Bentley clicked on his projector with a snap of the slides, showing the palace exterior. "I've gone over the information you all gathered for me, and I've come to the conclusion that we still don't have enough information to be fully prepared. What we do know is that Rajan is in possession of the Clockwerk wings, the symbol of the old bird's reign of terror, the guest list is over 700 names long, and I've only just started to go over it. While hacking into Rajan's network I also found that he's had thousands of pounds of spice shipped here over the past three weeks. I can only imagine what he's planning on doing with so much of the drug, but it can't be good. Sly, you'll need to use this balcony to sneak inside the palace for the opening statements of the ball, and try to get some pictures of the prominent guests, I've made a list."

"Great... a list..."

"Yes Sly a list. Now while Sly is getting the last bits of information we need, Murray will use the turret to take out the helicopter, it's only going to cause problems for us in the long run. I'll continue to work on getting blueprints for the palace, while the twins learn how to dance in a formal setting. We'll all need to be on our A-game with this one, I've found at least three undercover cops on the list, and I'm sure there's plenty of guys we would normally be stealing from lurking about the party. That's all, let's get ready."

Sly stood and shouldered his cane, scooping up his binocucom and heading out. Murray followed shortly after, and Josephina swung her legs over the edge of her chair. The twins shared a glance and shrugged. Their parents had taught them to dance for their aunt's wedding, and they'd done several dance classes in school, but neither had particularly enjoyed it, and neither was looking forward to going through yet another class on the subject. Especially if that class was taught by Bentley. They'd already been subjected to his intense homework assignments and constructive criticism when it came to technique. Sly was far more relaxed despite his strict schedules.

"Bentley who'll be teaching us to dance?" Nat swallowed, worry clear as she glanced at the turtle both were slightly afraid of.

"Sly's the best dancer we've got... Unless Josephina's got something to hide."

"I wouldn't call it hiding if I haven't had the chance to show you." The ferret rolled her eyes and stood, popping her back as she did so. "We can hold off on teaching them until we have an idea of what's going on inside that ball room... Speaking of which, looks like Sly's in position." she pointed to the screen displaying Sly's view.

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As Sly took up position in the small side room on the second floor he realized just how large the ballroom was. Three stories rose, covered in marble and gold, balconies and seating areas packed with hundreds of people, servers, guests and guards alike, totaling easily near a thousand in all, and that was just the people in the ballroom.

"Just don't go out on that balcony and you'll be fine." Bentley reassured him. "Now my computer program cross referenced the list with Interpol's files on the Klaww Gang, and it flagged a number of important figures who have come to this event. I'll need you to get a picture of each one so we know what we're up against." Sly moved to the edge of the curtain lined archway and pinpointed the targets Bentley had marked.

"That's Jean Bison, Shipping baron and a key member of the Klaww Gang's inner workings." Bentley informed him, as the bison man lumbered across a far balcony. "He's strong, a lumberjack from what I've been able to gather from his file. We'll need to watch out for him. Josie leaned over the back of the turtle's chair, watching the information pop up with each picture. "Dimitri Lousteau, professional lounge lizard and nightclub owner." The lizard looked sleazy and greasy.

"That suit makes me want to puke... Seriously, who picked that color?" Josephina stuck out her tongue.

"I'm guessing he did... The guy next to him is Arpeggio, he's remained pretty anonymous, but is a businessman and tinker extraordinaire." The small parrot was in a motorized cage like contraption, and had a monical. He just screamed evil mastermind based on appearance alone. "That's the Contessa, a high ranking prison warden... I wonder what she's doing here." Josephina shuddered. The spider woman was almost the living embodiment of her worst nightmares, she just seemed off somehow, like she wasn't showing her true self. "Carmelita and Neyla are here too, they must be working with the Contessa to take down the Rajan." Sly's camera focused on a couple of harlequin dressed hares, and Bentley frowned. "The Harlequin Brothers, they own a circus and are suspected of ties to the Klaww gang. Rajan must be using them for entertainment for the party given the trapeze and rings set up."

"Ah the Circus, I could have been a great trapeze artist..." Sly sighed dreamily.

"Yeah... anyway... The otter there is Trista Dufour, a world class hacker working with Interpol on a handful of cases. She works with Lindsey McKenna, the tabby next to her. Lindsey is a mechanic, a weapons and explosives expert and all around insane." When Sly huffed in laughter Bentley frowned. "I'm not kidding Sly, looking at her file, she's known to go into bouts of rampant depression, or mania even." Josepina struggled to keep a straight face. Lindsey was normally quite hyperactive, the only real time to worry was when she went dead serious which was rare. Otherwise she was relatively harmless. Of course, she did enjoy her jobs a little too much.

Sly focused on the tall slender form of Hel and Bentley pulled up the falsified file containing her information. "The black fox beside her is Hel Vollan, a hybrid Maned wolf-fox, she's said to possess supernatural powers. I think it's a load of hoodoo, but we can't underestimate her." Hel was always challenged about her abilities, but those challengers always regretted it by the time she was through with them. Her powers had come in handy more than once in the years Josephina had known her. "Next is the Fennec-Red Fox mix. Her name's Aline Monet, an expert in camouflage, prosthetics and all various other disguise techniques, but she's not much of a fighter." Again Josephina held back a smirk. Aline was rather prissy but she could hold her own, and besides that point Josephina had once watched her turn a rhino in protective custody into a cat using fake fur and some makeup. If she wanted and had the time to study a subject she could mimic them almost perfectly in mannerisms and appearance. Hel generally helped her get the voice down. Yet another skill that had come in handy in the past.

Josephina moved away from the monitors as Bentley instructed Sly to get some pictures of the rest of the room. She glanced at where the twins were studying the Thievius Raccoonus copies, engrossed in the information they were gleaning from them. An explosion overhead caused Josephina to flinch slightly, and she moved to the balcony to see the commotion.

"Excellent work Murray, get back here before the guards move in on your location."

"The Murray is always happy to blow stuff up!" Burning chunks of helicopter parts rattled to the ground around the palace grounds.

"Was that really necessary?" She asked with a small frown in Bentley's direction.

"We'll need clear skies for the heist." He shrugged. "It's surprisingly necessary more often than you'd think..."

"Ah. I see." She stepped back into the tower and returned to her seat at the table.

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Bentley glared at the blueprints and pictures on his desk. The job would require effort, and a near flawless execution. It was a round room, with dozens of balconies and thousands of eyes. To pull this job would be feat worthy of history books whether it was a success or not. With the trapeze artists, the way the wings were incorporated onto the statue. It would require the entire gang to be present in the ballroom, and distracting the undercover cops on top of finding a way to remove the wings. He sighed and set aside his glasses to rub his tired eyes. This mission had barely started and he had a headache. The only upside was the fact that Sly was willing to take this slow enough to let him plan properly. He'd worked with less time, even come up with plans in a matter of hours when they'd taken on the Fiendish Five two years prior. Calmly sitting and talking with Murray and Josephina, Sly seemed more at peace. Bentley knew the truth though.

The old Sly was still in there, waiting and biting at the back of Sly's mind. It stole some of the life from the raccoon's eyes. The Sly that had barely spoken a single word more than needed to make his point, the Sly that held no sense of humor, he was still waiting there along with the Murray who didn't know his strength yet and the Bentley who was nothing shy of a full blown panic attack every five minutes. And what about the twins and Josie? What past selves were they hiding? What past selves were biding their time until they reared their nasty, often ugly, heads? Josie seemed well enough adjusted, the twins seemed confident, but maybe underneath their facades they were just as broken, or scared, or weak as Bentley himself had been. Two years changed a lot, but how much really changed?

The turtle shook his head and scoffed at himself. What was he doing getting philosophical when he had a heist to plan? One thing he knew for sure, they had a difficult journey ahead of them, and God only knew where it was going to take them this time.