Chapter 2: Gymnastics Jolts
It was day 2 of the Animalympics and the event everyone, including the Cooper Gang was to see was gymnastics. According to the commentators bulldog Keen Hacksaw and mink Cora Lee Perrier, there were going to be old favorites such as the Eurasion sable Tatyana Tushenko and the Asian puffin Bruce Kwakimoto, doing not only floor exercises but other events such as the vault, the uneven bars, and the iron cross, while some others such as Ilsa Blintz and Ludmilla Steppanyatova trying again after embarrassing performances in the last games. Carmelita wanted to see these events as she loved watching it as a little girl. Sly too, wanted to see this as gymnastics helped him become a skilled thief with all the nimbleness.
The first part of the events was the floor exercises, and the first competitor was none other than Tatyana herself, who wanted to claim another gold for her continent. She took the center onto the mat, and got into a bridge position, as some Tchaikovsky music blared up, and Tatyana began her routine. From her starting position, the sable hoisted her legs up into the air, and then scissored them for a bit then engaged in a series of flips, tumbles, and spins, vertically and horizontally, like a dance to the music. When the music was over, Tatyana was standing vertically, awaiting her score.
"Another beautiful performace!" shouted Cora Lee. Her coach was on the sidelines, nervously shaking with a rope around his neck awaiting her score, but when it showed up it was another 10.0, which caused Tatyana to applaud herself greatly, but then forced herself to remain stoic. Everyone including the Cooper Gang cheered and applauded her for her performance.
Up next was Ilsa Blintz to try the event herself, hoping this would be better than her dreadful performance on the vault and Keen Hacksaw insulting her by obnoxiously remarking "4.5 is that her score or the reading on the richter scale?" followed by a derpy smile while shaking his microphone. Her music was the "Sabre Dance" and as soon as that started, she started rolling around which looks good, but flipping always landed awkward, shaking the ground up, including in the audience stands.
"She's rolling good but using her tonnage to do flips, that'll cost her big time" remarked Cora Lee. When the music was over, the score read 5.5, which caused Ilsa to sob and pound the bleachers like an infant.
"5.5? Another reading on the richter scale?" added Keen Hacksaw cheekily. Ilsa started to get fed up with another insult and started lurching up to Keen with fists ready, the Cooper Gang saw from a distance something wasn't quite right, and hurriedly headed down to avert the attempted assault. As soon as they got onto the athletic floor, the puffin Bruce came forward and came between Keen and Ilsa with karate poses and grunts. Ilsa knew she was in trouble dealing with a puffin that knew martial arts, espcially a wide range of stances, thrusts and kicks, and turned away, as soon as she did, the Cooper Gang stepped forward Carmelita pointing her shock pistol at her, Sly and Murray ready with poses.
"Interpol, you're disqualified and under arrest for attempted assault!" shouted Carmelita. Ilsa held up her hands and got cuffed by Carmelita, then got escorted off the athletic ground by the rest of security. With that all taken care of, everyone could now enjoy watching Bruce Kwakimoto's performance of floor exercises. Just like the last games, Bruce's performance was a series of thrusts, parries, and kicks, plus classic poses. When he was all over, he bowed to the audience, and left the floor, earning a score of 9.7.
The next event was the vault and Tatyana spent some time in the off season preparing for this event. She ran forward and flipped onto the horse and flipped in the air with maximum velocity spinned 5 times in the air, and made a perfect landing, scoring another 10.0. The final event was the uneven bars, and Tatyana flipped and jumped from bar to bar with little to no error, and landed almost flawlessley, scoring a 9.5. Ludmilla Steppanyatova was up next, performing just as well on the bars, having learned from her mistakes in the last games, recalling how her trunk was the source of her troubles resulting in orbital velocity putting her out of the competition. This time, she was able to spin around the bars and kept her trunk pocketed. The landing was a big thud, and her result was 8.0.
In the end, at the medal ceremonty, not surprisingly, Tatyana received a gold from the walrus mayor, while Ludmilla received silver. Bruce received gold as well, even though like last time he headbutted the mayor out cold as he received it.
Meanwhile, on the famous marathon track Rene and Kit were running ahead of the pack of old and new faces, except one, a newcomer, a ferocious tiger who could almost keep up with them pace for pace, on his face, a look of determined will, but with ferocity that it might as well hide some evil. The two noticed this from behind, trying their best to stay sharp and look ahead. But they were confident in their abilities, it didn't matter if either one won or they both tied for the finish like last time. They smiled at one another as they reached the 50 kilometer mark and briefly clasped hands, each of them had rings on their fingers.