Chapter 2
After Carmelita left her notice with the landlord of her apartment, she began the process of moving everything out. She had now officially said goodbye to her life as an Interpol officer. At the same time, she was also saying hello to her new life as a master thief. And to be honest, she was rather giddy about the whole thing.
Ever since Carmelita helped Sly on a few of his heists, she made a discovery about herself. Turns out, she found it thrilling working on the other side of the law. Of course, she generally made excuses up like how there was no real law back then. Sly's favorite excuse was Carmelita claiming that the item she stole just happened to be in her pocket. However that was all at a time where she forced herself to suppress any desire to break the law, but now she didn't have to worry about rules getting in the way anymore.
She snapped back to the present when she noticed the car stop in front of a lovely manor. Sly, who was driving her there, helped to grab the luggage as they made their way inside. As she expected, she noticed security cameras aimed at every corner, and the front door had a keypad to allow entry. Once the door opened for her, she heard Sly say, "Welcome to your new home Carmelita."
The interior was absolutely stunning. It looked like what one would expect from a mansion worth millions of dollars. But she knew that Sly could afford it since she saw the inside of his family vault a few years back. It still surprised her that the Cooper Gang was living in a place like this, not that she was complaining. In fact, after she took in the sights, she spoke her first sentence since arriving, "It's incredible. Why can't I stay in places like this?"
"Wrong career choices?" Sly thought out loud.
Carmelita playfully shoved him in response, "Very funny."
Sly was about to make another quip when the two heard Bentley arrive from around the corner of a hallway, and said, "Hey Sly. I just saw…Carmelita?"
Carmelita gave a friendly smile, and said, "Hey Bentley. Sorry if this was a sho-oof."
She was interrupted when Murray raced up to her, and hugged her tightly saying, "Carmelita! Good to see you again!"
"Easy Murray," Sly said in an attempt to calm him down, "Don't crush her."
"Sorry," Murray said as he released the former officer.
Over the months that Sly was away, Carmelita grew closer with the two. Sure they were still fugitives but with Sly gone, Carmelita didn't really have the heart to bring them in. And every once in a while she would hang out with Bentley at the bar, him helping Carmelita with Sly gone and her helping Bentley get over Penelope. She would also sometimes help Murray tune up the van when it needed it but it never saw use for thievery much with Sly gone. However when Sly returned, she visited less frequently out of concern for getting them in deeper trouble.
Thus the reason for Murray's question, "So what brings you here?"
"Please tell me you aren't here to arrest us," Bentley asked, concerned that she was here for work.
"I can't," Carmelita answered as she stretched a little after being released from Murray's grip, "I was fired from Interpol."
Both boys were shocked, "What? Why?"
"Well my reputation was destroyed after Sly was shown to be back to thieving," Carmelita answered again.
"Again, I do apologize for that babe," Sly said as he put a comforting hand on her shoulder.
While she gave him a forgiving look, Bentley also spoke up, "We're all sorry for Sly's habit to ruin anyone's good name."
Carmelita giggled at Bentley's remark, "Anyway, Sly offered me a spot on your team."
Both Bentley, and Murray glanced at each other with shocked expressions before turning back to face Carmelita with Murray saying, "You mean you're joining us now?"
"If you guys will allow me," Carmelita looked at them with hopeful eyes.
"Rock on! Murray approves," Murray exclaimed excitedly.
Carmelita laughed at the enthusiasm from the hippo, and said, "Thanks big guy."
Sly looked to his other friend, who wasn't reacting much, "Bentley?"
Carmelita did expect Bentley to have some issue with her joining. Part of it being from what he went through with Penelope making him slow to trust people. The other part being that the officer in charge of bringing them in is now wanting to join the Cooper gang. She knew that red flags would already be raised in the turtle's mind. Eventually Bentley explained what he was thinking.
"Well normally I'd want to see her skills in the field, but we've seen plenty of that. And I'd want to do a background check on her, but we already know everything there is to know about her, mostly. As far as I'm concerned, she's more than welcome on the team."
Carmelita let out a sigh of relief, "I was worried that you wouldn't trust me."
Bentley shrugged and replied with a grin, "So far, I see no reason not to."
"Then it's settled," Sly announced, breaking the moment, "Carmelita, welcome to the team. Now to get you settled in."
It wasn't much of a celebration but she was willing to accept it. She certainly didn't expect any of them to rush up and pop a bottle of champagne. And she was glad that the other two didn't turn her away after everything she went through with them. So as far as moments go, Carmelita was willing to take what she could get right now. However there was something else on the young fox's mind, "I'm guessing I should unpack?"
"Not much of a point," Sly began explaining, "As a master thief, one would be expected not to stay in one place for too long. But there's always the desire for a place to stay for a longer period of time. So I'll leave that decision up to you."
Carmelita smiled in response, "Sounds like it can wait. Where do we start with the thieving?"
"Let's walk before we start running," Sly pointed out, "First, we start with training. And with this."
Carmelita watched as Sly led her to what looked like a heavily secured vault. The door opened to reveal what was inside. Though rather than shock her, it left her more confused as to the existence of the vault. Because the only thing that was inside was a book locked away in a case on the far wall of the vault. Essentially prompting the vixen to look at her boyfriend, and ask, "What's this?"
As Sly walked towards the case, he proudly answered the question, "The Thieveous Raccoonus. It's a book containing my family's history and all of their specialized moves. As well as a few of the massive heists. I showed it to Bentley, and Murray but they both prefer to stick with their own style."
"That And I sort of missed my chance to get started on the moves by this point," Bentley chimed in.
Carmelita was confused at first until she looked down at his legs, and said, "Right. Because of Neyla."
Neyla was never a pleasant memory for any of them. She was only assigned as Carmelita's partner on the Cooper case because of the connection to the Klaww gang. However she received warnings about working with Neyla, her coworkers saying that she was ruthless, ambitious, and had no qualms doing whatever it took to get things accomplished. She also heard rumor that the constable was corrupt but never found truth to it, not that it made her trust the lady one bit. In honesty, Carmelita blames herself for not paying attention to the rumors about Neyla which led to the lady becoming Clock-La and paralyzing Bentley.
In an attempt to change the topic, Sly brought the subject back to the book, "Anyway, you should read this. It'll help when you're out in the field. And this way I won't feel so lonely on heists."
"Oh poor ringtail," Carmelita teased lightly, "Okay. I'll get started on this book right now."
However, since the book was in a case mounted on the wall, she didn't notice one retrieved the book and turned around to face her. And she noticed that the book was massive. She had seen what it looked like a few times but she never knew how thick the book was. She did know that it had a lot written down in it, only because Sly told her that the book contained his family history. Carmelita simply stared at the book in shock, and said, "Dios mio. How are there still blank pages in this thing?"
"We don't know," Sly shrugged as he set the book down on a nearby table.
Murray began providing an assumption, "We think either pages have been added to it…"
"Or that's not the original book," Bentley finished saying.
Both assumptions sounded accurate to Carmelita. A few of the pages looked like they used rag paper, or had holes from bookworms. And she figured that the first entries were probably written in stone back when it was started. So maybe they were both right, but with the time machine gone, there's no way to tell for sure anymore. But the thought alone was fascinating for sure.
"Either way, make sure to read that," Sly suggested, "I'll also have a list for you to get completed before your first heist."
"Thanks Sly," Carmelita said as she gave Sly a kiss on the cheek. The others went back to their normal routine since Carmelita would be at the book for a while. As they were leaving, Sly couldn't help but grin as she began enthusiastically reading. With the book in her hands now, she opened it up and said, "Okay. Chapter one."
