Author Note: This is a formal appology for not being able to update in a timely manner. You know how it is though were so many things get in the way of your hobbies, the things you actually want to do. I am now trying to make up for the lack of chapters by having another chapter ready in a few days, but don't quote me or anything.

Chapter 7

Recon and Six Shooters

Tennessee Kid Cooper looked around the room a bit, and then over at Sly before he smiled and said, "Well shoot boy, your dressed just like me, but you have your fathers face. So, what in the Rocky Mountains am I doing here, and who just hauled me back to the world of the living like a freshly caught fish?"

Blain stood up, and smiled weakly as he said, "That would be me Mr. Cooper."

"Mr. Cooper was my father, everybody just calls me Tennessee. Now, what is going on here?" Bentley quickly jumped in at this point, and gave Tennessee a complete run down of everything that happened. When he finished, Tennessee whistled as he said, "Well, I say you guys are in one heap of trouble. Still Sly, I am proud to see you doing the right thing and helping a, oh what would that old knight Sir Cooper call her, damsel in distress."

Sly laughed, "You might want to be careful Tennessee. If Carmelita heard you saying that, you would be covered in lumps. Even if you are a ghost, she would find a way."

"Well, I can have a little talk with the fiery spirited woman later. Right now, I say we have some work to do."

Blain nodded his head, "Yes. Now, Sly, Tennessee, this might feel strange, but trust me. If something starts to go wrong I will stop the whole thing and try again. Now, Tennessee could you put your hand on or in Sly's shoulder." Tennessee nodded his head, and floated over beside Sly. Tennessee's ghostly hand went down on Sly's shoulder, and then disappeared a bit as his hand sunk into Sly's clothing. Sly's felt his shoulder go strangely cold, but he couldn't say anything about it because Blain had already begun to cast his spell.

A ring of blue light formed around Sly and Tennessee, and then began to shrink. When the ring was small enough, it began to force Tennessee to float farther into Sly's body. When the ring finally closed around Sly's waist, there was no sign of Tennessee. Sly had shut his eyes, and he now opened them. Murray and Bentley were silent for a few moments, but then Murray asked, "Sly, are you okay."

Sly nodded his head, and then said, "Everything's all right Murray." Bentley and Murray literally jumped back when they heard Sly's voice. It sounded like he and Tennessee were talking at the same time. Blain just smiled, sliding open the window as he said, "All right Sly, Tennessee, you two have an hour before my spell will wear off. You will have to steal a pencil and paper to do it, but we need you to make a rough map of the area. You got that."

Sly nodded his head, and was out the window a second later. In his mind, Sly could feel his ancestor's presence, helping to guide his thoughts and motions. Sly ran along the small balcony that lined the windows, and then made his way to the rough. He looked around, and then saw a few discarded pieces of paper lying on the roof. He quickly scooped them up, and then a few minutes later found a pencil lost on the street. With a pencil and paper in his pocket, Sly rail walked along a series of ropes all the way to the northern edge of town to the mine.

The large silver mines were silent, standing like a great metal giant against the cliff side that held the precious metal. Sly reached the foot of the cliff, but could not see a way up. This was not true for Tennessee, who could clearly see a place he could rail walk. Tennessee led Sly over to a very thin and rusty pipe that went all the way up the cliff. Usually, Sly would have tried to climb the pipe, but Tennessee had a different idea. Tennessee gently guided Sly's steps, and soon they were rail walking at a full run up the almost vertical pipe. When they reached the top, Sly's heart was pounding, but inside his head Tennessee was saying, "Come on boy. All of your ancestors, including your father, did put entries into the Thievius Raccoonus, but we each kept a little secret about our techniques in case the book was to fall into the wrong hands. What we just did was the vertical rail walk, the pinnacle of my career."

Sly shook his head, slowing down his breathing as he said, "How did we do that?"

Tennessee guided Sly back over to the edge of the cliff, and pointed at the pipe, "Look down the pipe. Notice it bends, and it has joints every few feet. The vertical rail walk is designed to take advantage of any nick, crack, or joint in a pipe or another thin surface to transport the thief up. The only thing that we couldn't use the rail walk on is a brand new pipe with no joints anywhere."

Sly nodded his head, examining the pipe, "That is amazing. I will have to remember that."

"Darn tooten. Now, take a seat on the edge of the cliff, and get the pencil and paper out. I may have been a master thief, but I fancied myself quite the artist when it came to drawn maps."

Sly shrugged, and did as Tennessee said. He took a seat, taking the paper and pencil out of his pocket. Soon, Tennessee to control of Sly's hand and the pencil began to fly over the page as Sly's eyes continued to dart back and forth between the paper and the town below. Roughly fifteen minutes later, Tennessee had drawn an amazingly detailed map of the entire area. He smiled, admiring his work as he said, "There, a fine map of Silver Ridge and the surrounding area, courtesy of Tennessee Kid Cooper."

Inside Sly's body, Tennessee smiled, and then had Sly stand up as he said, "Now, lets get a map of that fancy stadium over there." Sly nodded his head, and began to make his way down, through Silver Ridge, to the stadium. Strangely, the stadium lights were on and there was someone working in the middle of the field. Sly crept up onto the roof that covered the stadium seats, and protected them from the sun and rain.

It was Two Ton Tom and a few other bulls. At first, it looked like they were flattening out the arena, but Sly then saw that they were laying down strange flat boards.

Out of impulse, Tennessee took control of Sly's body, and began to draw a map of the entire stadium, including every spot where they saw Two Ton Tom's henchmen bury the strange devices. An hour later, the field looked like nothing had happened, and Two Ton Tom moved out into the middle. He smiled a bit, and then lifted up his arm and set his hand on his watch. With the gentle press of a button, a small laser beam began to shoot out of the watch. Two Ton Tom pointed the beam at one of the buried devices, and then pressed a second button on his watch. In an instant, the square device under the soil made a gentle shake. Then, with out warning, the square plate shot up into the air, a powerful spring driving it up into the air.

Tennessee and Sly watched, and once the stadium lights were off and everybody else was long gone, they began to make their way back to the hotel. In a few minutes, Sly leapt through the open window. Blain, Bentley, and Murray turned their heads, and smiled as Blain said, "That didn't take you two very long. Oh, hold on a second." Blain's eyes glowed for a second, and he slashes his arm at Sly. In an instant, the spell he had used to fuse Sly with Tennessee disappeared and the old west train robber floated out of Sly's body.

Sly shook his head, walking over to hand the map to Bentley, "I can tell you one thing for sure. That was one recon mission I won't ever forget."

Tennessee nodded his head, "Darn tooten Sly, but I think you should tell your turtle friend there about what we saw that snake in bull's clothing, Two Ton Tom, doing at the stadium."

A few minutes after Sly finished telling Bentley about the strange devices, he nodded his head and said, "They sound like ejector panels, and powerful ones at that. Still, I doubt Two Ton Tom would risk using them during the first two competitions. Those have rules, and he probably wouldn't risk breaking his own rules until the final competition, where the rules are thrown out."

Blain nodded his head, "I agree, but we don't have time to worry about it now. It's approximately 11:00, and some of us have to be up by 7:00 tomorrow if we are going to make the first part of the True Texas Cowboy competition. Come on Sly, let's get some shut eye."

The gang began to settle down for the night, all except for Tennessee who just floated in the middle of the room. Finally, he moved over to Blain and asked, "Well what in tar nation am I supposed to do while you tenderfoots sleep?"

Blain groaned, looking up at Tennessee as he said, "You can do what ever you want. You're a ghost. Go scare someone down the street." Tennessee grumbled, biting down hard on his cigar as he floated over to the window, turned around, and took a seat in mid air.

The next morning, all five of them awoke bright and early before they began to prepare for the first part of the True Texas Cowboy competition. Around 7:30 the group headed down to the hotel's lobby. Tennessee disappeared for a while, going on ahead to the stadium while Sly, Bentley, Murray, and Blain grabbed a quick breakfast. They left the hotel around 8:00 and arrived at the stadium a few minutes later. Bentley and Murray went up into the stadium's stands to get some seats while Blain and Sly went down to wait with the rest of the competitors. There were at least a hundred other cowboys and cowgirls waiting there turn at the target range.

Blain managed to find Tennessee bothering some guy in the bathroom, and then quickly performed Spirit Unity between Tennessee and Sly. Tennessee, back when he was alive, was a dead eye. He could hit any target, no matter the range, and Sly would need his help to get past this part of the competition.

At 8:30 the first part of the competition began. The stands were filled with people who had come to watch the gun competition, and they all cheered as the announcer's voice came over the stadiums speakers. The announcer was a vulture with strong voice, and he said, "Welcome all to the first part of the True Texas Cowboy competition. I am now proud to introduce our first entrant, the mayor of Silver Ridge, and the winner of this competition for the past ten years running, TWO TON TOM."

The crowd exploded with cheers as Two Ton Tom walked out into the center of the arena. He gave a gentle tip of the hat to the crowd, and then pulled out his two six shooters. A hush fell over the crowd, and then the challenge began. All around the stadium, six clay disk throwers that were positioned under the bleachers began to warm up. They turned back and forth a bit, and then a moment later one of them fired of a clay disk.

Two Ton Tom moved quickly, turning to look at the disk as he aimed his gun and fired. None of the disks passed in front of the crowd, thus eliminating the risk that someone would accidentally get shot. Two Ton Tom moved quickly, and shot down the first disk. Then, two more disks were launched, and he shot them both down. Then, came four at one time and Two Ton Tom pegged all four of them. Then, in the final round of disks, the last six clay targets were launched. Two Ton Tom shot down five of the six. That was the point of the competition is with two six shooters, you had twelve shots. You had to pick the one pigeon you had the least likely chance of hitting, and make it the one you don't shoot down.

The crowd cheered as Two Ton Tom turned, and tipped his hat before walking out of the arena. The competition proceeded pretty smoothly. Some of the other competitors were great shots, and others were just pitiful. Still, only a handful of them managed to get eleven of the thirteen clay disks, and no one else had managed to get a hit with all twelve of their shots.

It was just after noon when it was Blain's turn. Bentley and Murray cheered for him as he stepped out into the stadium grounds, he picked the two, silver six shooters out of there holsters, and held them tightly in each hand. He tipped his head down, closing his eyes as the crowd fell silent. Then, the first disk was launched.

The disk flew through the air for a few minutes, and just got in front of Blain when he his head and swung up in one smooth motion and he shot the clay disk into pieces. The next two came, and they quickly met the same fate. Soon, Blain was down to his the last group of disks where six were launched at once. He closed his eyes again, tuning his ears into the disk throwers that hummed behind him. Then, they all launched at the same time.

Blain lifted his guns straight above his head and began to shoot down the disks before they even got in front of him. Then, there was only one left. Blain did not stop though. He quickly holstered one of the guns and grabbed the other one by the muzzle as he ran after the disk. The crowd was wondering what he was doing until he reared back and threw the gun. The gun flew through the air, and with a resounding crash it broke the thirteenth disk into pieces.

The crowd roared with applause, but Blain paid it all no mind as he picked up the gun he had thrown, and walked out of the arena. The next up was Sly. With Tennessee's help Sly easily got through the first few rounds of disks. Then came the final round where six were launched at once. With Tennessee guiding his hand, Sly easily knocked four of the disks out of the air. Then, he had one bullet left and two disks. Tennessee held Sly's finger back from the trigger, watching as the disks flew closer and closer together. Then, he fired the final bullet. It streaked through the air, blowing through the center of the first clay disk and then going on to break the second one into pieces. He had managed to hit two disks with a single shot, bring his score up to thirteen.

The rest of the competition went on to late in the evening, but the gang didn't stick around. They had easily one the first competition, being the first pair in the in the history of the competition to hit all thirteen of the disks. They had gone back to the hotel, and Blain had ordered tall glasses of lemonade for everyone there, his treat. To say the least, there was a constant stream of admirers that came in to ask how Blain and Sly did it, but they just smiled and said it was years of practice. It was getting to be pretty late, and the gang was just about to turn in when the front door to the hotel burst open, and Two Ton Tom came storming into the hotel. His eyes were filled with rage as he waited for some of his goons, more Texas Longhorns, to get into the room.

Two Ton Tom then moved over to the table where the gang was sitting, setting his hands on the table as he leaned in and said, "Listen here you poor excuses for cowboys, you got lucky today. Your luck won't hold out tomorrow when we get into the roping competition. Those elephants are fierce, and tomorrow is when we separate the Texas cowboys from, let's say, the Wyoming cowboys."

Blain looked up at Tom, his eyes becoming narrow slits, "Mind running that by me again. You have something against Wyoming?"

Tom nodded his head, "Nothing but yellow bellies up that way that couldn't tell the difference between an apple pie and a cow pie."

Blain glared at Tom, but didn't move as he said, "Well then, you must just be a useless ranch cow, because you want to know something, you lost to me, a Wyoming cowboy."

Tom glared down at Blain, and his hand began to reach for his six shooter. It never made it to the fire arm because the rattlesnake that own the hotel had slithered out from behind the bar, and had wrapped her tail around Tom's hand as she said, "This may be your town Tom, but this is my hotel. I won't have you starting a fight in here. Now, you better make yourself scarce before I change my mind about not breaking your hand."

Tom eyes glanced over at the rattlesnake, and then he began to pull his hand away from his gun. A moment later, he snorted before he motioned toward his goons and they all tore out of the hotel. The rattlesnake moved over to the gang's table and said, "I'm sorry about that. Sometimes that longhorn gets too big for his britches. By the way, I don't think we have been properly introduced. My name is Sadie."

Every introduced themselves, and then Blain smiled as he said, "You seem to have dealt with Two Ton Tom before."

Sadie nodded, "Yes, I have had to deal with his temper before. Last year, a person staying at our hotel during the competition said it was all just a stupid waste of time. Well, Tom doesn't take kindly to people mocking his competition. He quickly put his fist into the guys face, and that started a massive fight. It took me months to get everything fixed, and since then I have told Tom that if he comes in her looking for a fight, I'll give him a butt kicking he won't ever forget."

Sly chuckled, "Now that is something I would pay to see."

Murray nodded his head, "If he got to be too much for you Sadie, you can always count on The Murray to hold him down why you knock the snot out of him."

Sadie laughed, and had soon curled up in an empty chair near the table as she talked to Sly and the others. Sadie was like most other people who were some other form of snake. She had a normal upper half, but where she should have had feet she just had her long, serpent like tail. Basically, she stood around like any other person, she just slithered when most people would walk. She wore a western style blouse and a belt that was wrapped tightly around where her waist would have been if she had one. She had some dark reddish brown hair that she wore in a very long ponytail that almost reached down to the floor when she stood at her normal height. Her face was pretty normal, but had a few snake like features like the uncommon eyes and the natural ability to dislocate her jaw.

It was getting to be 10:00 when the gang finally finished talking with Sadie headed back up their room. Blain hung back a second, saying something quietly to Sadie while the others moved up the stairs. She looked at him, and then told him she would think about his offer. Blain nodded his head, and then tipped his hat gently as he went to catch up with Sly, Bentley, and Murray.