Runaways

Wow, that was a lot of reviews thrown at my head. Good thing none of 'em knocked me out... Anyway, I think I was typing way too fast, because it was supposed to say Sly would be in Chapter 7, not 9. Sorry about that. I feel like a complete idiot.

Chapter 7: Setting the Charges

The two cars were parked in a garage not far from where the guards' residence was. The occupants of the cars were bored, waiting for the time that the guards would all be asleep.

Kuma was in the back of the blue Volkswagen Jetta, playing Burnout Legends on his PSP. Jade and Mark were in front. Jade was snoring quietly, and Mark was writing in a notebook, the pencil making faint scratching noises.

Melody and Violet were in the black Porsche that Melody had taken from her parents' garage. They were talking, about nothing in particular, although at one point Melody started ranting about how screwed up the world was. Violet agreed with most of the stuff she said.

It was 11:30 pm. They were waiting for 12:30.

Time was going very slowly.

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It was 12:15. A blue van was parked in an alley next to an old three-story building in an abandoned industrial park.

Sly was already inside the residence, on the second floor. "Where do I go from here?"

Bentley answered almost immediately. "Get the fire escape doors on the side of the building unlocked, so Murray and I can get in."

Sly looked around. The red EXIT sign was to his ;eft, above the fire exit door. "Won't the alarm go off if I open that door?"

"No, I hacked the security system, so it won't go off. And all of the security cameras are offline too."

Sly opened the door. Murray and Bentley were already there.

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The clock in Melody's car said 12:20. She turned on the com system that connected the cars. "You three awake?"

She heard Jade swear faintly over the com line. Apparently she'd fallen asleep. She heard Kuma say "Now we are."

"Good. We're going now"

"It's still ten minutes early!" said Mark.

"If any of those guards are still awake now," said Violet, "they'll still be awake in ten minutes. It won't make a difference."

The Jetta reversed out of the parking lot. Melody followed it out.

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The Cooper gang were on the third floor. Bentley was setting up a small bomb that would weaken the pillar, making it collapse two or three minutes after the blast. Sly and Murray were beating up any guards who came to investigate. Things were going well, so far.

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The five teens were in the bottom floor, setting up a mini-nuke that would most likely flatten the building, as well as the old warehouses around it. Things weren't going well at all.

The reason only a few guards were going up to the Cooper gang was that most of the were going down to the basement to 'remove' the teenagers. The amount of bullets flying around reminded Violet of those high-budget, no-story action movies.

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Bentley had successfully set up the small bomb on the pillar on the third floor. They moved down to the second floor, and then they heard the pop of gunfire coming from the basement.

It was making Bentley very nervous; he didn't want to be stuck in the middle of a gang war. "I think we should leave, guys."

Sly was about to say No, we're going to finish this when a minor explosion rocked the building, knocking them off their feet. "Yeah, we're going to go."

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Jeez, thought Jade. Any closer and that would've set the entire thing off. One of the guards had shot a grenade that was lying on the floor. She guessed being that close to an explosion wasn't good for her ears, which were now ringing. She ducked behind a crate to avoid the bullets that were coming at her head, waited a second, and popped back out, shooting in the guard's direction.

The cut-off yell told Jade she'd hit him. "Nice one," yelled Melody from across the room, putting a fresh clip into her gun.

"It'sup!" yelled Kuma, moving away from the pillar and toward the door. They all followed.

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They had parked the cars in an alley away from the blast radius, so they wouldn't go up in flames. Jade was on the roof on the building next to them, filming the soon-to-happen explosion with a digital camcorder. None of the four in the alley noticed the blue van parked behind the cars right away.

"Those guards," said Mark, "have the sh--tiest aim in the world."

"Only slightly worse than yours, in other words," said Melody, laughing. She ducked the punch Mark aimed at her easily.

It was Violet who noticed the van first. "Where'd that come from?" she asked, pointing.

Kuma looked at it. "Dunno, wasn't there when we parked."

"Of course it wasn't," said a voice that came from behind them. They turned. A raccoon was standing there.

"Who the hell are you?" asked Melody tersely.

"Sly Cooper. I believe I met you before," he said, gesturing to Mark.

They didn't get to say anything else, as the explosion from the guards' residence shook the ground.

Violet was the first to recover. "Nice mushroom cloud."

"That was loud," said Kuma. His ears hurt.

"So I take it you were the ones in the basement? We heard you from the second floor." said Sly.

"We?" asked Melody.

"You didn't think I was the only one in the Cooper gang, did you?"

Jade landed silently on the ground next to them. "Got it... who are you?"

And that was how the five teens met Sly Cooper.

There, this one is done. NOW the next chapter with Sly in it is Chapter 9.