NOTES- Sly Cooper
and related characters are property of Sucker Punch. The Macavity name
is Andrew Lloyd Webber and/or T.S. Eliot. All of Nee's characters are
property of someguy, he's not that important. Little known fact: Almost
every bachelor knows how to make Spaghetti Bolognese, It's true. Note
Nee plays Iain.
Also if Noalyn is out there, Nee got a get well soon pic for your
computer, it on Nee's profile. Nee knows you've had trouble getting Nee's
emails so Nee thought Nee would tell you here.
Wheres my book - Stop asking Nee about the location of your book!... Oh sorry, Nee's just been told that's your name... It's a nice name, just confused Nee for a while. Okay, erm... Of course Nee replyed to you at the beginning, you take time to review Nee's story it's the least Nee can do. And as for what's going to happen, Nee will try to make the journey's path as interesting as Nee can for you.
Heiduska - Glad
you like DTNT. Waiting a long time? Sorry, Nee just has trouble
sometimes sticking to Nee's schedule. Nee trys for a fortnightly update
and that involes 1. Actually sitting down (that's the thing that
hardest) and plotting out the scene 2. Writing in the details And 3.
Sitting down Nee's proof reader, hinarei. THANK YOU hINAREI! (No
capital h). And that lot takes more time than it should. Anyway, hope
this chapter was worth the weight.
Bentley's a skill dentist, putting the tooth back in won't be a problem ;)
Winged
Sence - Thank you. Nee works so hard to capture how the characters all
act and Carmelita is one of the best Nee can work with. And putting
Carmelita and Sly together was always going to be a comic's goldmine.
Some writers around here take life too seriously, so it nice just to
chill out and make parts of your story as funny as smarK. Plus the
whole filth thing is just how Nee's Miss Fox speaks.
Felix-Don't give Carmelita any ideas, she might just use 'em. lol.
erickdragon101 - What can Nee say, Nee knows Sly. He's in love with the vixen, plus Sly needs to fill his ego sometimes. Nice to know Nee's streak of no mistakes continues. And it great you can't wait for the next chapter because hear it is...
Ch12 - The Legend Begins
As the vixen walked through the old nightclub, her stare lost in thought, an air of uncertainty filled the whole building. Predator and prey in the same room. Two of the Cooper gang looked terrified and lost for words, neither one believing that Inspector Carmelita Fox was there, in their hideout. Although they had agreed when Sly had ask if she could come in, they still couldn't believe it. The Cooper gang's third member and leader wasn't helping.
"As you can see, the interior is decorated in the traditional nightclub fashion with a touch of Latino Heat thrown in to give it a Spanish feel. We have a stage, a strobe-lighting room and neon bar. We did have a discoball but for some reason one of my friends dislikes 'em, and decided it had to die." The thief eyed the dumbstruck turtle. "The two statues over there are the Bent-du-ley and Venus-du-Murray, artists unknown but the creators of those particular pieces did a very good job in my opinion..."
"COOPER!" Sly's babble had broken throught the vixen's trance. Her internal conflict interrupted, Carmelita had to silence the talkative raccoon. "Daos, do you ever shut up? I didn't come for 'le Grand tour' of your flea-infested hovel. You said you knew where Kofi skulking, so are you going to tell me or do I have to rethink our deal?"
Sly smiled and sighed. "At once, my lady." Jumping up to the old DJ's decks above the bar, he continued: "One of our contacts was able to get a bug into a building Kofi is currently 'skulking' in." Flicking a few switches, the thief was able to play the incoming transmission through the speakers.
"Come on Iain, I'm bored out of my skull here..."
Hearing the mass murderer's voice over the radio made up her mind, any thoughts Carmelita had of just arresting Sly and his gang then and there vanished.
"What do you mean, I'm stuck here for another week?" The rough, harsh voice of Kofi rang out.
"He means you're stuck here for another week. Is that simple enough for you or do you want me to get out the flash cards?" The female Sly had heard before answered, her voice dripping with sarcasm.
"Please."
"What?"
"Please can you get out the flash cards?"
"I was being sarcastic!"
"Kofi, Macavity'sss Highlander One took all of Iain'sss fuel, and with nothing coming in till Sssaturday, you, Darkfire and Misty are Iain's lovely guessstsss." Iain's distorted and warped child-like voice joined in.
"Yay! We get to stay with Uncle Iain." A young girl said.
"Shh Misty, the grown-ups are talking. Sorry Iain, but unlike you and Kofi, me and my daughter are not wanted criminals. We'll be using the normal airport. Come on Misty, let's go." The sound of scraping chairs and a door being opened echoed in the old dance club.
"Ahhh but that place isss boring, they don't even play the 'Hide the Pilot' game."
"You're not gonna leave me here with Iain for a week are you? That's cruel and unusual!"
"I'm sure you'll get along grand. You're the 'cruel' and Iain's... currently trying to balance on his tongue."
"Iain doing it, Iain doing it, Iain..." There came a smash. "Iain isss Oookay"
"I hate you."
"And I you. See ya." The door closed.
"Don't worry Kofi, Iain will be your friend! Hugglesss!"
"Get off me, you sick freak!"
"How about sssome juice, it'sss quite ssspecial. It comesss in a boxsss."
"It gonna be a long week."
"So where is he?" Carmelita spoke when the conversation they were listening to devolved into what was the best flavour of juice. "It doesn't help knowing he'll be there for a week if we don't know where he is."
"He's... He's... He's currently in a building registered to an airfield owned by Iain Legend." Bentley fought his fear and spoke to the Interpol Officer.
"Well? What are we waiting for? Let's go!" Carmelita was halfway to the door before she even finished her sentence.
"Let's not." Sly was already leaning on said door, despite having to cover twice the distance the vixen had to cover. But to be fair, she marched, he ran. "We know he's there for a week, that gives us time to plan, do recon and recuperate. You wanna go aginst Kofi sporting that target?" Cooper pointed out the bandage Carmelita was still wearing. "Hey, Bent! Five days be long enough for that?"
"My calulations are indicating its possible. Although personal healing times will vary, recon and planning can feasibly be completed within three days."
"So what? You want me to sit back for five days and do nothing? Cooper, how long have I been chasing you?"
"Since the Slanora job."
"And in that time how much time off have I had?"
"None."
"Exactly! I'm not the sort of officer who lets a criminal take a breather."
"That's right. You're the sort of officer who can go all night long." Sly hadn't even realised what he said until Carmelita's fist hit the raccoon's stomach. "Oof... Sorry... Didn't mean it that way... Ooo... Look, how about when I do recon tomorrow, you come too?"
"Sigh Okay Cooper, but that had better be the last comment."
"I make no promises I can't keep. Now, will you be dining with us this evening? We picked up a lovely bottle of Don Cristobal Premium Malbec whilst in Argentina."
Had it not been for three things, Carmelita would have told the Ringtail where he could shove his Malbec. The first of these things was Carmelita hadn't eaten all day, a bad move after just leaving hopital. The second is she had no idea where she was, this place was in a whole mess of nameless streets. And thirdly, she knew Cooper would twist her words again.
"Change that wine to a beer and I'll think about eat here."
"Great! Sit yourself down at one of the tables, Murray's cooking tonight and me and Bentley got to get my mouth fixed. Oh and Murray, NO Noodles, got it?" Sly said, the young man was far too happy for someone about to see his dentist.
Five minutes later Sly was seated in a recliner in the cellar below the bar with Bentley, who was readying his dentistry tools. The crates of alcohol that were housed in this room had been 'desposed of' long ago, and it now played home for Dr Bentley's surgery. White tiled walls, a light grey lino floor and a modified white recliner made it easy to clean. Bentley stationed himself by the light grey countertop along the wall, preparing the tooth.
"Be a few more minutes for the radio to recharge..."
"Why does it take so long to do that?"
"When trying to fit a radio in to a tooth, things such as power consumption take a backseat to safety and size constraints... Do you think it was a good idea bring Carmelita back here?"
"Yeah, sure." Sly said with a goofy smile on his face. Bentley couldn't tell why, it may have been the drug Bentley had given Sly for the procedure or if Sly was about to make another remark. "Carmelita maybe an enemy to all things criminal, but she has this code of honour. If she says she won't take me in until this is done, she won't."
"And then what? What about me and Murray? I don't want to sound selfish or anything, but we can't just walk away from this and take up normal lives."
"Don't worry Bentley. She promised not to arrest you two as well. Look don't worry, everything's taken care of, I have a plan."
"That makes me more worried."
"At the moment I'm more concerned with Murray. He hasn't spoken at all since I got back." Sly got up to look at the charger.
"Well he has just been thrown around by a monster. It's natural to be a bit shaken up." Bentley said pushing Sly back down into the seat. "You know the rules, after I've given you your pre-procedure drug, no getting up until it's done."
"You think I should have a word with him?"
"Couldn't hurt, this on the other hand..." The turtle took the tooth out of the charger and grabbed a clamp. "...will."
The pink one in question was in the kitchen (which had at one point been the staff breakroom), preparing the dinner, soup for the raccoon and Spaghetti Bolognese for the rest. However the scent of the sauce didn't have it's usual effect on the hippo. Normally the smell of bolognese picked him up no end but today he'd failed. He'd failed his friends, he'd failed the citizens of Paris and he'd failed himself. That villain, kofi, had taken The Murray and treated him like a rag doll. He was no superhero.
"So does Cooper have other thieving enhancements?" Carmelita had moved into the little yellow room when The Murray had gone to make dinner. For the first half hour, she busied herself by stripping down her Shock Pistol on the table in the centre of the small room and giving the barrel a clean. Now that she'd finished putting the thing back together, she had to keep her mind off what she was getting herself into. "Wouldn't surprise me. Probably just a common everyday thief without them. Ha. The great Cooper, nothing but a guy with a gadget or two. That foolish raccoon has a built-in automatic lockpick in his left buttcheek, right?" The hippo wasn't talking, either he was very rude or just too dumb to answer. 'Knowing criminals the way I do it's probably a bit of both.'
"Carmelita, if you wished to discuss my butt you should have said." Cooper was surpisingly up and as talkative as ever. He had to use the wall to walk but his mouth showed no sign of stopping. After letting the cop snarl at him for a little while, the raccoon continued. "As far as gizmos go, when you have as much natural talent as me a hidden radio is more than I need. I only had this put in to make Bentley relax a little. The guy's a heart attack waiting to happen. Now if it isn't too much to ask, could you keep an eye on the dinner whilst I steal the chef for a moment?" Before the vixen could answer, the raccoon had whisked his cumbersome friend out the kitchen and in to the main dancing and drinking room. Now the number of things she could do was limited, she did the only other thing she could do in that situation...
Just outside the door, on the one of the red tables that hung on the outskirts of the main room, Sly sat his friend down and took his seat adjacent to the hippo. Even though it was always just the Cooper gang, all the tables were fully set up, partly because when the gang ate in they wanted to have a choice of table. And also it was easier to do that then moving all the glasses and cutlery around. Before either one spoke, the thief grabbed the bottle of wine he'd talked about before from the table behind him and poured some of it into the two glasses on the table, knowing that by now his fast metabolism would have burnt the dental drug out of his system... After all since they're not having it for dinner, it'd be a crime to waste it.
"Sooo... how are you?"
"...I'm fine Sly, why'd you ask?"
"Because of THAT!" Cooper caught on to that one quick. "You said 'I'm', not The Murray. So I will ask again, how are you?"
"I'm... fine, Sly. Really."
"Look, Murray, I know when you've got something on your mind, we've been pals since we were eight. Is it about what happened today?" The hippo remained silent but nodded. "First time you've been knocked about by someone bigger than you, isn't it?" Once more the hippo glumly nodded. Even in the Happy Campers Orphanage, Murray was so big no one could lift him, over time as the gang got to on bigger and bigger criminals, Murray confidence had grown and grown. He was seemingly invicible. Unfortunately that had set him up for a bigger fall, a more destructive blow to the hippo's self esteem. "Murray it's okay. I've got to admit, we've faced some tough customers in the past but that guy was just scary."
"Sly... I'm... was meant to be the scary one. I'm meant to be The Murray, the thing evildoers fear. But he just laughed at me. How am I meant to scare that thing if I'm not strong enough, how am I supposed to protect you and Bentley if I can't even protect myself?"
"Murray... Remember when Commando Carrot had his roots handed to him by that sexy but deadly SpaceGirl Uderzo. Did he give up? I think not!"
"It was Captain Carrot fighting Goscinny and he did..."
"Excuse me?" Sly raised a eyebrow as he drank his Don Cristobal Premium Malbec.
"Captain Carrot. He gave up when he was beaten by Goscinny in issue #2008. That was the end of the series." And for a moment the master thief was quiet, then he answered.
"What do you want from me? I don't read those things, I just glance at the covers of yours from time to time. The point I'm trying to make is SuperHeroes don't... Shouldn't give up."
"I'm not a SuperHero, Sly! They only exist in stories that don't have anything to do with real life. I'm just a big dumb oaf for believing in them!" Murray could feel the tears welling up inside of him. Sensing that the big guy was about to cry, Sly just sat back and said the only thing he could think of...
"You're not a oaf, Murray. And you may not be the sharpest lockpick but you still can bust a lock..."
Before Sly could finish that thought a loud crash came from the Kitchen followed by a lot of Spanish swearing. The thief was a mere blur. If anything had happened to Miss Fox, she'd blame him. And he'd blame himself. The image that hit his eyes was one he'd remember for the rest of his days.