Celebratory Can of Whoop $$

A few days later, Alexia once again visited. With Miss Nosy around, Sly and Carmelita figured that they might as well have a group get together and break their news to everyone. Everyone was huddled into the living room.

"What'd ya call us out here bro?" Dimitri asked. "Cool cat like me needs to maintain his image with da public!"

"Relax!" Sly said.

"Just get on with it!" Alexia yelled in an annoyed, but anxious voice.

"OKAY! Everybody just shut you pie holes!" Carmelita yelled.

Everybody obeyed and put a close on their yappers.

"Listen, me and Carmelita, well things have gotten serious and well…" Sly began, but he was interrupted.

"Oh jeez! You didn't call us up here to tell us that you guys are, um, doing it?" Alexia asked.

Everyone gave Alexia a disgusted look.

"What? Nobody wants here about that!" Alexia defended.

"Really? 'Cause I could have sworn that a few months ago you would be hounding me for info about that!" Carmelita sarcastically commented.

Alexia blushed in embarrassment.

"Carmelita and I are getting married," Sly finally said.

Carmelita held up her hand that she had been hiding to show everyone her diamond ring.

"Would'ya look at the size of that rock!" Murray exclaimed.

"Oh wow!" Penelope said. "This is great!"

"SLY! You lucky dog you!" Bentley said.

"This calls for a celebration!" Panda King spoke, using his ever so whimsical voice.

In fact, the gang did celebrate; by going to a great Japanese restaurant called Kyoto on the waterfront. What made this restaurant very popular was that the food was in fact made right before your own eyes on a grill that made up most of the table. The chef came up and began his magic. But upon seeing the chef's face, Sly suddenly felt uneasy. He didn't know why. There was something familiar about the guy, but he couldn't quit place it. And then he realized it.

"Mercutio!" He suddenly muttered.

When he said that, the chef made a swift gesture with his right hand and a large knife sailed at him. Sly was even quicker and pushed back on his chair so that he fell backwards. He watched as the knife flew by inches from his face. Sly continued to roll back until he was on his feet. Mercutio quickly made a break for the exit. But Sly tackled him and the two landed on another grill.

Mercutio let out a scream of pain as half of his face was instantlyburned. He grabbed a bottle of teriyaki sauce and smashed it alongside Sly's head. Sly stumbled back, the side of his head dyed with a mixture of the dark liquid and blood. Mercutio dashed off, only to have an intimate face to fist relationship with Murray's knuckles. Mercutio grunted as he was thrown out of the front window and into the street. He rolled over and tried to get up. While he was still on his hands and knees, Carmelita ran up and kicked him square in the gut with so much force that he was thrown five feet up in the air.

"If you survive this, you can tell your deadbeat brother that he will NOT intimidate us!" Carmelita yelled as she did so.

Mercutio swung his legs around and knocked Carmelita over onto her back. The broken glass from Mercutio's flight through the window pierced through her tan jacket and into her back. Carmelita groaned in pain.

"Still not intimidated?" Mercutio chuckled, only to groan in pain from his facial burn.

"NO!" Sly answered as he used his cane to pole-vault his foot into Mercutio's face. "You can tell Tybalt that if he tries anymore foul play, we WILL take this fight to YOUR doorstep."

Sly grabbed Mercutio's head and slammed it into his knee, smearing blood all over his pants. He then kicked Mercutio in his knee as he fell, the knee bending unnaturally to the side as it gave out a loud crack. Mercutio, realizing that he lost the battle, quickly made a run for it as Sly went to check on Carmelita. Bentley fired his crossbow, the bow hitting dead center in Mercutio's back. He gave out a dull "UH!" as his momentum carried him over a guard railing and into the sea, where he made a loud splash.

"Check him!" Sly barked out, helping an injured Carmelita up off the ground.

Dimitri quickly ran over to where Mercutio fell into the sea, but there was no body. "He's gone! He must of sunk to the bottom!"

"Sly!" Murray yelled. "That was AWSOME! You totally opened up a five thousand year old can of whoop ass right there!"

"You okay?" Sly whispered as he held Carmelita.

"I'm fine, but you don't look so good, because either that's teriyaki sauce or blood covering half of your face," Carmelita answered.

Sly smiled, as if unaffected by his very much serious wound.

"We better get out of here, the cops are coming," Alexia sighed.

"You don't mind carrying me do you?" Carmelita smiled. "Because my back hurts like friggin' hell!"

"Eh, I need some practice for when I carry you over the threshold," Sly smiled.

Everyone made a mad dash for the team van that was a few blocks down the street in an alley. They all went to the safe house to get patched up. Sly needed stitches, which were fortunately hidden by his fur. Carmelita needed large patches on her back where the glass had pierced, but she managed to hide these with a t-shirt. Murray also came out of the fight with a cut on his knuckles when he bashed Mercutio in the jaw. His teeth must have pierced through the leather gloves he was wearing. Penelope ended up stitching up the slice in the glove.

"It's too hot here for us," Bentley said. "We'll need to leave as soon as possible. But where I don't know."

"We could go to Hong Kong," Panda King said. "I have a nice flat outside of the city, and my daughter lives a few doors down."

"Possible, but we don't want to attract any attention towards your daughter though," Penelope said.

"Last time I checked, the Guru was in New York," Murray said. "I heard he was teaching dreamtime to a rock band."

"That might just be PERFECT!" Bentley exclaimed. "If Mercutio is still alive, he would have identified Panda King and Dimitri. But he doesn't know that Guru is one ofus, and the big apple is pretty damn far out of the scene."

"Alright, it's settled then," Sly concluded, crossing his arms. "We get packed up in the morning and get out of here by tomorrow night. The Cooper Gang will now be making a rap sheet in New York New York!"

I would just like to say that I am particulary proud of this chapter because finally, Sly gets to open up a can of whoop ass on a Longbow. So please R&R!