Foxchick1- Trust me, no mention will be made until it's time for game 4.
Gamelover41592- Time, attention, and love(Sappy I know)
Shadow Joestar- He was doing pretty well as a normal human and you're jumping ahead quite a bit. The older gang isn't retiring, they're just gonna be on break for a while.
Matt (Guest)- He is 13 as of now, and he will age up at certain points in the time skip. He'll explain what animals he got in this chapter. Sadly, Sly is not faking amnesia. He would also really have no need, he has a son and Carmelita is perfectly fine with his life as a thief.
Bloodyninja88- Bittersweet indeed. But Duncan is gonna keep moving and I dropped a hint at the first bad guys they are going after at the end of this chapter.
This chapter is gonna be kind of a short one. But it's gonna reveal quite a few things about Duncan and the Cooper influence in the criminal world. This takes place a few weeks after the Vault Job. Let's begin.
After the Cooper Vault mess, the money had been divided up among the gang for the most part and everyone had headed back to their lives.
Murray headed back east with the Guru(who turned down his share of the money, claiming he didn't need it), in order to finish his training.
The Panda King returned to China and is living two doors down from Jing King, who lets him screen all of her future suitors. She's still unmarried as of now.
Mz. Ruby and Muggshot headed for the states, with their son(who Duncan had learned was named DJ, aka Duncan Junior and was flattered)
Using the money from the vault, Carmelita had bought a mansion on the outskirts of the city. She claimed that not only was it big(seeing as Murray would be coming back and Penelope was moving in with the gang), but was also rather well hidden and would give everyone their space. Sure enough, the place was huge. It was mostly just bedrooms, but there was a rather large basement, a kitchen, and a backyard. Bentley and Penelope had already claimed the basement as theirs for a lab and Buck had already been coming up with ideas for some of the bedrooms that weren't claimed. Most were quickly shot down, but the idea of a room with a halfpipe, a movie room, and a video game lounge pleased all the boys. Speaking of the halfpipe, the boys were working with a construction crew in order to tear down some of the walls and ceilings to make room for that. In addition, the group had decided that their cover story for all the wealth was an inheritance crisis had finally been resolved. Duncan was going to help, but he had some things he needed to take care of. He walked into his own room and once he had sure no one was looking, shut the door. He had one of the bigger rooms in the house and while the extra size was great, that wasn't the main reason he picked it.
The real reason was a trap door hidden under his desk.
After making sure no one was coming, Duncan had jumped down. He didn't like spending that much time down there. He hadn't fully cleaned it yet and it still reeked of alcohol. But he wasn't keeping beer down there.
This was where he kept his "souvenirs". Various things he had collected from the foes the Cooper Gang had faced in the past. It had started with Arpeggio's monocle and had kinda just grown from there. He had Thompson's tie, Don Octavio's mask, General Tsao's helmet, Captain LeFwee's hat…
And Neyla's whip.
Duncan wasn't even fully sure why he had grabbed that. A day after Murray had left, Duncan had gone back to the lake Clock-La had sunk in and he saw the whip. On a whim, he grabbed it and added into his collection. But today, Duncan needed to clear his thoughts and he knew what he wanted to rant to. He grabbed it out of the pile and looked at it.
"Enjoying hell?" Duncan asked the whip, as if Neyla's voice could come out of it. "No? Good, you should be suffering after everything you did, but I came to talk. I know you are just loving this! Dad has amnesia and everyone else is miserable because of it! But….I'm not worried. My dad will remember everything….someday. But if there is one thing I hope he remembers, it's the night you died! Because…" Duncan remembered something Sly had told him back when he was still in training, after he had royally screwed up a move. "Because setbacks can only make you stronger. I mean look at me! I've nearly lost my eye and turned into this freak of nature! But I'm still kicking! So goodbye!" With that, Duncan tossed the whip to the floor and walked off, content with himself and ready to have an indoor halfpipe.
A few days later.
"What took them so long!?" Hunter ranted as he tossed a newspaper at Duncan's face. Duncan was able to catch in time, but shot Hunter a glare anyways.
"So they finally sentenced Thompson?" Duncan said as he looked over the paper. The boys had just finished the halfpipe and were waiting on parts for the movie room and the video game lounge. The child trafficker had been sentenced to serve 50 life sentences in a maximum security prison. This was all well and good to the boys but it was what Thompson had said about them that surprised them.
"One of them, he was from the Cooper family line but to me, he was something out of my worst nightmares…" Duncan read. A nightmare? Really? He may have just discovered he could roar like a lion and cling to walls like a chameleon, but calling him a nightmare was a little excessive.
"He had a group of assistants with him. One was a wolf, with an icy look in his eyes. I felt like I was in a graveyard at night from those eyes….." Hunter continued. A graveyard? Seriously? He may have had a cold look in his eyes, but a graveyard at night was a little extreme.
"A-a-a-another, was a g-g-g-griffin, but all I could see was a p-p-p-phoenix…." Maverick read. He wasn't sure why he was being called a phoenix. Maybe if his feathers were bright red, but if anything, he looked like a raven with lion legs.
"The final member was a weasel. He could zip around like lightning and I could barely see his face," Buck finished. He was proud of his description. Unlike his other friends, he's description was completely true.
"So let's be real, he's just trying to save face so he doesn't have to admit he was beaten up by four kids," Hunter pointed out as he rolled his eyes.
"Yep, but seeing this gave me an idea. What if we go with these descriptions?" Duncan offered.
"Huh?" The other three boys asked.
"Think about it! If we play into those themes, we get to look awesome and spite Thompson even more," Duncan explained. Everyone grinned.
"But how are Buck and I supposed to get ice and lightning powers? Unlike you, we can't just get random shots for superpowers," Hunter pointed out.
"You really don't think my uncle could whip something up?" Duncan pointed out. Everyone grinned again.
In between helping with the movie room and the video game lounge, the boys had started planning out their new thief personas.
Duncan had switched out his old thief outfit for a black trench coat, which was really soft, to the point where everyone asked if it was made from a blanket, despite Duncan insisting it wasn't(it is, he just won't admit it), sneakers, black cut off gloves, and a black bracelet, with only his hat staying the same. The Nightmare Cooper was ready.
Bentley had designed a freeze ray for Hunter, which he quickly found created ice he could easily climb up, as well as melt down in order to avoid leaving traces of himself or his team. The graveyard part was a little harder, but he settled on a hockey mask in order to keep his face hidden. The Gravedigger had been dug up.
Maverick had the easiest time. He had painted flames on his drone and got a bird styled theater half mask. The Fire-Raven was ready for his first flight.
Buck had a stun club made for him by Bentley, which could be turned on and off at will. Even when off, it would pack a punch. As for a mask, Buck had settled on a wrestler mask, similar to Murray's, but he had lightning strikes on it. The Lightning Weasel was ready to strike.
Once the new weapons and personas were ready, Duncan had jumped right onto Thief-Net to look for a new target. At first things were coming up short.
But one day. Something came up. Something better then Duncan could have ever imagined.
It was time for revenge!
Cliffhanger! Who do you guys think Duncan and Co are going after? I've been getting a lot of requests for one of them, and I threw in two more. Here's a hint, it has to do with family...or lack thereof. Anyways, I'll see you all next time! Peace out!