HEY GUYS! Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving!

I do have something to say right quick before we get in to the chapter- I've recently gotten several messages from people asking me to check out their Sly Cooper fanfictions. I am ridiculously flattered you thought of me, but I make it a point not to read fanfictions for the fandom I'm currently writing for and, while Sly 4 may not be out yet, I am working on a Sly Cooper project at the moment (and about five Supernatural projects, and school, and work, and avoiding ever talking to my father, etc...), so I'm going to have to reluctantly decline. Once I'm done, I'll try to remember everyone who asked and check out their stuff, but it might be a while.

Okay, obligatory stuff over, on with the chapter!

"I cannot believe that we survived that." I said in shell-shocked amazement, climbing stiffly out of the gunner's seat in the tail of our plane.

"Yeah, I was worried for a second, but then you got really vicious and tore through those last five planes. What was that all about?"

I smirked, wringing the high altitude condensation out of my scarf. "I just got mad when Dimitri started trying to sell hot dogs and tickets while we were fighting for our lives."

"Well, at least we know to just make you mad before the finals and we'll have this tournament in the bag," Bentley drawled, checking over the plane, "And we won't have to do too many repairs before tomorrow. Good piloting, Sly."

"I aim to please."

"In the mean time," Bentley waved us into the control room where we found the Guru, Murray, and the familiar old slideshow projector, "Time for round two of sabotage."

I tossed my jacket and scarf over the back of my chair to dry and sat heavily, removing my cap and running a hand through my damp hair.

"Thanks to Sly and Kaia's teamwork, we're in the ACEs finals! Our opponents: Team Muggshot, and Team Black Baron." I stole a glance at Sly. His face was unreadable, "The rules in the finals are a bit different than normal. Whoever takes down the defending champ gets the title. Hear that, guys? It's all about taking out the Baron. Our only real competition will be Muggshot himself."

"Can he even fit in a plane?" I asked aloud as a picture of him appeared.

"He certainly can, which is why we need to remove him from the competition. Here's the plan: I'll challenge him to a fist fight outside. Sly, you find and lure Inspector Fox to the same place. When they meet, the sparks are sure to fly! With some luck, the big guy will get carted off to jail and we'll have clear skies for the final."

"Excellent." Sly said with a moderately creepy grin.

"However, the Baron won't be so easy to deal with. He commands a massive team of fliers and has been known to bring in a squad of blimp gunships when things look grim."

"Oh that's fair."

"Well, considering he wrote the rules for the competition and didn't ban blimp interference, there's not a lot of grounds for complaint."

"On that note, why is it always blimps?"

"As I was saying, the answer to our problem isn't obvious, although it is potent." The slideshow picture changed to a massive feral wolf that looked as though it could eat Muggshot for dinner and still have room for a late-night snack, "Behold Lupus Gigantormous. I'll drug the beast so that the Guru can ride it and take out some of the local guards who also serve as the Baron's pilots. Obviously, the fewer pilots we have to fly against, the better. Next, I'll hack into the Baron's aircraft control towers. If successful, I'll be able to intercept any message the Baron might send to his gunships. Alright team, we've got all night to prepare. If we take this thing, it'll mean more than a trophy. Penelope will be sure to join our gang. After her stellar work defending our hangar, I'm sure we'd all agree that she's a prime recruit."

"Well, that sounds like a fool-proof plan, Bentley. Except for one thing."

"Yes Kaia, I know, you want a job."

"Yes I do."

Two heavy nylon bags landed on the table in front of me. I recognized one and my eye twitched, "Seriously? Again?"

Sly shrugged, smirking, "What? I need a new paraglider."

"Do you also need," I checked the tag on the second bag, "Rocket boots? Really?"

"Hey you're the one that wanted something to do," Bentley pointed out, seeming smug.

"Yes, yes, fine. You guys go have all the fun, but I'm so running up the room service bill back at the hotel."

After assembling the paraglider and the rocket boots with the dubious aid of the ThiefNet instruction booklets and ordering a hefty amount of room service, I stretched and glanced outside. It wasn't quite sunset yet, I could go for a quick walk.

I pulled on the knee-length coat I favored over my aviators' jacket and headed outside. I have to say, Holland is gorgeous. It's very green, and the stereotypical windmills scattered across the landscape were painted a deep red.

I was enjoying myself until someone fell into step with me.

"Did you plant a tracker on me when I wasn't looking?" I asked grumpily.

"Your paranoia is as unfounded as it is amusing." Kristian said, looking at me sidelong. "I just happen to be extremely lucky."

I gave a short laugh, "Sure, I believe that. That's completely logical, that is." My mind was racing. I had nothing to offer him in distraction. There wasn't anything actually illegal going on here. I could turn in Dimitri, but I wouldn't because it would be seen as a double crossing of the Cooper gang. I wasn't going to do that.

Even if I was sorely tempted.

"So," He took a step nearer me and I found my back to a wall, "Have anything for me today or shall we get to know each other better in an interrogation cell?"

Oh, sweet merciful distant explosions, how I love thee, "Nothing in particular," And there, the whizz of a shock pistol bolt, "But it sounds like your partner could use some help." Ooh, gunshots! Happy day!

Inspector Garter grumbled something I refuse to immortalize in print and stepped away, "She's not my partner, she's a pain in the neck."

He reached to his belt and removed two weapons I had not seen him carrying until just then. I gaped at them, they were tonfa, an Oriental weapon similar to a nightstick. He fought with those?

He turned to leave, then gave me his trademark disconcerting smile, "Don't worry, I'm sure next time we speak, we'll have plenty of time to talk."

"I really hope not." I croaked out when he was already halfway down the street. I shook my head and turned on my mic, "Bentley, did you know Inspector Garter was here?"

"He's what?"

"Geez, Sly. Eavesdrop much?"

"I didn't know that, which is disconcerting. For me to not know, he must be off the grid completely. And that means he probably knows I'm looking."

"I don't like this."

"Neither do I, he's creepy!"

"Now that I know he's here, I can keep an eye on him. I'll use the RC chopper if I have to. Did he try to talk to you, Kaia?"

"Yeah, but when I pointed out the sound of explosions, he grudgingly went to go help Inspector Fox. He doesn't seem to like her much."

"Head back to the Safehouse. It's almost sunset anyway. We'll keep you appraised of things out here, but we're almost finished."

"You got it, Bentley."

Thanks to my nonexistent roll in the last set of jobs and the large amount of sleep I'd gotten the night before, I woke up before anyone else on the final day of the competition. After checking the clock and groaning at the fact that I wouldn't be able to sleep anymore, I tiptoed around the hotel room, getting ready for the day.

I headed downstairs in a foggy sleep haze to claim my breakfast, helping myself to a plentiful amount of fresh berries and a few of the small muffins that are always at those things.

I settled in with my fare and a glass of cran-grape juice and ate in silence for all of three minutes before I caught another entrance out of the corner of my eye. Aside from one or two others, who also kept to themselves, I was the only one in the lobby, so I noticed when the mouse walked in. She also noticed me and smiled, waving a bit shyly. I smiled back and pushed out the chair across from me so she could sit down.

"Nice to meet you, Penelope." I said as she came over and sat down, reaching across to shake her hand. I could see where Bentley's massive and poorly hidden crush came from, she was cute. She had a red bandana pulled over a long, blonde ponytail and was wearing a pair of coveralls and a yellow turtleneck. It took me by surprise that she seemed about my age, maybe a year or two older.

"Nice to meet you too, Kaia, right?" She and Bentley even had the same slight nasal tone to their voices. Ah, nerd love.

"That's right. Strawberries?"

We talked for a few minutes about this and that, just really getting a feel for each other, before she broached the subject of her approach, "I was just wondering if maybe you could tell me a little about your gang. I hadn't really expected you to take me up on my challenge, let alone to get into the finals. I doubt you'll beat the Black Baron, but you're definitely not wannabes, I'll give you that."

I had to tread lightly here. We needed her on the team, but she might just be fishing for information about what to expect from us in the finals so she could warn the Baron. I basically had to sell the team without giving any specifics. Wait- was she testing me?

I found the idea both exciting and offensive, "The Cooper gang is impressive, and I'm not saying that out of vanity. As a ThiefNet member, I'm sure you know about their record."

"Yeah, I did my research," She nodded, "But it's hard to sort out rumor from fact."

"Well, why don't you tell me a rumor and I'll tell you if it's true?"

"Okay, umm…" She thought it over for a minute, "The Interpol agent on your case has booked every other criminal she's been sent after except you guys?"

"True. Good old Carmelita, poor thing hates us. I think she's got a thing for Sly, though."

Penelope seemed a little surprised, "Okay, what about the one where they kidnapped you and you later joined up willingly?"

"Also true. Don't say Stockholm Syndrome, I've heard it too many times. Just between you and me, I think they have a touch of Lima Syndrome."

She tilted her head to the side, "'Lima Syndrome'?"

"Google it." I suggested. "The guys are magnetic. Murray is a little thick, but he's sweet, he's our muscle. Sly's the thief and he would readily describe himself as a 'loveable scoundrel' and that's unfortunately not too far from the truth. The Guru is… complicated, but he's a nice old guy. I'm the auxiliary and you know our tech, Bentley. You two will get along fine."

She smiled, "You're talking like I've already joined up."

I couldn't help grinning back, "Hey, I've got a good feeling about the finals, that's all."

"Speaking of which," She consulted her watch, "I've got to get going, the Baron needs me." She stood and held out her hand again, "It was good talking to you."

"You too. See you in the winner's circle!"

She laughed and waved, walking out. I checked my own watch, blanched, shoveled the rest of my food in my mouth and jogged upstairs.

"Okay, I take back the nice things I said about this place," I was lounging on one of the beds with Sly as Bentley set up the final slideshow. "It'd be nice for a vacation and everything, but I feel more like I'm being lazy than like we're on an actual job."

Sly laughed and gave me a shove, "There you go, I was waiting for that to kick in."

I shoved him back and before long we were trying to beat each other senseless with pillows.

Bentley won the impromptu pillow fight when he sank a dart in each of our weapons and caused feathers to explode everywhere. "We're ready to begin."

"Thanks to our combined efforts, we're now ready for the final round of the ACEs dogfighting competition. Put on your helmets, because it's time for Operation: Turbo Dominant Eagle."

"'Turbo Dominant Eagle'?"

"Elegant, isn't it? In a few hours, Team Iceland and Team Belgium will be fighting it out in the B-Champs round. This will be the perfect cover for step one of my plan. Sly, use the catapult and your paraglider to get access to the local gunships. Plant some tracking devices, then meet up with Kaia at the team hangar and suit up for the finals."

"Who needs self-preservation anyway?" I asked rhetorically, waving around a feather like an miniature flag.

"Murray," Bentley continued, "You're up next. Use the rowboat to pull down the aircraft communication antenna. With it out of commission, the Baron will have to use an unscrambled radio frequency to call in the gunships for backup. If that happens, I'll be ready with our 'secret weapon' and with the tracking devices installed, I'll be guaranteed not to miss."

"Death to the blimps!"

"Kaia…"

"Shutting up."

"In the end, though, it'll be up to Sly and Kaia. This is a sudden death competition, the first team to take out last year's champ wins. That's if the Baron doesn't take out all the competition first."

"You ready for this, Jinx?"

I crushed a peppermint between my teeth and exhaled, "As ready as I'm ever going to be." I replied, tightening the chin strap on my cap.

"Hey, if you're not up to it, I can work with the mini turret up front-"

I slugged him in the shoulder. "As if I'd quit this late in the game. Come on, flyboy, let's go shoot down a Baron." He grinned in response and we headed to our plane and strapped ourselves in.

He started the engine and Bentley yelled up at us, "This is it, eye of the tiger! Look for the Black Baron! Take him out and this competition is all over! … and go easy on the throttle, it's been sticking lately!"

"Quit worrying!" Sly shouted and the plane dipped down the ramp and I tightened my grip on my little turret, "We'll see you in the winner's circle!"

And then it was all the whining of aircraft engines and the whistle of bullets through the air. The blur of blues, green, and reds that made up the surrounding landscape was broken occasionally by bursts of orange, yellow, and black.

Sly dipped and weaved through the planes as though he'd been flying his whole life, locating the Black Baron and sliding in front of him easily, "Let him have it, Jinx!"

I lined up my sights. The Baron was an amazing flyer, he somehow managed to keep an eye on all the planes around him and slip through the hail of bullets unscathed. But I wasn't aiming for the body of his plane, I was aiming for the wings and the tail. I wanted to force him to land, not blow him to smithereens. Something told me Penelope wouldn't appreciate that.

I'd put a fair amount of holes in his plane when, out of the corner of my eye, I saw two blimps headed our way. I'd stiffened up when I finally paid attention to my binocucom earpiece and heard Bentley's voice.

"Sorry, Baron. You'll have to fight fair this year."

"What? Who is this, how did you get this frequency?"

A windmill blade arced across the field and crashed into the two blimps. I was mid-cheer when our plane banked suddenly left.

"Sly, what are you doing?"

"The Baron's trying to get away!"

I twisted in my chair and saw him aiming for a full-sized plane the Baron had just jumped onto the wing of. "I am not shooting down that thing!"

"Good thing that's not the plan, then." He pulled on the seat buckle and his harness fell away, "Switch places with me."

"Say what?"

He climbed onto the wing above our heads and I gaped, "It's not that hard, just take the wheel."

"Are you insane?! Get back here!"

He jumped.

Sly's paraglider caught the air and carried him gently toward the plane and the Black Baron while I was confronted quite bluntly with my own mortality.

I was faced with two choices. Abandon ship and hope my parachute could slow my descent enough that I wouldn't die, or do as Sly had suggested and take his place in the front of the plane.

At two hundred feet and decreasing, I swung my legs over thin air and the partition that separated my seat from the front, sliding into the pilot's chair.

"Bentley, how do I fly a plane?"

"Stay calm and pull up on the throttle to gain some altitude- NOT THAT MUCH!"

I hastily leveled out the plane, "Get me out of here!"

"Okay, calm down. Head for the marker I'm projecting, that's the landing strip. Okay, good. Now, you need to slow down before you can try to land."

I was shaking so much that I was surprised the plane wasn't trembling, "How do I do that?"

"Do a few circles over the strip. Now that you're out of the actual dogfighting area, no one should be trying to shoot you down. That's right, just like that. Decrease your altitude a little bit each circle. Okay, good. Now, there's a little switch to your right and down a bit. It's gold."

"I see it." The ground was getting awfully close.

"Okay, flip it, it's your landing gear." With a shudder and a clunk, the gear fell into place, "Alright, you're good to land. Once the wheels are firmly on the ground, turn off the propeller and slowly apply the brake, alright?"

"No." I started coming in anyway. The moment when I landed and the plane bounced a bit down the landing strip was probably the most terrifying moment of my life. I followed Bentley's instructions, despite how much I wanted to just start screaming and lose my head entirely.

I almost ran out of strip, but I managed to drag the plane to a halt. I turned it off and let my head drop painfully onto the dashboard.

"Kaia?" Bentley's voice came from the ground, "Are you okay?"

I shakily raised my hand to give him a thumbs-up.

"Hey, guys, you'll never believe this! Penelope is actually the Black Baron-"

Sly had landed with the Baron's plane and come to the hangar with Baron-Penelope to let us in on his discovery. I didn't really let him finished.

I marched right up to him and hit him in the face. Nothing fancy, just a good old-fashioned open-handed hit with all the muscles in my arm behind it. Then I grabbed him by his scarf and dragged him down to my level.

"If you ever pull anything like that again, I will come up behind you with a rusty nail, dig it into your toenails, and drive it up through your skull until your brains spill out like a blender without the top on." I let go of him and turned to Penelope. "Hey there, Baron! Get a haircut?"

She laughed nervously and scratched at the back of her head, "You could say that."

"Ah well, I like this look better anyway."

She gave a genuine smile and turned to the rest of the gang, "Come on, they're waiting for us at the winner's circle!"

After the ceremony, a blinding amount of camera flashes, and the presentation of the trophy, Penelope invited us up to her castle for dinner and explanations.

"I invented the Black Baron to get past the dogfighting league's strict age requirements," she explained after a gourmet dinner that spoiled me for life, "But the thing is, after I won, the Baron became sort of a celebrity. To be honest, I'm kind of relieved that I don't have to live that life anymore."

"So," I said, voicing the unspoken thought in the air, "You feel like a job?"

She grinned, eyes twinkling behind her glasses, "Absolutely."

The next morning, however, we hit a little snag.

"Err…" I leaned over to speak in a hushed voice to Bentley after Penelope proposed an aerial tour of Holland, "What's the nice way to say 'I would rather die'?"

He covered up his laugh by clearing his throat, "That sounds wonderful, but-"

"You really don't want me to go," I said, taking over. I wanted to make sure he wasn't going to cover up the fact that I was the problem, "I get awful motion-sickness and I'm scared of heights. I'd make everyone miserable with my mere presence."

"But you flew in the ACEs competition." Penelope said, confused.

"Yes, and I was on the brink of an anxiety attack the whole time. And I think any process I made in 'conquering' my fear was reversed by that little stunt Sly pulled." Here I glared at him.

He just smiled back, of course,. "Nice threat earlier, Jinx. I never would have guessed."

"Thanks, I heard it on the internet somewhere. My point is, you guys should totally go, but it would be better if I didn't."

"But we can't just leave you here!"

I frowned. I didn't mean to make anyone upset, Penelope was just trying to be nice. I was struck by a thought, "How about this, you guys drop me off somewhere and I can have my own little vacation while you all are flying around the countryside. Deal?"

She seemed relieved, "What did you have in mind?"

"You sure this is the place, Bentley?" I asked as Sly lifted my suitcase down to me.

"Positive." He said, looking across the small field to the medium sized two story house at the top of a small bump in the landscape. Fire and lamplight flickered through the windows in the late evening sun.

I took in a deep breath of country air. This was actually quite nice. I turned and waved to the crew, all crammed into their little tiny plane. The way I saw it, I was getting the better end of the deal, "I'll see you in a week!"

"Make good choices!" Sly called from his seat. I picked up a little pebble and chucked it at him as the plane took off again, then set out for the old house.

The area was home to springy grass and a few sparse trees. There was a small pond with a dock, despite the fact that it didn't look big enough for any sort of boat. It was several miles from the nearest main road, nice and peaceful.

I trudged up the little hill and, not seeing a doorbell, knocked hard on the door.

After a moment, I heard light footsteps and the door opened a crack, a wary violet eye peering out as though expecting an axe murderer.

"Hi, Ritsuka!"

He slammed the door.

"… hey now, that's not nice."

The deadbolt thudded as it turned.

"AHANU! Ahanu, Ritsuka locked me out!"

A window the floor above me opened and a brightly colored head stuck itself out and looked down at me, "Kaia?"

"Hi!"

"What are you doing here?"

"Long story, but I have a week off and I decided to grace you two with my presence!" I spread my arms wide and he laughed.

"Hang on a sec!"

And Holland is done! Who's ready for China?

I hope you all enjoyed! Let me know what you thought!