Gamelover41592- Thank you for the kind words! I try my best.
Time for the second half of this chapter and the fight with Muggshot! Along with the first two major change from canon! Also, if I don't show Duncan collecting clues, he didn't miss them, I just don't feel like writing it.
"Let's do this!" Duncan cheered as he and Sly unlocked the three treasure key locks. The car roared to life and slammed into the door. Duncan and Sly entered…..only to find that the elevator up to Muggshot was locked.
"Drat! Seems like you'll need all seven keys to get into here!" Bentley noted. "I've marked the location of three more on your maps,"
"I guess we are splitting up again," Sly noted.
"Yep," Duncan said. With a quick nod, the duo walked off towards different missions.
Job 1: Straight to the Top
"Wow, the key is right here!" Duncan said in shock. Sure enough, the treasure key was being held inside a skylight with green glass. "Maybe I'll be able to steal some more stuff while I wait for dad!" With a grin, Duncan picked up a decent sized piece of junk and lobbed it at the skylight.
Only for it to bounce off harmlessly.
"Huh?" Duncan asked. He tried again, with something slightly bigger. Nothing. He then tried jumping on it. Not even a scratch. Smacking it with his cane? Nope.
"Forget it. Your cane will never smash that thick glass. You'll need something super-heavy... like that big wrecking ball up there," Bentley explained.
"Why didn't you tell me that before?" Duncan asked.
"Because you were busy," Bentley explained.
"I wasn't bus-hey!" Duncan protested. He kept grumbling as he began his trek up to the wrecking ball. He took down a guard with his new hat move. But something about the guards was bugging him.
"Hey, uncle Bentley, I was standing right in that guy's view and he didn't see me! What's up with that?" Duncan asked.
"I really have no idea?" Bentley offered. Duncan shrugged as he leapt onto a car being suspended by a crane. Thankfully, he was too light for it to lose its grip on the car, but he nearly lost his footing, giving him a good view of the ground below, along with what would happen if he fell. He quickly grabbed the clue and jumped off.
"That was close," Duncan muttered to himself as he continued to move up to the crane.
"You got that right. I can't imagine Sly and Carmelita's reactions if you did fall," Bentley said.
"What about your and Murray's reactions?" Duncan joked. As Bentley whined about that, Duncan thought about Carmelita, his mom. He knew she had something for Sly and his father was very open about his own feelings. So why wouldn't one of them make a move already? Suddenly, Duncan had an idea. He snapped himself out of his plotting when one of the neon signs flashed it's lights brightly. After regaining his sight, he crawled up one of the pipes on the sign before jumping to another one. Another car was held by a crane, along with a clue. This time, Duncan quickly jumped on and off.
"Hey, Duncan, Bentley said he had to take care of something and he told me to ask about you," Murray said.
"Doing pretty good, I'm about halfway up to the crane," Duncan explained as he collected a few more clues. A water tower was nearby and Duncan found two more clues in a safe near a water tower. He then spotted a golden hook. Pulling on in, he caused eight more clues to come out.
"Nice!" Murray said.
"Thanks," Duncan said as he collected another set of clues near a tower. He then climbed up to another level using some more pipes. Some guards were waiting for him.
"Oh lovely," Duncan groaned as went a little lower on the pipes so he could come up with a plan. He quickly tossed his hat onto the ledge.
"Hey, what's that?" He heard one of the guards say. He peeked his head up and found that all the guards in the area were suddenly interested in his hat,
"Where did that come from?" Another asked. Duncan giggled at the guard's stupidity and detonated the hat, knocking all of the guards unconscious.
"Me," Duncan said as he collected his hat and continued on his trek.
"Nice move!" Murray said. "Even if I would fall for it,"
"I think you are way smarter then those guys!" Duncan said, hoping to lift his uncle's spirit.
"Really?" Murray asked as Duncan smashed another clue bottle.
"Yep!" Duncan said. He climbed up onto a sign shaped like a dog bone which fell and formed a walkway onto another building.
"I can see Sly has been teaching you about property damage," Bentley said. Apparently he had come back.
"If anything, people will think one of Muggshot's goons did it," Duncan pointed out as he made his way across. As soon as Duncan stepped off, the bone snapped back. "See? Nothing to worry about!"
"You really are Sly's kid," Bentley noted with a sigh. Duncan giggled a little as he passed the safe. He only needed two more clues. He found one on another hanging car and the last one on the arm of the crane.
"Hey, Uncle Bentley? What's with Muggshot's obsession with hanging cars?" Duncan asked as he made his way back to the safe.
"I really have no clue," Bentley said. Once Duncan reached the safe, Bentley began working on the code. "You'd need an I.Q. of at least 140 to figure this one out. Dial in 4-6-8," Duncan punched in the numbers and pulled out what looked like blueprints.
"Huh?" Duncan asked, confused.
"You found the blueprints to Muggshot's additions to Mesa City!" Bentley exclaimed. Now Duncan understood, he remembered Bentley had said that Sly had found some back in Raleigh's base. "With these files I'll be able to help you find all his clues and breakables. Just look through your binocucom to get the information," Bentley continted.
"Okay!" Duncan said. He returned to the crane and used it to smash the skylight open. He then jumped back down by climbing down the wrecking ball's chain and claimed the key.
Job complete!
Duncan found Sly waiting for him outside the van. Sly smiled when he saw Duncan and ruffled his hair.
"I heard you found the blueprints," Sly said. "Well done,"
"Thanks, did you find anything?" Duncan asked.
"I found some notes relating to water safety. Nothing that cool," Sly explained.
"Get moving you two, I think Muggshot may be on to us," Bentley snapped. Both Coopers rolled their eyes and headed off to find the last key.
Job 2: Tango for two
As Duncan and Sly began to mount up to the building where the key was located, a familiar stun gun blast blasted a nearby window.
"Well, well, well, look who just walked into my crosshairs. Sly Cooper!" Carmelita said as she aimed her gun at Sly.
"Hi mom!" Duncan waved.
"Hi Duncan!" Carmelita replied happily before turning serious again. Sly chuckled a bit at the display in front of him.
"About time you showed up, Ms. Fox. Was getting worried about you. Thought you took a wrong turn somewhere back in Paris," Sly joked. Duncan took advantage of the conversation to slip away.
"Duncan? What are you doing?" Bentley asked.
"Letting mom and dad talk," Duncan said with a grin. Back with Sly and Carmelita, neither had noticed Duncan slip off.
"Look Carmelita, jokes aside, I actually wanted to discuss something with you," Sly admitted. Carmelita lowered the blaster a little.
"What?" She asked.
"It's about this, because when I stole the files, I think Duncan may have been trying to stall you out at the fair," Sly explained.
"Why would he do-" Carmelita began, only for the answer to hit her like a ton of bricks. "He doesn't want us to fight."
"Bingo," Sly answered sadly. Both sat there in silence.
"But what can we do?" Sly asked. "We both know we can't leave the paths we are on, that's for sure," They sat there for a few more seconds before Carmelita snapped her fingers.
"I have an idea, anonymous tips!" She realized. "Sometimes, when one of my co-workers is working on a case, they'll get a tip from someone that doesn't reveal their name or anything else," Sly understood.
"I get it! So if I have Bentley send you an email, talking about the next thief we are going after, you can come bag them," Sly finished.
"And it will still look like I'm going after you!" Carmelita said as jumped down the ledge Sly was on.
"And we won't fight," Sly said. The duo moved closer together and smiled at each other…
"What are you guys doing?" Duncan asked as he came back, treasure key in hand. His sudden words made both of his parents jump.
"Gah! Wait, where did you get that?" Carmelita asked.
"Huh, oh, when you guys were talking, I decided to go get the key and I found another page of the Thievius Raccoonus. Something about making a fake standee of yourself to fool guards," Duncan explained quickly.
"I think we better get going," Sly said. He planted a quick kiss on Carmelita's cheek, then ran off with Duncan in tow. In their haste, neither saw Carmelita's blush.
Job Complete!
Using all seven keys, Duncan and Sly had unlocked the elevator and found Muggshot.
"Wah! My boys have been yapping about some duo of skull busters running around and this is what they were talking about. A father/son duo of rats with puny sticks," Muggshot laughed until he realized something. "Wait a minute! I know those sticks! Ya know, that Thingus Raccamagoocus had some really nice pictures, but way too many big words!"
"So I don't suppose you would be okay to just hand them over?" Sly asked.
"What are you kidding? You break into my place, steal my stuff, trash the joint, I feel transgressed and violated. Let's rock!" Muggshot said before calming down a little. "Although, if it's not much to ask, can the tyke sit the fight out? I don't like the thought of hurtin' a little kid,"
"Alright, Duncan, wait by the elevator," Sly ordered. Duncan gave a nod and walked back towards the elevator, but didn't return to the ground floor. He wanted to watch the battle. Once he knew Duncan couldn't be hit, Muggshot grabbed two guns and walked(using his hands) onto the battlefield. He tried to shoot Sly, but the raccoon was easily able to dodge the bullets and reflect several mirrors in the arena, which hit Muggshot and destroyed his guns. This repeated two more times, just in two different areas. Duncan met up with his father and Muggshot on the final area, a chandelier.
"Gah! I lost just one of ya!" Muggshot groaned. He then grinned. "Seems ya definitely are your father's kid!" This confused Sly.
"Why do you care? You were part of the group that killed him!" Sly asked.
"Me, Mz. Ruby, and Panda King of the others had no clue what our boss was truly planning to do with your pop! We just thought we were going to scare him out of the criminal game but our boss had other plans," Muggshot shuddered. "None of us realized he had a kid either until we saw you leave!"
"Alright, I'll believe you, but I'm still leaving you for the cops," Sly said as Duncan walked over to the safe holding the piece of the Thievius Raccoonus.
"I guess that's fair," Muggshot conceited.
After grabbing the Thievius Raccoonus, Duncan and Sly made it to the van just in time for Carmelita to arrest Muggshot. At the scene, she had found a note that claimed that Muggshot was reformable and why, which she decided to trust, partly because she had a good idea who it was from. Either way, both sides left satisfied with their current fate.
This would have been up yesterday, but because of reasons, I couldn't use my computer to upload it. But still, two big changes! Although I'll admit one is much bigger then the other. As for Muggshot himself, HUGE step up from Raleigh! He had a much better backstory, an area that was mostly fun(still glaring at you Murray missions!), and a really fun backstory. Either way, next time, we head off to Haiti to take on Mz. Ruby!