And here's chapter six! Five was a bit of a short one, but this one is a tad longer than four was, so we're back to upping the word count!
The action is finally going to start picking up after this, as we start approaching episodes four and five. At least I hope. I'm still not 100% sure how people even write action, but I'm trying!
Also, I know that Sly actually doesn't wear pants in-game, because there's some cartoon character rule against that, but he's going to wear pants in my fanfiction, because it's just absurd, really, that all these men are running around without pants.
Chapter Six: Misdirection and Messy Getaways
"You do realize that this counts as aiding criminal endeavours, right?"
I didn't even turn around to look at him. "No, Sly, no it does not. Shut up if you want pants that fit tonight,"
I'd totally jinxed myself by offering my sewing skills if they were needed. ...Not like my sewing skills are good enough to be considered actual skills. All I really know is how to do simple hemming, and sew two things together. Every day sewing, honestly.
Thankfully, the only thing that Sly couldn't find in his size was pants. Well, they fit around his waist pretty okay, nothing a belt wouldn't fix, but they were insanely long. I seriously wondered what species they were tailored for...
I didn't really mind having to do the sewing, it gave me something proactive to do with myself. What I did mind was Sly perching on the back of my chair like some kind of ninja, supplying snarky comments whenever he saw fit. I was tempted to stab him with a pin to maybe ward him off, but with my luck, he'd fall off my chair, and take both me and it with him. So I resisted the urge.
"Are you sure? You're willingly doing something that's actively helping a criminal. Are you sure that doesn't count? Bentley?" Sly looked over towards the turtle, sounding more than a little childish. "Does this count?"
Bentley heaved a sigh. "Sly, shut up and be grateful that she's willing to help you,"
"Thank you, Bentley, for not encouraging him..." I looked back at Sly to give him an unamused look. He just grinned wider in response, and I sighed. "Here, they're done. Try them on, you giant pain in the butt," I put my needle back into it's case, and then just tossed the pants behind me onto Sly's head.
Sly sputtered out a surprised yelp as the pants made contact with his face, and Bentley and I shared an amused smile. Sly removed the pants from his face and finally hopped off the back of my chair.
"Thanks," he said, trying to keep the smile off his face and instead sound insulted that I'd tossed pants on his head. And then he was off to the bathroom to change, taking the rest of the suit with him.
I laughed to myself and shook my head. "How even do you live with him?"
"Well, we grew up together, we're all used to each other," Bentley replied. "You'll get used to him, too, eventually,"
I snorted and laughed. "That's what I'm scared of,"
Sly soon emerged from the bathroom, and. Wow. He actually looked really good in that tuxedo. He'd combed his hair back into a sophisticated style, and he honestly looked like an entirely different person. "So, how do I look?" he asked as he walked over to the table and struck a bit of a pose.
"Charming," Bentley replied dryly, refusing to feed Sly's ego.
I gave an indifferent shrug. As if to agree, but also not to, as I refused to feed his ego as well. If we let it get any bigger it would eventually start rivaling Rajan's... "Lemme take a look at my work, make sure they're even..."
I got out of my chair and crouched down to examine my sewing work at eye-level, looking mostly for the edges of the pants being uneven. For once, it looked like I'd done a pretty good job, which was kind of impressive considering that I'd had to do them in like forty-five minutes, because the gang was on a time schedule. Sly patiently stood still as I did my quality check.
"Looks straight enough to me. It's kinda obvious that an eighteen year old hemmed them, but unless someone is down there on the floor, no one should notice. Hopefully," I said as I stood back up and sat back down, rounding up all the sewing stuff that Bentley had dug up from seemingly nowhere.
"I'm sure no one will, they'll all be too busy focusing on my handsome good looks," Sly purred in response. I wasn't sure if he'd said that to assure me that my work was fine, or just to be egotistical. Maybe both.
I rolled my eyes and laughed at him. "Yes, sure. But the real question is; Do you know how to dance? No matter how attractive you look, you're not going to woo anyone if you're stumbling about like a drunk bear,"
Sly grinned and then held his hand out to me with a gentlemanly bow. "Would you like to find out?"
"No, because I'm well aware of the fact that I can't dance," I replied firmly. Dancing was one of those things that I really admired, but knew that I was not destined to do, and tried to avoid like the plague. Because if anyone stumbled about like a drunk bear, it was me.
"Oh, come on, I could use a warm-up. All you have to do is follow my lead," and then the raccoon was grabbing my hand and pulling me off my chair and into his arms.
If he was doing this to any other girl, they would probably melt in his arms, and I wondered if that's what he actually expected me to do. I was really more concerned with possibly breaking my ankle, because I have two left feet. "...Sly. I seriously don't know how to dance. I don't know how to follow someone's lead,"
"It's easy, watch," Sly took my right hand and put it in his left, holding both our arms off to the sides of us. He put my left hand on his right shoulder, rested his right hand on my waist, and then he started trying to guide me around the room. I tried to resist at first, because this probably looked ridiculous, but Sly absolutely refused to let me go, despite not actually trying to hold me there. So I gave up and made some kind of attempt to follow his lead.
"See? You're doing fine," Sly laughed.
I vaguely glared up at him. "Yeah, sure. I feel like a fish out of water,"
"What even did you do at prom, if you hate dancing this much?" Sly teased.
"I never went to prom," I replied smugly.
Sly snickered. "Hm. Couldn't get a date, ooorr?"
"I would say you're being horribly rude, but I probably couldn't have," I laughed. "I never finished high school, actually; Dropped out in nineth grade,"
"Ooh, high school drop out," Sly jested. "What was your reason? Too cool for school?"
"I thought that saying died out in 2010, and I just realized why. It sounds really goofy," I snorted. "No. I got bullied a lot and got fed up with it by nineth grade, so I just kinda quit. Best decision I ever made,"
"And your parents just let you do that?" Sly asked curiously.
"Well. My parents divorced when I was ten and I haven't seen my dad since. But my mom and I kinda never communicated much, I guess? We just did our own things, really, so if dropping out is what I wanted, mom let me," I shrugged.
"Family is complicated sometimes," Sly said. And the way he said it reminded me that I was talking family with a guy who'd lost his at a young age, and that caused a certain kind of melancholy feeling to settle into my chest.
"Yeah... Yeah they are," I replied quietly, not knowing what else to say. I couldn't imagine what it must've been like for Sly. To lose his family so brutally, when he was so young. I couldn't fathom how much pain it must've caused him. But at least he had Bentley and Murray, now. I got the feeling that there was a deep sort of brotherhood between them.
"Sly, have you warmed up enough, yet? You need to get into that ballroom and secure yourself a dance with Carmelita for the heist," and then there was Bentley, drawing this odd conversation to an end.
Sly hummed, and then let go of my waist, and gently spun me around with the hand that still had mine, before finally letting me go. "Thanks for the warm-up. You weren't half bad,"
"Sure I wasn't," I laughed, gently shoving him with my shoulder. "Now get going,"
"Aye aye, Captain," Sly saluted us very playfully, and then strutted out of the safehouse.
I laughed to myself at his dorkiness, and sauntered to the window to watch him enter the marketplace, trying to shove all those melancholy thoughts out of my head for the time being. With his tuxedo 'disguise' on, Sly could just walk right through the place, and no one would think anything of it. So that's exactly what he did.
Once I lost sight of Sly, I returned to putting away all the sewing supplies that Bentley had come up with. And then once that was done, we just sort of waited for Sly to reach the ballroom. There really wasn't all that much else for me to do, and observing the thief stuff was pretty fun, anyways.
Eventually, Bentley shifted in his chair, and stared talking. "Your tuxedo disguise is working perfectly, no one will recognize you in that outfit. Now, during the heist you'll need to dance with Carmelita to keep both her and the crowd distracted. The only problem is, she's picky about dance partners, so you'll need to impress her first,"
I leaned over to see the screen, and was going to ask how Sly was meant to do that, when he replied. "Alright, I know just the girl for the job," and then he began to approach... Neyla? Was that Constable Neyla from the recon photos? And also from back in Paris? Was this a good idea?
"Constable Neyla, you look lovely this evening," Sly greeted her quietly, not wanting to break her cover, but apparantly wanting her to know that he knew who she was.
"I'm sorry, do I know you?" Neyla questioned, looking Sly over, up and down.
"I used to chase after you back in Paris," Sly replied smoothly.
"Paris?" Neyla's eyes then widened and she lowered her voice a bit. "...Sly Cooper?! You aren't by any chance here to turn yourself in? Old Ironsides would fall out of her dress,"
"As good as that sounds, how about a dance first?" Sly held his hand out to her, and while I couldn't see his face, the tone of his voice was enough to imply the charming look he must've had.
Neyla placed her hand in his, smiling back at him. "Enchante,"
I resisted the urge to hiss because apparantly everyone knew French except for me. At least... I assumed that was French. I had no idea of what Constable Neyla had just said, but apparantly she accepted the dance, as she moved into Sly's arms, and they began moving around the ballrom, practically moving in sync. But they weren't just stepping around rythmatically in a circle, like Sly had with me. He and Neyla were pulling off all kinds of complicated and graceful dance moves, and it definitely was a certain kind of captivating.
Neyla eventually pulled away from Sly to look him in the eye. "Are you using me to get at Old Ironsides?"
"Yes, I am... Do you mind?" Sly asked quietly.
Neyla shook her head. "Not at all,"
Sly was lucky he wasn't dancing with anyone else, because I was sure if he'd admitted to any other woman that he was using them, he would probably have been smacked. I wasn't sure if he knew that Neyla wouldn't be offended, or if he was just incredibly lucky (and also a little bit stupid).
The raccoon and tigeress duo pretty much had the whole ballroom transfixed, and the muffed voice of Rajan complimenting them could just barely be heard over the binocucom feed, followed by another guy saying something I couldn't quite make out that caused Rajan to growl in response. I couldn't see to tell who the other guy was, but I figured he was probably one of those other Klaww Gang members...
Eventually, the music drew to a close, and Sly and Neyla stopped dancing with a final graceful and showy move. Neyla then pulled back, blushing ever so slightly.
"Thank you," she said, pushing back a lock of her dark hair. "That was delightful,"
"Thank you, Constable Neyla. After all... It takes two to tango," Sly purred.
"Yes," Neyla agreed, and then turned her attention to Carmelita, whom was approaching the two. "And three is always a crowd,"
"Neyla, your friend here is quite an acomplished dancer," Carmelita said. In contrast to Neyla's English accent, she had one that was noticably Spanish, but I couldn't exactly place what her Nationality might be.
Neyla crossed her arms and smiled. "I tried to make him look good,"
"Please, Neyla, his skills far surpass you," Carmelita rolled her eyes, and the slight venom in her voice earned her a slight glare in return from her fellow officer. Apparantly these two didn't quite get along?
Sly turned to Carmelita. "Perhaps later you and I might share a dance, Miss...?"
Carmelita smiled sweetly at him. "Miss Fox... Carmelita Fox. And I accept,"
"There's only one entrance to the boardroom that's not locked down, and that's through a drain pipe behind the ballroom. Murray's rotund features prevent him from fitting through this drain pipe, so Sly, you'll have to go in alone and unlock the vault room from the inside to let in me and Murray," Bentley explained to his teammates as he strapped on his crossbow.
"Oooh, does that mean I get the safehouse all to myself?" Nyx asked enthusiastically.
"Yes, I trust you won't cause armageddon while we're gone?" Bentley asked.
"Yeah, of course not! ...Maaayybe a few catastrophies here and there, but life shall go on," Nyx replied mischivously.
Bentley sighed and rolled his eyes, then turned to Sly and Murray. "Come on, guys, let's head out,"
"You got it pal, we're right behind you," Sly then turned to Nyx with a devious grin. "Don't hog all the fun, okay?"
"Wouldn't dream of it!" Nyx replied as the trio made their way out.
Once inside the palace grounds, the gang split up; Sly headed off to the side of the ballroom to locate the drain pipe, while Bentley and Murray headed to the vault room door to wait for Sly to unlock it.
The drain pipe that Bentley had mentioned was off to the side of the ballroom, where it could dump directly into the water below. Therefore, there was no walkway or any conventional means of reaching it. But, there were a serious of window sills and overgrown vines that would work just as well. Sly wasted no time in crossing the gap to reach the drain pipe, but he did certainly hesitate before crawling in.
...Because drain pipes aren't really pleasant things to go crawling in, even when they're relatively clean. The entire front of Sly's shirt was soaked by the time he got into the boardroom, and he was not at all happy about it. He grumbled to himself as he pulled out his binocucom.
"I've heard through a reliable source that the guards keep the vault combination written beneath one of their break tables," Bentley said, speaking in a hushed tone to avoid any nearby guards hearing them at the doors.
"So you want me to crawl under each 'till I find it?" Sly inquired.
Bentley nodded. "That's the idea,"
Sly put away his binocucom, and surveyed the area. A rhino guard with a flashlight was patrolling by the first break table, and Sly waited until that guy turned his back, and then ducked under said table. There was no code that he could see, and so Sly slipped out from under it as soon as the coast was clear, and darted across the empty space before him, passing by the door to the vault room on his right.
The raccoon then slid under another table, while the second guard near it wasn't looking. Didn't seem that there was any code here, either. The second guard was continuing his walk down towards the last two tables, so Sly quickly crawled from his current table, vaulted over a railing, and slid under the second-to-last table before the guard could turn around.
Nope, the code wasn't under that one, either. It had to be under the last one, then. Providing that Bentley's 'reliable source' was actually reliable. After waiting for the guard to turn around, Sly ducked under the last table, which was placed at a weird catty-corner to the others.
"This is it!" the code was written in very sloppy handwriting on the underside of this table, in white chalk. Good thing Sly knew how to read things upside down.
"Fantastic!" Bentley replied. "Now, type the code into the vault's laser door entrance,"
Sly crawled out from under the table, and made his way to the vault door he'd passed before. He typed the code into the keypad on the wall, and the lasers guarding the entrance retreated. However, there were still the moving lasers on the floor to contend with.
"Nice work! Make your way to the security lockdown switch, and let in me and Murray." Bentley instructed.
Sly took a moment to observe the pattern of the moving floor lasers, and once he had it memorized, he began crossing the floor, making perfectly timed jumps over each laser that dared come near him.
Once on the other side, Sly carefully stepped between some empty pots that were left on the floor, and pulled the switch on the far left side of the wall.
With the switch off, the lock to the upstairs door was rendered useless, and allowed Bentley and Murray to enter without being detected (It also happened to turn off the floor lasers). Sly climbed up to meet them in this upsairs room that was probably a conferance room, if the table with the hologram of the Earth in the middle was any indication.
"Thanks for breaking us in, pal. 'The Murray' approves!" Murray greeted his friend loudly.
"Let's get down to brass tacks," Bentley announced. "I need to hack both the vault room computers to get control of the electronic winch above the ballroom,"
"So, what're me and Sly here for?" Murray questioned.
"The second I enter their servers, they'll be onto us. You guys need to work together to keep the thugs off my back," Bentley answered, gesturing to the computers, and then to himself.
Sly looked up at Murray with a devious smile. "You and me, pal, side by side,"
Murray flexed his muscles. "'The Murray' knows no fear!"
Bentley nodded to his teammates, and began to hack the first computer. Sly and Murray waited, poised for battle, for their adversaries to arrive.
"Okay, I'm in. Hacking the level six barrier,"
And with that statement, guards began sprinting into the room, brandishing their weapons. Their target was clear; The turtle hacking their boss' servers, but they were going to have to go through Sly and Murray first.
And neither of them intended to let that happen. It was a wordless decision that Sly would handle things to Bentley's right, and Murray would handle things to Bentley's left. They found that the best strategy to keep the thugs from getting anywhere near Bentley was to clobber them before they could even cross the room. So Sly and Murray positioned themselves close to the doors, and focused on keeping the guards in that relative area.
Hits from Murray often knocked guards back into each other, incapacitating more than one without having to throw extra punches. Sly wasn't quite as strong with his cane, but he was faster, and could move about to reach guards that got up quicker. What one lacked the other excelled in, and that was one of the reasons why they all worked so well together.
With six levels of security to hack through, two computers to go between, and the goons trying to get to him, this was probably the most nervewrecking hacking job Bentley had ever been on. It felt like an eternity later when there was only one more level of encryption to get through. "Almost! Almost have it! Going for level one access!"
And if getting through barriers six through two took an eternity, getting through level one's barrier was taking twice that. Bentley bit his lip anxiously."This is tense! I can taste it!"
An unmeasurable amount of time later, and Bentley finally broke through the final security barrier. Murray punched the last guard in the face, sending him flying downstairs with an upper-cut to his jaw.
"I'm unstoppable!" Bentley exclaimed, throwing his arms up into the air. "I've got control of the winch! Thanks for the backup, guys,"
Sly smirked. "No problem, me and the big guy had it covered,"
"Murray, let's hook up the direct feed, and get out of here while the coast is clear," Bentley looked around warily, expecting more guards to come pouring in any second, which was a real possibility.
Once the direct feed had been established, the trio quickly made their leave via the door that Bentley and Murray had come in from. They were now one huge step closer to getting at those wings. Just a few more things to take care of, then.
"Woo-oah, these things are gorgeous. How much are they worth?"
"Considering Rajan's taste for the expensive; I'd say a lot. Five, maybe six grand a piece?" Sly replied, amusedly smiling at Nyx who was gawking at the jewels he'd just returned from prying off the headdresses of Rajan's prized elephants. Apparantly they were really strong and were perfect for a sawblade to cut the wings off the statue in the ballroom.
Nyx's eyes widened. "If I could whistle right now, I would. I cannot believe that you guys are gonna use something so expensive as a sawblade,"
Sly laughed, and actually almost choked. Nyx's reactions to everything were so amusing to him. He'd never really talked this extensively with a civilian, let alone about his work. Nyx's mystification with the whole concept was sort of refreshing to be around.
"Well, even if they're damaged, I'm sure we could find a buyer. But if those are gonna stand up to sawing through Clockwerk's wings, I doubt they'll be too damaged to sell for full profit," Sly replied, shrugging lightly.
"If they actually survive that, I will be amazed," Nyx said, running her fingers over the smooth face of one of the gems.
Somewhere outside the safehouse, within Rajan's palace grounds, there was the dull but distinct sound of something exploding and then crashing. Both Sly and Nyx glanced out the window to see a cloud of smoke going up into the air, signifying that Bentley had finished his latest job; Taking out Rajan's ground-to-air defense jeep.
Sly grinned. "Nice flying, partner. That jeep's out of commission, and we'll have clear skies for the heist!"
Nyx lit up her phone screen to check the time. "It's about ten-forty. Are you guys pulling this heist tonight, oor?"
"Yeah, it's gotta be tonight. We usually try to span this stuff out between maybe two or three days, but this ball is for tonight only. It's the only chance we might get," Sly replied.
"Mm. And I suppose Bentley's got another one of those slideshow things for you?" Nyx motioned to the projector and all the slideshow materials that Bentley had been periodically working with.
Sly laughed. "Yeah, he's got a slideshow for everything,"
"Y'know, you'd think someone so high-tech would use something a bit more... Well, high-tech," Nyx said, looking at all the projector pieces. She hadn't seen one of those things since she was ten, and this particular one looked like it had existed long before she was even born.
"Don't insult the projector, it's his favorite toy," Sly leaned towards Nyx to whisper to her, just as Bentley came back inside.
Nyx smothered a laugh in her fist and struggled to compose herself before Bentley suspected that something was up.
Despite her efforts, Bentley certainly did suspect that something was up, but decided to just ignore it. He had a slideshow to present, and they had a heist to pull. So he set his crossbow down, and wheeled the projector to the center of the room.
This was the wordless cue for Sly and Murray to sit down across from the projector to observe the plan. Nyx put her glasses back on so she could at least know what was meant to happen, just in case it went horribly wrong.
"Okay, synchronize your watches, this heist is going to take extreme precision," Bentley fought with this heist's title card as he began the presentation. The slide kept getting stuck, and it took a moment to get it fixed. Once it was properly working, it could be seen that the name of this heist was 'Operation: Hippo Drop'.
"Here's the plan; I'll start things off by demolishing the palace's main bridge. That should cut off reinforcements from the guest house-" Bentley circled the bridge in his slideshow, scribbled it out, and then crossed off the guest house. "-And hopefully distract the ballroom guards standing watch over the Clockwerk wings," then he circled the two guards in the next picture.
"Sly will then take Carmelita up on her offer for a dance, and while the crowd is transfixed by their tango, Murray will lower into the ballroom on the electronic winch," Bentley made gesture drawings over a picture of the winch. "Once down, he'll cut the wings free, and then winch back up for an exit. Murray should then make his way out of the palace, I'll cover him with the RC chopper," he gestured to the chopper sitting on the table as the slide switched to an aerial view of the palace.
"Once he's past the drawbridge, we're home free," the last slide was of the drawbridge, and Bentley drew an arrow to signify them getting the hell out of there.
With the slideshow for 'Operation: Hippo Drop' now concluded, Sly headed for the bathroom to clean up and change into his tuxedo again, and Murray started helping Bentley pack up all his equipment to load it into the van.
The plan sounded a lot less complex than Nyx figured it actually was. And she decided to just not question it, and instead help Bentley and Murray get everything back into the van. She felt weird just sitting there when she could be helping, and there was no harm in helping pack things up.
Nyx also decided to not ask when Bentley and/or Murray had found the time to mount the Clockwerk tail feathers to the inside roof of the van. But she certainly did stare at them for a moment, and made a mental note to ask later, when there was time. Because that was definately one of the weirdest things she'd ever seen.
Once everything had been loaded into the van (they triple checked to make sure they had everything), and Sly was in his tuxedo disguise, Sly and Murray headed out for the ballroom, while Bentley set off for the bridge to the guesthouse. And Nyx waited within the safety of the van, albeit not very patiently.
"Okay Bentley, Murray and I are moving into position... You still think you can demolish something that large?" Sly asked once Bentley had made it to the bridge.
"It doesn't take an enginerr to figure out how to blow up a bridge," Bentley shook his head. "I'll start by placing charges on all of the lower cleats. Once the structure destabilizes, those retainer rings on the upper cleats should pop right off. That should enable me to bomb all of the upper cleats... Which will bring it all crashing down,"
"Just watch your head when that thing gets unstable..." Sly advised. "We need that brain of yours in one piece,"
Bentley tucked his binocucom back into it's pouch, and then climbed down onto the lower support for the bridge. It was a really long way down to the water below, and he couldn't swim, so he really hoped that he didn't fall.
Bentley was thankful for the trigger bombs he'd invented, as they kept the blasts as far away from him as possible. That was one less danger to worry about. However, as soon as the first cleat was off, debris and rocks from above began to rain down, and Bentley had to be very, very careful as he made his way around the bridge; He couldn't stay in one spot for too long, lest he risk being crushed.
The more cleats that went down, the more unstable things got, and Bentley felt like he was playing a very lethal arcade game of some kind. He could even feel the beams under his feet shaking and moving, threatening to drop at any second.
Bentley ducked under a rock in the nick of time to place the bomb that would destroy cleat number nine, and then ran as fast as he could to get to the upper cleats, before detonating the bomb. The upper section shook as the lower crumbled away, and Bentley tried to not think about how it was now an even farther fall down.
"That's it for the lower section!" Bentley said to no one in particular. "Now for the main support beams!"
Bentley was glad for being a small turtle, because that meant he didn't weigh as much as his teammates. He was pretty sure that if anyone but him were on that bridge, the added weight would have already caused the beams he walked on to give out. As it was, the rocks raining down were causing them to bend at the impact points.
There were only eight cleats on the upper sector, but it felt like it was taking a whole lot longer to get to them all, because Bentley had to dodge between the rocks and wait for a clear path to get where he needed to go. By the time he placed the last bomb and made a mad dash for solid ground, Bentley was pretty sure he'd had at least two heart attacks.
Bentley took a moment to breathe, while the bridge came crumbling down, and then let Sly know that the job was done and he was alive. "Okay, Sly, the bridge is down. I'll warm up the van and get ready with the RC chopper. Good luck,"
It didn't take long for Rajan to find out about the bridge having been blown up. "What!?" he hissed angrily at his guards, trying but sort of failing to keep his voice down. "The bridge is destroyed? Take all the man power you need and look into it!"
The two rhino guards who had been standing vigil at the wings nodded, and then set off to gather reinforcements to check out the damage. ...And probably figure out how to rescue all the people stuck in the guest house.
From the shadows of the ballroom, Sly observed the guards leave. "Murray, you in position?"
"Check!" Murray replied as quietly as he could, giving Sly a thumbs up when he looked up at him.
"It looks like Bentley's little distraction did the trick," Sly chuckled. "Initiate phase two - I'll take care of Carmelita and the crowd, you handle the heavy lifting,"
Sly straightened his tie, and then made his way towards Carmelita. "Miss Fox, I believe you owe me a dance?"
"About time," Carmelita said. "I thought you had left,"
Sly held out his hand. "Just waiting for the perfect moment,"
Carmelita smiled and put her hand in his. He pulled her closer, and the two fell into step for their dance.
Dancing with Carmelita wasn't like dancing with Neyla at all. Neyla was graceful, but there was a kind of dominant rigidness to her. Carmelita was somehow softer, making each move so fluid and naturally. Sly almost didn't want it to end.
As the whole crowd, one by one, were transfixed by Sly and Carmelita, Murray slowly lowered down towards the wings, gem sawblade in hand. Sly made sure to try and keep Carmelita from looking over in that direction as much as he could.
At one point, Carmelita paused, and looked Sly in the eyes. "You look familiar to me, are you in law enforcement?"
Sly smiled. "I often deal with police while on the job," and then he pulled her close again, continuing their dance.
Murray was soon behind the statue, and by that point even Rajan was entranced, so Murray began to saw away at the points where the wings and statue met.
Even the other undercover cops at the party, whom were trained to observe everything, found themselves mesmerized by Carmelita and Sly, and didn't notice as Murray detatched the Clockwerk wings, and began his upwards exit.
Sly kept a very close eye on Murray, because the song would be ending soon, and as soon as Rajan noticed that the wings were gone, Sly had to get out of there as fast as he could.
Murray had just barely made it out of the ballroom with the wings, when the song ended, and Sly and Carmelita spun around one final time.
"Tell me stranger, what's your name?" Carmelita asked softly.
"Why ruin the moment?" Sly replied.
"Huh? I... I don't understand..." Carmelita was going to further question Sly, but that's when Rajan turned around and noticed that the wings were missing.
"The wings!" the large tiger yelled. "What happened to the Clockwerk wings?!"
Carmelita spun around to look at the statue the wings had been attatched to not ten minutes before. "What! How? Who could have... What?" she couldn't believe that this had happened right under her nose! She turned towards the stranger she'd been dancing with... Only to find him not there. Then Carmelita became aware of something pressed behind her ear, and she pulled it out to look at it.
"Cooper!" she shrieked, glaring daggers at the rose and calling card that he'd left behind.
Sly just barely heard Carmelita's enraged shriek as he raced back for the van, as fast as he could, and he smirked. When he got to the van, Sly hauled the passenger's side door open, and vaulted himself inside, panting a greeting to Nyx. Guards were already thick in the streets, having located Murray and taken chase.
But there was nothing to worry about, because Bentley was positioned outside the van, and began getting to work with his RC chopper. "Murray, I'll cover your escape with the RC chopper. Let me worry about the guards, you just keep moving!"
"These things are heavy!" Murray complained. He had the wings hefted up above his head, because that was the only way he could carry them by himself and get anywhere with them. They were a whole lot bigger in person. He hoped they would fit in the van...
Thanks to Bentley's fantastic RC chopper work, Murray wasn't slowed down too much on his way to the drawbridge. None of them were worried about getting caught by the guards, because those guys worked for Rajan and were easy to handle. It was Interpol they were worried about...
From the van, Nyx and Sly watched Murray's progress via Bentley's laptop. And as Murray entered the home stretch for the van, Nyx threw the back doors open and then moved to the side, just barely avoiding being smacked in the face by a wing tip as Murray shoved them in and then ran around the side of the van to get into the driver's seat and buckle up.
Bentley hauled himself into the back of the van with Nyx, and she closed the doors behind him, and then leaned back against the wall, bracing herself for a rough getaway.
The tires of the van spun in the mud a few times, before finding traction, and they sped away down the narrow trail that could barely be considered a road. Nyx squeezed her eyes shut and tried to not yelp at every bump the van drove over. Getaway drives were definitely her least favorite thing ever...
The van hit a hard bump in the road, and for a little more than a second, they were slightly airborne. Nyx squeezed her eyes tighter as the van reunited with the earth, and Murray immediately took a very harsh right turn...
"Nyx!"
Before Bentley had even opened his mouth, the sound of screetching metal had reached Nyx's ears, and she had a major sinking feeling of what it was. She snapped her eyes open, and then shrieked. Because yep, the force of the 'jump' and subsequent turn was making the Clockwerk wings rapidly slide towards her and Bentley.
Nyx barely had the time to register what was happening and figure out something to do about it, but she managed to catch the wings using both of her hands and knees to keep the parts from entirely coming down on them.
"Sorry!" Murray called as he tried to take the next turn more carefully.
"You two okay back there?" Sly demanded, leaning over to look back at them.
Nyx looked equally panicked and pissed off, and didn't look capable of forming words quite yet, so Bentley replied. "Yeah, I think we're okay,"
Nyx heaved a very deliberate sigh, and began trying to push the wings up and off of her. "Speak for yourself, you're not the one who just had these things barrel into you," she panted, scrambling to get some traction with her feet. She finally managed to get herself relatively upright, and and started shoving the wings back to the other side of the van. It took pretty much every muscle in her body, because yeah, those things were really heavy.
She almost had the wings back on the right side of the van... But that was when Murray took another hard right, and gravity flung Nyx back to the floor. She shrieked again, and scrambled to continue keeping the wings from falling on her. As it was, they had roughly banged into her knees a few times, now.
"Are we going straight yet?" Nyx demanded, glaring at the huge metal wings that were trying to kill her and Bentley.
"For now, yeah," Sly replied. "You okay?"
"I'm fine. I'll definitely have some bruises, but nothing's broken, all's cool," Nyx panted, pushing the wings back up again and finally getting them back onto the other side of the van. She put her back to them and grabbed ahold of the passenger's seat head rest, hoping her weight would be enough to hold the wings there, though she highly doubted it.
Nyx took a moment to catch her breath before looking at Bentley and pointing to the tail feathers on the roof. "You are going to strap these up there, too, right?"
