with a firm and clear voice, as was to be expected from someone with his ranking. Carmelita smiled and nodded to Mathew.
"Carmelita is fine…I don't mean to be rude, but what exactly is going on here?"
Barkley was about to speak but was cut off by Mathew's quick intervention.
"Allow me to explain Carmelita. I am the leader of PHOENIX, a secret 'shadow organization' if you will that operates outside of international rules and regulations You can think of it as Black-Ops but on a world-wide scale."
Carmelita was shocked to say the least. He wasn't serious, was he? She quickly looked to Barkley for some kind of clarification but got no response. She could tell he was on edge as well, even more so than she was. If what Mathew was saying was true…
"I am sure this comes as quite a shock to you Ms. Fox, and I should say now that so far as you or Mr. Barkley are concerned, this conversation has never happened and I never existed. Is that clear?"
Carmelita instantly narrowed her eyes but was calmed by Barkley who placed a hand on her arm. He gave her a look that told her she needed to comply, or else things could get very bad very quickly. Reluctantly, Carmelita nodded but kept her eyes fixed on the Jackal.
"Good, now that we have that out of the way, lets get down to why I am here. I believe you were unconscious Friday night when I arrived at the warehouse, but we had been watching you and Mr. Cooper for quite a while even before that. I must say you gave Octavia quite the reckoning, though to be fair you never did stand a chance of beating her."
Carmelita just starred at Mathew with wide and suspicious eyes. How did he know about what happened at the warehouse, and what had she missed when she had passed out? Every nerve in her body told her to grab the gold-furred canine and demand he explain how he knew all this, but an icy feeling in her gut cemented her where she sat as she continued to listen.
"We've been watching them for quite some time. We tracked them all over the world. India, China, Madagascar, even the US and Canada. They have been quite elusive, even for PHOENIX, but once we learned they were all meeting up in Paris I knew it was our chance to strike and take them out for good. You and Mr. Cooper's arrival however changed much, and as such they were able to get away once again. Your involvement cost us greatly Carmelita, and I am here collect settlement for the debt you put me in."
Mathew starred at her with cold and emotionless eyes. She had never met someone as blunt and stern as he was, and she began to actually feel afraid of what was going to happen. She shifted her gaze to Barkley then back to Mathew before narrowing her eyes again and speaking.
"So you're here to kill me, is that it? I messed up your little black-ops operation and now you're here to tie up loose ends?"
"No Ms. Fox, I am not here to kill you. I fact, I am here to offer you a job."
Both Carmelita and Barkley's jaws dropped open slightly. Of all the things they had expected to happen, that was the most unexpected. Mathew noticed their shocked expressions and let out a small chuckle before turning to face Barkley.
"Not what you expected I'm sure, but rest assure that this is no trick."
He turned back to Carmelita and gave a half grin.
"Interpol is an international organization that has some of the best officers in the world working to make the world a safer place. As such I make sure to keep tabs on all prestigious members and see if they have what it takes to work with PHOENIX, and you Carmelita are unlike any agent I have ever seen. Your criminal arrest record is nearly 100%, one of the highest I have ever seen in my life. You have arrested several notorious criminal bosses and saved thousands of lives because of it. I am offering you the chance to take your work to the next level. We need your help to track down and stop the Wolf Pack once and for all. They are more dangerous and powerful than you know, and if they succeed with whatever plot they have underway, they could end up killing thousands and plunging the world into another World War."
Carmelita was left totally stunned to everything she had heard. This was all happening so fast she didn't have time to comprehend it all. Were those wolves she had been kidnapped by really that dangerous and powerful, and if so then could they take over the world if they wanted? So many thoughts raced through her head and she didn't know what to say, neither did Barkley. Mathew noticed this and cleared his throat before standing.
"I see you need some time to think this over. I will be back in two days and I expect an answer by then. I will remind you both again that this conversation never happened. I was never here and neither of you know me or the organization I work with. If either of you speak about anything that was said in the last ten minutes with anyone but yourselves you will be quickly and effectively disposed of. Good day Inspector.
With that the golden Jackal tipped his hat and walked out of the office. For a solid two minutes Carmelita and Barkley starred off into space trying to wrap their minds around what had just happened. Finally Carmelita turned her gaze and starred at Barkley who starred back. The two said nothing for what felt like ages until Barkley cleared his throat and spoke with a quiet and strained voice.
"So…I guess you're getting a promotion."
Man, things are really starting to come together. First we had he Wolf Pack, now we have this new organization PHOENIX. What could they want, and just how powerful is this new group? I guess we will just have to wait and see. ^^
I really want to start getting into the good stuff but I realized I needed to make a good transition into it, and I feel I may have botched it in this chapter. All this chapter was really for was to bring in new plot and help further character development. I don't know, maybe I'm just over thinking it. Let me know if you guys likes it or not and if you think anything should be changed. I would welcome any feedback people give. Again, thanks for reading.