Chapter 11

Aerith walked down the hallway after she had gotten her staff from her room. While the young woman continued to walk though she thought, "I wonder what those three will have in store me? Other then using my magic the only other thing I can do is hit someone with my staff. However, I'm not sure how much help I would actually be if they took me with them to steal something." But as she was passing by a room something had caught her eye. And when she looked inside the room she saw quite a few pieces of furniture inside it. There were a few lamps one that was tall and the other one small, along with a few small tables. But what caught her attention the most was a single book that was up on a stand in the middle of the room. Curiosity got the better of the green eyed young woman as she walked into the room and added, "What is this book doing here?"

Upon getting a closer though the brunette read the title of book which was The Thievius Racoonus seeing this caused her to let out. "I wonder could this be the book Sly had mentioned to me a few days ago?" She looked from left to right for a moment before she went on with, "Well, if this truly is his families' book then I doubt he would be that angry with me if I just took a quick look through it."

She gently pulled the book cover to its side opening the book revealing pages upon pages of small pictures of a different Cooper family member. Along with the pictures the young woman saw that each Cooper had a detailed explanation about how they pulled off their heists and tips of pulling off certain disguises for fooling people. What caught the brunette's attention the most though was that each Cooper had his or her own look. The only thing that remained the same was the cane although for some Coopers Aerith found out did not use it as their main weapon, but still kept it with them. "Wow, I never knew Sly had such a large family."

"Yeah I've got a pretty impressive legacy to live up to don't I?" Someone asked, causing the healer to gasp and quickly turn around in a panic. When the young woman looked around she saw none other than Sly staring back at her with a grin on his face while he added, "Did I catch you off guard, beautiful?"

Aerith placed a hand over her heart to try and calm her nerves as she replied back with, "Yes you did surprise me." Once she realized the book was still open she went on with, "I'm sorry I looked through your book without asking you first though."

"Hey, it's no big deal." The raccoon reassured her, before he turned her around away from the book. He then began to walk out of the room bringing the brunette with him while he added "But there's no time to be looking through my families book right now gorgeous. We need to get you to the Hazard Room before we go on our date."

The green eyed young woman nodded in understanding as she began to walk next to him. While the two headed towards the door she heard the book close from behind the two. Before she could see what caused it to close though the thief showed her his cane and winked at her. Seeing this caused her to shake her head with a smile as she whispered, "I should have known."

ooooooo

Sly opened the door to the Hazard Room for Aerith as he said, "Well, here it is. This is The Hazard Room."

He watched the young woman look around the large empty room for a short time. She then began to walk around the large space and while she did this though she commented, "This room is much bigger than I thought it would be."

The hazel eyed thief grinned in Aerith's direction before he told her, "Well, I better get to the main control room so I'll see you shortly. Good luck."

Once that had been said the anthro raccoon proceeded to walk out of the Hazard Room closing the door behind him. As he was making his way to the main control room though the thief lightly pressed onto his ear piece and said, "Ok Bentley, you can go ahead and begin the training sessions."

"Did you leave an extra communicator for Aerith?" The turtle asked, from the other end of the ear piece.

"Of course I did. Did you remember to setup your grapple-cam so you can tell Aerith where the ear piece is?" The raccoon questioned back with, as he was about to open the door to the control room.

While he was opening the door though the hazel eyed raccoon could hear the anthro turtle's voice as he answered back with, "Sly you should already know the answer to that question."

ooooooo

Aerith continued to look around the empty room as she thought, "All three of them say this is where they train for a heist. But it's completely empty in here. However, Bentley seems to be a very intelligent….turtle. So he must have set up some kind of system that starts the training process."

"Hello Aerith, can you hear me?" A voice asked, to which the young woman knew it was Bentley's.

She looked around the room trying to find where his voice was coming from as she asked, "Bentley? Where are you?"

"I'm using my grapple-cam to talk to you….for now. Just follow the sound of my voice and I'll guide you to something that'll make commutating much easier." The glasses wearing turtle explained.

"Alright lead the way." The healer responded back with, as she waited to hear where to go.

"Okay just head straight and turn a little to your right and you're there." The turtle said, while he watched the brunette make her towards the camera. Once she was there he added, "Very good. Now look down and you'll see a small device on a crate. I want you to lightly place it in your ear."

"Do you mean like this?" The human asked, before she lifted the item up and did what was instructed.

And within a few seconds she heard Bentley's voice again while he let out, "Yes that's right. Now all you need to do to commutate with either Murray, Sly, or myself is to gently press against the ear piece."

The young woman did just that as she questioned "So all I do is press lightly against it like this?"

Once she had done this there was nothing but static for a few seconds before Sly's voice was heard, "Hey, nice job there Aerith. Now let's see how each of your magical attacks would affect a guard if you ever came with us on a heist." Soon after three tall rows of boxes fell onto different parts of the floor. The young woman then saw a different type of anthro with a flashlight appear out of nowhere. And as it had it's back to her the raccoon added, "Ok, go ahead and give it a try."

The green eyed young woman ready herself by pointing the top of the staff at the guard. She also made sure her aim was on point as she focused her energy before she released a blast of fire magic at the anthro. The unaware guard instantly disappeared after jumping into the air after being set on fire. "Nice job. Now let's see what the other two types of magic will do to the guards Once you do that we'll move on to something else.." Sly voice said, from the other end of the ear piece.

"Alright I'm ready." Aerith replied, as she get herself into position to cast another spell.

And like a little bit ago a guard appeared out of thin air with its back to her. The young woman aim carefully yet again before she fired a blast of ice magic. Once it hit the anthro it froze instantly in place. The brunette took her chance and ran up to the frozen guard and hit her staff against him. And after three hits the ice shattered in many tiny pieces to reveal that nothing had been left behind. The magic user quickly noticed a light shining behind her and when she looked down she saw her own shadow.

The brunette however acted quickly as she rolled out of the guard's range of attack when it tried to shoot her with its gun. After she had done that the healer quickly ran towards some nearby boxes and hid behind them hoping she would not be found. While she was hiding though Aerith found herself holding her breathe as she saw the flashlight from the guard go over where she was at. After a few seconds had passed though she heard the guard grunt before walking away causing her to mentally sigh with relief. She then stood up from her hiding place and acted fast as she aimed her staff and casted a lighting spell which made the guard disappear after the bolt of lighting had struck him. Once that was done the young woman heard the thief's voice again while he commented, "Very nicely done Aerith. I was wondering what you would do in that type of situation." She then heard the door to the Hazard Room being open causing her to turn only to see the raccoon as he added, "And now it's time for you and me to get ready for our date."