Sly Cooper

And

The Shadow Thief

Chapter One: Framed

! IMPORTANT NOTE !

I am a supporter of the Sly x Carmelita pairing, but it's dampened a bit by the fact that the two are different animals. S A raccoon and a fox… kinda weird, don't you think?

So, this story is about what would happen if Sly met another raccoon. Don't worry, Carmelita won't be left alone. She'll find someone in this story, too.

I just typed this all out so none of you would think I like to destroy couples. 'Cause most people seem to think I do… P

Thank you and enjoy!

P.S. I haven't yet beaten the Sly 3 game, so if all my facts aren't strait, please forgive me.

Disclaimer: If I owned Sly Cooper, I'd be working on the next one. Not writing Fan Fics.

It was the early hours of the morning in Paris, France, and the notorious thief, Sly Cooper, could just barely see through the dark. He had only the moon's glow to guide him as he did a rail-slide here, and ninja-spire jump there…

Things had been pretty boring after they had assembled the team that helped Sly open his family's vault. And now, he was alone again. After being separated, Sly had moved back to Paris. Partially because Carmelita was there, and he hoped Murray and Bentley would've done the same, in hopes of them all finding each other.

Sly did have a way of contacting Bentley, though. Bentley had left his lap-top computer in their old hide-out. Unfortunetley, the thing was so slow, (because Bentley had so much stuff on the hard drive) that Sly didn't bother to try and get it working. He wasn't much of a computer genius, anyway.

Sly was more of the action type guy. But since the team had been separated (again, I might add), here was no action. No Bentley to tell him that something else was up, no Murray to drive the van, no… van. Just Sly with two extra beds in their little, old, rundown train-car that had been their hideaway for years.

Sly climbed his way up a lamp-post, and did a ninja-spire jump up to the top. Her perched there, looking across beautiful Paris. But he sighed. It wasn't the same without Bentley and Murray. And he was bored! He was restless, and had been going out every night, hoping that something, anything, would happen and grab his attention.

Well that night he got his wish.

He was gazing boredly at the Eiffel Tower in the distance when he heard the sound of police sirens. He looked to see what was going on, and saw… dozens of police cars heading towards the Louvre. Curiosity got the better of Sly, and he made his way towards the Louvre as well. If Carmelita was on the job tonight, and she probably was, Sly knew it would take them a while to inspect the place if there was a theft. So, he would be able to hear what was going on by the time he got there.

He crawled his was expertly beneath the police cars, so he wouldn't be seen by the cops that were around, and crawled to the one nearest to the Louvre, and Inspector Fox. She was barking out orders in that typical way of hers.

"Keep careful watch!" She called out to the other officers. "Do not let your guard down! If Cooper gets away, we'll be out here all night trying to find him!"

'Cooper…?' Sly thought, confused. 'I didn't steal anything from the Louvre…'

"Inspector Fox!" An officer called to her, running out of the museum. "It's the Mona Lisa! It's gone!"

"The Mona Lisa!" Carmelita said in alarm. Then she grew thoughtful. "It doesn't seem like Cooper to steal such an important artifact…"

"He left his calling card," The officer said, and held out a paper-folding of a blue raccoon face; The Cooper Clan symbol. Sly narrowed his eyes when he saw it. Something was definitely wrong here… and he was going to right it.

Slowly and carefully making his way back the way he came, his heart sank and was filled with fear when he heard Inspector Fox shout out, "Search the town! Track him down! We won't let him get away with stealing the Mona Lisa. We'll—there he is!'

He wouldn't be able to escape at least three dozen police officers! So he waited for the police the pounce him… but they didn't. He heard Carmelita's shock pistol go off, but it wasn't aimed at him. Crawling the rest of the way through beneath the cars, Sly ran to an area out of sight of the officers. He looked up to the roof of a building, and saw a figure running and jumping, dodging the blasts from Carmelita's gun. He took out his Binoc-u-com, and zoomed in on the person. He didn't see them very well, except for the painting strapped to their back.

The Mona Lisa!

"Score," Sly said smiling. He decided he was going to steal it back for Carmelita… and to hopefully clear his name of this particular theft. Sly didn't like being framed.

Climbing up a lamp-post, Sly managed to catch up with this the thief. He pursued them until they stopped, and when they did, Sly called out to them, "You know, I don't exactly think you'll make a good reputation as a thief by framing other thieves. Normally thieves take credit for their own heists."

The person turned when he spoke, and then dashed away again. Sly smiled as he followed after them. Feeling confident, he kept a little distance between the two of them. And he smiled even more when he saw the next rooftop was little bit farther away than the one before. He also saw that this new thief hesitated when they saw it. They probably couldn't make the jump… but they tried anyway, and fell. Sly skidded to a halt at the edge of the roof when he heard the scream. It was a female's scream. So, his 'framer' was a girl.

Being a gentleman, and a ladies' man, he rail-walked the electrical wire that was between the two houses to the other side of the roof. The girl was hanging on to the same wire, and Sly had only gone to the other roof to help her. He held out his hand to her. She didn't take it.

"Come on," He said. "I want to help you."

"Drop dead!" the girl snapped. Sly raised an eye-brow.

"So you're just going to hang there all day?" He asked.

"I'll get up myself," She said arrogantly, and Sly watched with an amused expression as she tried to use her cane to hook onto something protruding from the wall. His amused expression was quickly turned to shock when it hit him.

She had a cane, and Sly was rather… bemused as to how she managed to obtain one identical to his. The hook was the same shape; the rod was the same length. He could have sworn the entire cane was made out of the same material as his. The only difference was the hook was silver, not gold.

He went back to watching the girl, and he saw that she managed to hook her cane onto the thing that was sticking out of the brick of the building. However, when she let go of the electrical wire, she smacked into the wall of the building. Sly had to try hard not to laugh. It really was rather pathetic to watch her…

The girl scoffed, and then looked up at him. "Fine! I'll accept your help. But don't expect anything in return!"

"I wouldn't dream of it," Sly said with a dashing grin, and held his hand out to her again. She took it this time, though rather reluctantly, and Sly pulled her up with ease. She was really light…

"Thank you," The girl said in an irritated tone. Sly just smiled at her again.

"Not a problem," He replied. "I always help out fellow thieves."

Then he noticed what she was wearing. He was definitely starting to get weirded out. She was wearing a costume identical to his. From the belt, to the gloves, to the hat, it was the same. Except for the color. It was a really dark navy blue that could have been easily mistaken for black. He took a slow step towards her, which she must've not noticed, and pulled her hat of her head. She swiped for it when he took it, but he pushed her back.

"Hold on a sec," He said, and he took off his own hat to compare the two. Yep, they were the same. He gave her a suspicious look, and then he realized he could see her features. She had her hair tucked up into the hat when she was wearing it, so only now could he see that it was dark, long, and full of luster. She had beautiful sapphire blue eyes, but they were looking at him in anger at the moment. She was also a raccoon. Around her eyes, making them stand out even more, was a black 'mask' like band. She was really quite lovely. She was almost as lovely as Carmelita. Almost.

"Stop staring," The girl ordered, and she swiped her hat back from Sly. He smiled at her again as she tucked her hair up into it again.

"My apologies," He said. "But I don't think I've seen you around Paris before."

"I'm just starting out as a thief," The girl said in that same, arrogant way. But Sly smiled. He was used to dealing with women like this.

"Ah. That explains it. Just one question, though; did you steal anything from the Louvre recently?"

The answer to this was obvious, for the Mona Lisa was strapped to her back. She glared at him, and then sighed, took the painting off her back, and chucked it at him. "Here. I don't need it."

"Thanks a bunch," Sly said. "One more question; why did you frame me for stealing this?"

She gave him an outraged look, and muttered, "Typical Cooper."

"Sorry?" Sly asked.

"Read the first few pages of the Thievius Raccoonus. That'll tell you." She said, and she started to walk away, flipping her cane like he usually did.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!" Sly said quickly, causing her to stop and give him a look-back stare. "How do you know about the—"

"Like I said," She interrupted. "Read the first few pages."

"Then meet me back here in an hour!" Sly called after her as she started to climb down a pipe to the street below. It was at the opposite side of the building where she almost fell.

"Fine!" She yelled up to him. "Just read it!"

Sly thought for a moment up on the roof. This was definitely weird… then he remembered the priceless painting in his hands, and he decided to take it back to Carmelita. He maneuvered his way beneath the cars like he did before, and once he was underneath the Inspector's car, he scribbled a note on a piece of paper (shaped like the Cooper Clan symbol of course), stuck the note to the picture frame, and then slipped it into the passenger side of the car. Then he snuck away so he could read what that girl had told him to… he wanted answers.

Carmelita came back to her car after she had lost Sly. She wasn't going to do any good on foot, so she would drive around town looking for him. She climbed into the car, turned the key into the ignition, and then she noticed the painting sitting next to her. Mona Lisa's smile reminded her forcefully of Sly. The way that smile suggested that she knew something that they didn't… did she know where Sly was?

Then Carmelita noticed the blue, raccoon face-shaped sticky note stuck to the frame, and she pulled it off.

The note read:

Dearest Carmelita,

Sorry about all the trouble you went through trying to find this painting. I'll have you know I would never steal suck an important artifact – even if I am a thief.

I found the Mona Lisa for you. Now you won't get in trouble again.

Yours Truly,

Sly

A/N: W00t! First chapter! I hope you liked it. This is gonna be one long, weird, messed up story. It's based on a Role Play a friend and I did. So… see you all next chapter!