Disclaimer: Sly Cooper and the Cooper gang are property of Sucker Punch and I am just using them to entertain the masses with a good story. I only own the character Todd and the other elements of the story I have created my self.

Chapter 7

Saturday

Friday night had gone by with little trouble. Todd arrived home at his usual time and they all enjoyed a nice dinner, prepared by the master thief himself. While they were eating Todd mentioned to Carmelita that even though she was only a temporary member of the Cooper gang, she would have the same responsibilities as the rest of them, and that includes taking a turn cooking dinner. After they had eaten Todd bid them all good night and headed off to his room. Carmelita asked, "Why is he turning in so early?"

Bentley was washing the dishes as Sly dried, and Murray helped Carmelita clean of the table. Murray had heard Carmelita's question and said, "He's just going to his room to meditate."

Carmelita gave Murray a questioning look as she said, "He's meditating?"

Bentley turned his head and said, "Yeah, Todd meditates every Friday for three hours. He does it to keep a firm grip on his mystical energies."

Sly then added, "You see my fare Carmelita, Todd wields a large amount of mystical energy. Most people who can call themselves mystics have to concentrate hard on what there doing, and say long winded spells to do half the stuff Todd does with a snap of his fingers. The only time he even looks at a spell book is he is performing a spell he isn't familiar with."

Carmelita said, "How can he have that much power?"

Sly shrugged and said, "We don't know how, or why he has such power. Anything that deals with magic seems to come naturally to Todd, but we think it has something to do with his blue fur."

Carmelita nodded as the group finished cleaning up and walked into the kitchen. Carmelita yawned slightly and looked over to the clock to see it was right around 8:00. She saw Sly and Murray sit down on the couch as Bentley began to dig in the cabinets on one side of the room. After a while he shouted from inside the cabinets, "So what do you guys feel like playing to night."

Sly looked over toward Carmelita before he said, "How about Clue, we haven't played that in a while."

Carmelita raised her eyebrow as she asked, "What is this all about Cooper."

Sly smiled slyly as he said, "Every Friday Bentley, Murray and I play a game. Some times me play a video game, but usually a board game. We do it to relieve some stress and ease any quarrels that may have popped up during the week between us." By this time Bentley had brought the Clue box over and was setting up the board. After everything was set up Bentley began to hand game pieces to the others. He handed the yellow piece to Sly, the purple piece to Murray, and he took the green piece for himself. He then held out the remainder of the pieces in one hand in front of Carmelita. Carmelita looked at the pieces a second before she picked the Red piece and set it on her space so the game could begin.

After a few minutes of playing everyone seemed to be doing pretty well. Sly and Carmelita seemed to be tied, but no one could tell. Sly had his usual winning smile on his face, but Carmelita's face showed no expression at all, a perfect poker face. Sly rolled the die and moved his piece into the kitchen and said, "I believe it was Mr. Green, in the Kitchen, with the rope." When no one told them they had a clue card to disprove his theory Sly smiled and began to reach for the envelope in the center of the game board.

Carmelita then spoke up and said, "Hold it Ringtail, how about we have a bit of a wager."

Sly smiled, unable to resist Carmelita's offer as he said, "All right. Twenty Frances say that my theory is right."

Carmelita began to smile as she said, "I bet thirty Frances that it was Mr. Green in the Dinning Room with the rope." Carmelita and Sly shook on their bet before Sly picked the case envelop up from the middle of the board and read what the right answer was. He read aloud, "Let's see, it was Mr. Green, with the rope, in the, "Sly then paused as he looked at the card. Carmelita waited for Sly to read the card, but after a few minutes of quite she grabbed the card out of his hand and began to smile wildly that it was the Dinning Room card, not the Kitchen card. Sly's brain caught up with his body as he said, "How is that possible?"

Carmelita mused as she said, "Well Cooper, did you notice you dropped a card at the beginning of the game?"

Sly looked down onto the floor where he saw the Kitchen card sitting on the carpet. He picked the card up as he said, "Carmelita you are sly as a fox, but you probably get that a lot."

Carmelita just continued to smile as she said, "Enough sweet talk Cooper, when are you planning to pay up." Sly just smiled as he reached into a pocket and pulled out a wallet. He fingered through the contents and handed Carmelita her winnings. After they had cleaned up the game Bentley and Murray had bid Sly and Carmelita good night, but before Sly could get down the hall Carmelita said from the stair well, "Good night Ringtail."

Sly stopped and turned to say, "Good night Carmelita, the fairest of them all." Carmelita just shook her head as she headed up stairs, where she would spend her first night as a member of the Cooper gang.

The following morning Todd, Bentley, Murray, and Sly were out of there bedrooms, dressed and ready for the day by 7:30. Todd, Bentley, and Murray headed out into the back yard while Sly climbed the stairs to the second floor. He waited a moment and then pounded on Carmelita's door. He heard Carmelita shout something in Spanish. After a few minutes he pounded again and this time he heard her say in English, "Go AWAY!"

Sly chuckled as he said, "Sorry Carmelita, but being a member of the Cooper gang means you have to come to the backyard every Saturday morning and join in the teams training.

Carmelita groaned and Sly heard her say, "Fine Cooper, I'll be down in fifteen minutes."

Sly smiled and said, "You better, or I'll have Todd poof you down to the backyard, in whatever you happened to be wearing." Sly smiled as he heard Carmelita jump out of bed and begin rummaging through her clothing. Sly walked down the stairs and out into the back yard. Bentley and Murray had gotten dressed in there field operation clothes, and Todd was also dressed in what would be called his Cooper Gang work cloths. He was dressed in set of black jeans, a black T-shirt, black shoes, and black gloves with white symbols on the palms. Carmelita came down ten minutes later dressed in her usual Interpol dress. She saw Todd and said, "Nice outfit, have something for black?"

Todd just shot Carmelita a quick glare before he snapped his fingers and then with out warning vanished into thin air. Carmelita looked around wildly, trying to find Todd when she heard a strange sound behind her and turned to be face to face Todd. Todd smiled and then took a few steps back. Once he was a few feet away from Carmelita he disappeared again after saying, "Catch me if you can Inspector."

Todd kept appearing a disappearing for 15 minutes before Carmelita finally said, "Alright, enough with the magic act.

Todd reappeared and lowered the hood of the cloak and said, "What I was just doing is called the Shadow Step. The Shadow Step is a spell of pure shadow energy that allows me to move completely undetected by sight, laser beam, spot light, or sound. I can still touch and hit things though."

Sly walked up behind Carmelita while Todd was explaining the basics of the shadow step. Then with out warning he touched her shoulder, and to his surprise she quickly took his hand and with amazing force pulled him over top of her head. Before Todd or Sly could react Carmelita sent Sly flying in Todd's direction and before he could move Sly hit him like a ton of bricks and they both went flying backwards another few feet before they hit the ground. Todd and Sly laid there dazed for a few moments before Sly came back to his senses and said, "Geez, glad I never tried that while you were chasing me. I would probably been put in jail a long time ago if I had." Sly then helped Todd up they both brushed a little dirt of there cloths.

Carmelita smiled to herself and then regained her composure as she said, "Well, are we going to get this practice started or can I go back to bed."

Todd shook his head and said, "Usually we each go doing are own thing, practicing skills we feel we need to work on. This Saturday is special though, today we are going to spend are morning training session teaching you the skills every thief needs to be successful."

Carmelita looked around the group and said, "Well then let's get this training started."

Sly walked up to Carmelita and lead her out to the center of the yard as Todd sat cross legged on the ground and watched. Sly nodded at Todd and he placed both his hands on the ground and soon a low rumble could be heard coming from underneath their feet. Suddenly the ground Carmelita and Sly were standing on began to rise up till it was even with the second floor patio. The Patio railing then began to twist and turn until it formed a perfectly straight rail between then patio and where Carmelita and Sly were standing.

Sly turned toward Carmelita and said, "Okay, first we'll start with the Cooper Rail walk."

This is how the entire morning went. Todd set up many different scenarios for Carmelita to learn and be tested on the four skills Sly had chosen for her to learn. The Rail Walk, the Rail Slide, the Ninja Spire Landing, and how to use a cane like Sly's to get around and to fight with.

To Todd and Sly's amazement their lesson plan which should have taken until right around noon only took them till 9:30. By then Carmelita was doing all the super thief moves like they were childes play. Sly was beginning to wonder if teaching Carmelita all these moves was such a good idea considering she may use them against him if she goes back to Interpol, but Todd was wondering about something else. He thought, "First she goes through the video game like it's a game of tic-tac-toe. Now she learns the super thief moves of the cooper family so fast, it as if it's in her blood. Wait, in her blood! That may be just something I might want to look into." Todd smiled as he returned the backyard to its original state and got up off the ground. He waited for Sly and Carmelita to come up to the side of the house before he said, "Carmelita, you seem to have a knack for these thieving moves. I am truly surprised."

Sly smiled as he looked toward Carmelita and said, "Make that two of us."

Carmelita nodded her head and said, "Three of use. I don't know why, but Cooper here explained it once, and it just seemed so easy to do."

Sly and Carmelita continued to talk as the trio walked into the house to see Bentley lost behind the pile of papers on his desk. When Sly asked where Murray was Bentley said he had gone out into the garage to work on the van. Sly sighed as he thought about Murray doing another thing to that already overly modified van. The rest of the day was pretty relaxed as Todd disappeared into his room to work on something while Sly watched Carmelita continue to whip through the Sly Cooper video game.