Disclaimer: Sly Cooper and all other characters in this story belonging to the Sly Cooper franchise belong to Sony and Sucker Punch. The OCs in this story that belong to me are Cobus, Klaus, unnamed woodpecker and unnamed crane.
Three Days Later…
Afternoon sunlight streamed through large castle windows and onto an ornate wooden desk with scattered papers atop it, the plush carpeting of the room it rested in being crushed by its weight. The carpet received equal strain from the chair paired with the desk, a stocky figure sitting hunched over in it and twirling his enormous mustache as he sat before a mess of papers on the desk. The sunlight glared off his flight goggles, which protected his eyes from the harsh beams as the sun's position in the sky made them hit the area in the room too perfectly.
But the papers are not what concerned The Black Baron at this moment. They lay ignored on the desk in favor of a compact laptop, the Baron fixated on the device as he scrubbed through footage that was secretly taken of all the dogfighting teams' qualifying trials. Arched a little too close to the screen, the footage reflected off his goggles as he studied it intently, his brows furrowed in concentration. Satisfied with his review of the current contender, he moved a cursor to close the footage and returned to the file list of the USB drive plugged into the laptop's side. The list is neatly organized, all the files titled [Contender X], indicating the teams' qualifier placements.
The Baron dragged the cursor down the list of files until he reached the one titled [Contender 17] and double clicked it. A new window pulled up on the screen, the video loaded and primed to be watched. Pressing play, the Baron unconsciously began to gradually hunch towards the screen, watching Team Cooper's pilot navigate the track with practiced ease. Until everything went wrong after he cleared the second double pylon.
Knock Knock
"You may enter." The Baron announced at the knuckles wrapping against the wooden door. He reluctantly tore his eyes away from the laptop screen as he heard the door handle turn so he could properly stand and greet his guest. A familiar mouflon ram entered the room, the carpet stifling his hooves that would otherwise clop loudly in the castle's wooden hallways.
"Cobus, my boy!" The Baron greeted the former mobster with gusto as the door clicked behind the ram. "I hope you come bearing good news." He rubbed his gloved hands together in anticipation.
"As a matta' o' fact…" Cobus responded with his Chicago-esque accent. "The prep work for the ACES and the arrival of the contestants is flowin' with the schedule. The flight area has been roped off to civilians, the hotel just hired a slew of temporary help, and all o' Team Black Baron's pilots are rarin' ta go."
"Splendid!" The Baron exclaimed. "I always covet this time of year. The weather perfect for flying and the opponents perfect for plucking." Cobus flitted his gaze behind the Baron, to his desk littered with undocumented papers. The laptop stood on top of them all, the footage of Team Cooper's qualifying lap perpetually looping.
"Whaddya think of 'em?" Cobus pointed his chin towards the laptop.
"Bah…" The Baron made his way back over to his desk, leaning on it with flattened hands as he looked on the screen. "I cannot wrap my head around it. The mechanics did a bang-up job of installing the device I provided them, and it performed as expected, but young Mr. Cooper…did not." The scene of the raccoon pilot miraculously recovering from his artificial mid-air fumble played out on the screen. "I must admit, I am impressed. He passed my test with flying colors. I do hope their pocket-sized team make it to the finals, especially considering the generous handicap I instated."
"And here I was thinkin' they were carrion. They're shapin' up to be worthy opponents." Cobus rescinded.
"Quite. And a worthy opponent that is not Team Muggshot." The Baron shoved away papers until he found the sign-in packet belonging to Team Cooper with the waiver attached via paperclip having only three signatures at the bottom. A sloppily scribbled "Murray!", a meticulously signed "Bentley", and an elegantly autographed "Sly Cooper".
"I'm gettin' riled up and I ain't even a pilot."
"I share in your enthusiasm, my friend." The Baron straightened and faced Cobus once more. "Which is why I cannot abide by being cooped up like a caged songbird when my time would be better spent on aircraft maintenance."
"But Penelope has that handled, you know that. She always does."
"Be that as it may, I still wish to oversee the process from time to time. One can never be too knowledgeable of the machine they operate."
"I'll leave ya to it, then." Cobus turned to leave but stopped short of grabbing the door handle. "Just make sure all that paperwork is processed before next week." The Baron gave a hearty chuckle at Cobus' subtle jab as he left, his hooves clopping down the hallway.
"Right, then." The Baron straightened his flight coat before putting away his laptop and USB drive, leaving the official ACES documents scattered on the desk. Exiting the room and locking it behind him with a gaudy key, he made a left turn and climbed a set of spiral stairs that led to a trap door to the roof of the castle. The metal door slightly screeched as he pushed it open and climbed out into the cooling breeze, carefully closing it behind him before making his way across his custom installed runway-like bridge that led to a large wooden door. The pressure sensor in the bridge activated the door, making it rise dramatically and letting the Baron enter his state-of-the-art hangar.
A quick input on a keypad to his right and all of the hangar's security measures were deactivated. Floor lasers stopped humming and searchlights ceased their spinning. Wary of his prized planes suspended from the ground with hydraulic rods, he strode further right onto a slightly elevated platform containing a workbench, tool drawer, and metal wardrobe. The Baron sighed with indifferent relief as he bent his head over his stomach and pulled on his pilot's cap. But the pilot's cap wasn't the only thing that came off.
Now free of her heavy burden, Penelope stood up straight and craned her neck slowly, her long blonde hair cascading down her back. She unlocked the wardrobe with a much simpler key and carefully placed the head of her costume inside. She removed the rest of the costume and ensured the wardrobe was locked tight, plucking her round glasses from her overalls' pocket and accessorized them with her red bandana, yellow shirt, and brown shoes.
"Good thing I replaced the Baron's goggle lens with my prescription lens, or I would be blind as a bat." She commented to herself with her high-pitched, scratchy voice. Now comfortable with herself, she habitually adjusted her glasses on her snout and stepped over to the tool drawer. Metal ringing on metal echoed through the hangar as she searched for the tools she needed, pulling them out one by one as she found them.
"That Team Cooper doesn't seem to be the pack of jokers I thought they were. I'll have to study Cooper's flight techniques in more detail later. Too bad I didn't see 'Spex_guy' at the qualifiers." The petite mouse snatched the last tool she was looking for and closed the drawer, placing the tools in her overalls' large pockets. "No matter. I shouldn't dwell on unneeded ancillaries." She braided her fingers together and stretched her arms out in front of her.
"It's time to get to work."
This is it. This is the end. *Phew* Piecing together this story took a lot of time, research, rewriting, editing, etc., but it was all worth it see the fruit of my labor turn out so well. Thank you for reading!
I want to give a huge thank you to my beta reader, my brother, who put up with my meticulous analyzing of every little syllable and punctuation mark. I needed an outside opinion on the piece and he filled that void perfectly, giving suggestions and educated opinions along the way.
I would also like to thank my significant other who understands how important writing is to me. He has supported and encouraged me throughout the writing process, telling me to get off my butt and get to work.
And last but not least, I would like to thank my best friend, RellikZ. She was unfortunately unable to beta read for me due to the rift COVID has driven in between everything, but she would give me useful advice and information when I confided in her from afar.
I do have an extra chapter, but it doesn't relate to the fic's story. Just something creative I cooked up. Explanation will be in the A/N at the beginning. And again, thank you for reading! Please rate and review. Tell me what you liked, what you didn't like, maybe something I could've done better. It would help with future pieces. Constructive criticism only, no flamers or haters.
- Rogue's Rhetoric