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 characters that I have personally created and the other elements of the story I have created my self.

Chapter 5

Dinner for Two

Eclipse was determined to make the Iron Pegasus a great creation. So, after some persuading, he got Bentley, Penelope, Sly, and Carmelita to take a 10 day couples cruise. He paid for anything, and before they knew it the two pairs of love birds were waving good bye to Eclipse. Once the ship was far enough away Eclipse speed off toward the old warehouse where the train was stored and began his great endeavor to make the Iron Pegasus his own creation.

Bentley and Penelope's room was located on the other end of the ship, so the group was split in two for most of the cruise. Bentley and Penelope stayed to themselves most of the time, and Carmelita and Sly spent their time together. There was a lot to do on the ship, from rock-climbing, to swimming, to skating. If you can imagine it, it probably had a place somewhere on the ship.

When Sly and Carmelita first saw the room they both blushed quite a bit when they noticed that there was only one bed, and that they would be sharing it for the entire cruise. The uncomfortable feel soon passed and they began to enjoy themselves. On the first day they spent the entire morning roller skating around the ships deck. After a quick lunch Carmelita convinced Sly to show her how to do the rail walk. It was easy to find places to practice on the huge ship, and soon Sly and Carmelita were racing, trying to see who could rail walk the fastest from one end of the ship to the other.

Sly and Carmelita spent the first 5 days of the cruise doing everything and anything the ship had to offer, and growing all the closer the entire time. The only time the pair spied Bentley and Penelope was when the pair was catching some rays on the ship's deck. They were both fast asleep, but they also had smiled on their faces. On the 6th day the ship had it official couples day. They offered many romantic activities, all of it leading up to a grand firework show being launched from the ships highest deck.

Carmelita and Sly took full advantage of the day, and by the end Sly had set himself on what he was going to do. During the entire trip Sly's mind set grew stronger. A few months ago he had been walking down the street when something in a shop window caught his eye. It was a ring. The ring had a gold band and a three diamonds on it, the two smaller diamonds were normal while the center was a rare blue diamond. Sly bought that ring then and there, and had always planned to give it to Carmelita some day. Now, he felt the firework show at the end of the day would be the best time, but how would he do it. Kneeling down and holding her hand as he popped the question was classy, but terrible unoriginal. Sly needed a special way to do it, and then he got struck with the perfect idea.

Sly spent the first half of the couple's day with Carmelita, doing everything they could. Then, an hour after lunch Sly faked food poisoning and was able to ditch Carmelita. He quickly found Bentley who was in the process of beating Penelope in a game of chess. After some quick (hello)'s and (how are you)'s Sly got to business as he said, "Bentley, I need you to find something out for me."

Bentley looked up after moving his queen and said, "What is it Sly?"

Sly replied, "I need to know who is doing the fireworks tonight. Is it possible you can find that out for me?"

Bentley chuckled as he checkmated Penelope and said, "Give me five minutes." Bentley was true to his word. It took him five minutes to find out who the captain had hired to do the fireworks show. The show was usually done by the cruise company's own staff, but they were short handed for that cruise and brought on a temporary specialist to do the fireworks show. Bentley was extremely surprised to find out that they had hired the Panda King to do the fireworks for the cruise. Sly didn't remember the Panda King, but he hoped that he would be willing to do him a favor.

Bentley got Sly the Panda King's room number, and he was knocking on the door 15 minutes later. A loud voice bellowed that it was open and Sly slowly entered. He saw the Panda King in his monk robes meditating on his bed. Panda King raised a lazy eye to see who it was, and then both his eyes flew open with surprise when he saw Sly standing in his door way.

Sly was a little worried when the Panda King got up the bed and stomped over to where Sly was, but instead of pounding Sly into a pulp he gave Sly a crushing hug. He told Sly how happy he had been since the Cooper Vault job. About 4 months earlier his daughter finally met a respectable guy that she liked, and they were quickly wed. This freed up a lot of time for Panda King, so he tried to become a firework artist again. Unlike the first time, his fireworks quickly became world renowned as the best fireworks ever. He had even developed fireworks that could take the shapes of almost anything, from flowers to grand Chinese dragons.

Sly smiled at this and then asked, "So, you can make them take any shape."

Panda King nodded and said, "Yes, it is a very delicate process, but I have become very good at quickly producing those glorious fireworks."

Sly smile widened as he said, "Then, can you do something for me?"

Panda King replied, "Speak your request Cooper."

Sly said, "I want you to make a few fireworks. One needs to produce the Cooper Gang logo. I believe you know what I am talking about."

The Panda King nodded his head and Sly continued as he said, "Second, I need you to make one that when it is fired off it will spell out a sentence for me."

The Panda King eyed Sly for a second before he asked, "What sentence do you wish to be spelled out in my glorious fireworks?"

Sly replied, "Will you marry me?"

The Panda King quickly put two and two together and congratulated Sly on finding someone he loves. His curiosity soon got the better of him and he asked Sly who the lucky lady was.

Sly smiled a devilish grin as he said, "I believe you know her. Her name is Carmelita Montoya Fox." The Panda King did a double take, but then smiled again and promised Sly he would have the fireworks ready. Sly thanked him again, and as he left he asked, "Oh, one more thing Panda King. You feel like being my gang's explosives expert again?"

The Panda Kind put his hands together and said, "It would be an honor to work with you again Sly Cooper, and maybe this time it won't be so short lived."

Sly nodded and left Panda King to his work of creating the very special fireworks. He caught up with Carmelita a few minutes later and they spent the rest of the day in pure bliss. When it came time for the firework show Sly lead Carmelita to the perfect spot to watch the fireworks. As the music played over the cruises PA system the fireworks dazzled the entire ship. Once it was done almost every passenger went to be except for Sly and Carmelita.

Sly just smiled as he said, "Wait Carmelita, I don't think its over yet."

Carmelita gave Sly a quizzical look until she heard the sound of another firework being let off. When it exploded the Cooper Gang logo lit up the sky, and Carmelita instantly knew that Sly had planned something. She was about to turn and chew Sly out when she heard another firework shooting through the night sky. She watched as it exploded and the falling sparks formed a message for a few seconds before they disappeared into the night. When she turned around Sly was down on one knee, and he was holding out a small black fabric box. Carmelita's hand was shaking as she took the box and gently opened it. She gasped as she saw the beautiful ring, and while she was caught up in the rings beauty Sly said, "So, what is your answer?"

Carmelita brushed away a tear and then swung her arms around Sly's neck and kissed him passionately on the lips. Once their lips parted she said, "I will marry you Sly Cooper. Be you officer of Interpol of master thief I will marry you."

Sly smiled and said, "You know something, I was hoping you would say that."

The cruise ended too soon for anyone's taste, but it had proved beneficial in more ways then one. Penelope and Bentley had spent some quality time together, growing even closer. They had gotten Panda King back with the gang, and Sly and Carmelita were engaged. Eclipse met them at the dock, and was quite surprised when he got his first glimpse of the Panda King. The awkward moment passed quickly and Eclipse asked how the cruise was.

Carmelita just giggled a little and held out her hand. Eclipse looked down and saw the ring around Carmelita's finger. It took a few seconds to register what it meant, but soon Eclipse just smiled and said, "I should have know better then to make you two share a bed. Oh well, I guess it was going to happen sooner or later."

Eclipse lead the 5 cruise goers to the old warehouse that he had been working in. When he pushed back the hanger doors the other 5 awed at what he had accomplished. He had completely redesigned the Iron Pegasus train. It looked like an old steam engine, but instead of train wheels the pistons were attached to four large fans, two on each side of the engine. They also saw that Eclipse had designed a fuel car, and 8 passenger style cars that could fly with the train. The entire train was painted a dark blue and on the engines front the Cooper Gang logo could be seen.

Eclipse motioned toward each car in row and said, "Behold, the flying train I call Sky Serpent. The engine is, of course, the completely redone Iron Pegasus. Going from the engine back the first car is operations. It has all the comforts and technical equipment of a safe house. It includes a built in slideshow projector, viewing screen, computer with a direct thief net uplink, and much more. The second car is a living and recreation room. This thing fly a bit slower then the modern aircraft, so I planned it so you can walk between the cars while in the air and offered many ways to entrain yourself. The living room has satellite TV, some very comfortable furniture, multiple game systems and games to go with them, a large bookcase with a wide selection of novels, and something to tailor to any interest you might have. The third car is the kitchen and dining car, enough said."

The others followed Eclipse as he walked down the side of the train and stopped by the forth car and said, "Now, we start seeing our passenger cars. Each passenger car is designed so a hallway goes around three of the four edges of the car. This design allows the maximum amount of floor space for the actual bedrooms, and making it possible to get a little privacy. The forth car we will give to Sly and Carmelita, the soon to be Mr. and Mrs. Cooper. The fifth car we will give to Penelope and Bentley. The sixth and seventh cars will have to be split up between the other Cooper gang members. They have been split in the middle so that each member has an individual room. The final car you notice is shorter. It is a one person car, and where I will be staying. It offers a direct link with the front of the train. This will allow me to either run to the front or end of the train in the event I have to take emergence control of the train's flight path."

Bentley looked at the train for a bit before he said, "I have to admit, this is amazing. I bet Murray would love this."

Eclipse smiled as he said, "Well, you are in luck Bentley, because are next stop is the tourist hot spot Drag Strip Island where they will soon be holding the Inter-Professional league races for the title Champion of the Track. Due to Murray's recent winning streak he is one of the favorites to win the title."