Chapter 7: Pain Mountain

—

Here we are again. I'll make this as exciting as I can, I promise, but I can't guarantee you'll enjoy it.

Sly Cooper belongs to Sucker Punch, I'm relatively certain. I'm also running out of different ways to type that, beyond being deliberately obtuse about it.

Anyways, you came here to see this fight go down. So… YOUR WISH IS GRANTED!

—

"…st! LIST!"

The thief opened his eyes, then struggled to his feet. "…Abby?" he asked, shivering in the cold as he scanned the area, finding it littered with small craters in the snow and a chunk of black steel. "What… What happened?"

"Long story short, you were right. Constable Marais made her move at the last second. I'm sorry, List, but she made me tell her where you and Rick were."

"That explains how she got up here at the last second. Are you injured?"

"No, and Rick's here too. He told me that last he saw, you were facing off against the Constable. What happened?"

"…Right. Abby, we miscounted. Gol Bora had a holdout - some whacked-out grenade launcher with a drum mag, I see an empty mag matching it dropped here. Almost got me. I blacked out after that… No idea where he or our favorite officer got to."

"What?! List, get out of there! If they took their fight somewhere else, this is your chance to escape!"

"…Thanks for the advice, Abby, but I want to know what-"

He was cut off by a sudden boom, coming from above. Looking up, he saw shock blasts whizzing through the air, coming from…

"Situation update. They're still fighting, and they're on the helipad. I'm going to get a closer look." List said, closing the channel before Abby could complain.

—

BOOM!

Crackling electricity and high explosive collided in midair, dispersing the former and discharging the latter. As the cop and the criminal dodged and weaved, trying to throw each other's aim off, deadly packages arced quickly through the air, some intercepted by the stunning projectiles lancing across the battlefield. Craters formed with each grenade that hit the ground, as the battle began to slowly move.

Alayna was moving with practiced precision, quickly making gaps in the barrage of grenades raining down upon her and dodging through them with all the grace of a dancer in center stage. The huge criminal couldn't move much closer without exposing himself to a painful jolt, and thus was slowly driven back and up, growing more irritated by the second as the young cop kept herself from harm. Pulling the trigger again, he looked down in shock; he was out of grenades!

Several cruel reminders of the situation at hand hit him, causing a grunt of real pain to escape his throat. He was a big target, and Alayna had stopped moving as he ran out, focusing on pelting him with shock blasts.

Growling in anger, he pulled another magazine from inside his suit, quickly discarding the first and attaching the second. Driven further back still as the Constable resumed her deadly dance, a thought struck the enormous mobster, and he disengaged, turning to retreat upstairs to an advantage. Insults now accompanied the balls of lightning being hurled at him, but the monstrous bear took refuge from all that came at him, now atop of the smaller platform that made up his helipad. He was displeased to say the least at the burning hunk of metal that remained of his emergency exit, but with less room to dodge…

He fired at the stairs as the tigress ascended, an unexpected shot that she barely managed to avoid, throwing herself onto the platform. The stairs crumbled away from the powerful explosive, leaving them both trapped atop a pillar of ice.

"Now we see just how good you are at avoiding explosions, yes?" he chortled, before leveling his grenade launcher and firing again. He was almost surprised as the officer quickly took aim, intercepting his projectile with one of her own.

Quickly scrambling to her feet, Alayna began to slowly circle the outside of the platform, knowing she was now at the disadvantage. Without room to maneuver, her choices were limited…

Another grenade coming, another grenade neutralized. Locked in a deadly stalemate, the two continued to circle the platform, each wondering when the other would give way, each testing the other's defenses with an exchange of fire. Gol Bora was surprised to find the little police girl so skilled, having expected her to die so much earlier - he certainly hadn't expected to run down a whole magazine. Alayna was furious at the stubborn resistance the bear had put up, and at the relentless rain of grenades he had forced her to suffer through, but had to grudgingly admit - his marksmanship really was spot-on with that thing.

"You only have so many grenades, Gol Bora. My shock pistol's battery won't run out for a long, long while." she growled, murderous rage apparent on her face. "And when you're out of ammo, I'll just shoot you until you keel over, slap you in handcuffs, and hand you over to Interpol."

"You think you can avoid all of my shots, little girl? One will get through eventually, and when it does…"

"Don't say I didn't give you the easy-"

Two grenades were fired in quick succession, cutting her off. Alayna was just barely able to avoid the first and intercept the second, losing her balance for just a split second as she did. She cursed herself for not just shutting up and focusing as she struggled to not tumble into the snowy abyss, but her eyes widened as she realized he was lining up for another shot.

Scrambling out of the way, she dashed up to the huge bear as he took aim again, her pistol coming down hard on his head. The sheer power she had shown in her strike was more than sufficient to give any lesser men some serious blunt force trauma, but the Russian merely laughed, time seeming to slow to a crawl as the Constable found herself standing right in front of his weapon.

Her thoughts drifted momentarily to the thief she had left unconscious in the snow as she desperately jumped away, wondering if he was still alive. Shielding herself with the wide side of her shock pistol, she was thrown back across the platform by the explosion as the grenade hit the ground, the huge mob boss barely stepping back to compensate for the aftershock he suffered. The tigress skidded to a halt, unable to pull herself back to her feet, her shock pistol next to her, at the edge of the pillar they had fought atop, and came to the realization that her life was about to end. Shocked at her own foolish actions, she stared up at the sky, accepting her fate.

"Goodbye."

She shut her eyes tight, waiting for death as she heard the grenade exit its tube.

…

She heard an explosion, but it was far away, and took longer than she thought it would. Opening her eyes, she found herself looking up at the last person she expected to see.

"C'est quoi ce bordel…?"

—

Finding the stairs gone, and a sheer cliff face in his way, List had opted to take the other way up. The snow had stopped falling, so there was no real challenge for him to perform a series of Ninja Spire Jumps, each time going higher and higher until he reached the top of the building. Reaching the roof, he looked down at the fight, and his heart stopped cold.

"Dammit dammit dammit…" he growled, launching himself off of the edge of the building. Hitting the top of the pillar without so much as a whisper, he leaped forwards, not willing to lose even a scrap of his momentum as he desperately reached for the deadly package with that golden hook.

Time seemed to slow, and he saw the situation clearly. Hurtling through the air, he gently eased the C of his cane around his target so as not to trigger it, then brought it around. Even as he landed, still silent as he slid to a controlled halt, his cane sliced through the air, and with a flick of his wrist, released the grenade, sending it down into the valley below.

Gol Bora had the priceless look on his face of a man who has just seen his grenade be plucked out of midair and thrown away, and had fallen silent at the stunning display. Only that accent he knew so well cut through the heavy silence, disbelief peppering her voice.

"C'est quoi ce bordel…?"

"Since when is that appropriate language for a talented young officer such as yourself, Constable Alayna?" he grinned, bringing his cane up to his shoulder as he let out a hidden sigh of relief.

"I do not know how you did that, raccoon, but you should have run while you had the chance." came the deep voice of the Russian bear, returning his attention to the matter at hand. "Now, you too will die."

"Honestly, I'm as surprised as you are. But do you really think you can hit me?" he grinned. "You're out of ammo, after all."

The bear gave him a look of doubt, before pulling the trigger… and hearing it click uselessly. "Bah. Lucky guess."

Another click alerted him to the Constable once more. "Merde. My shock pistol is useless. There's snow in the barrel." she remarked, displeased.

"A high-profile gangster like yourself wouldn't only be carrying… Two magazines, if I guess correctly. But try to reload, and I'll just snatch the magazine out of your hand and throw it into the valley." List threatened, brandishing his cane.

"…I don't need my gun to get rid of you, little thief." the bear declared in return, hiding the launcher again inside his suit. He cracked his knuckles menacingly, now grinning. "I'll kill you, then the police girl."

"You'll try."

A huge fist sailed just ahead of the rest of the bear as he ran forwards, moving fast objectively but slow as molasses to the talented thief. Delivering a painful upwards strike with his cane, List slipped by the huge mobster easily.

"You'll have to be a little smarter than that to hit me." he bragged, as the now-fuming bear turned around. Dodging in between the huge bear's huge fists, he took every opportunity for his cane to slip in, slamming into the mobster's side, his torso, his legs. But to his dismay, List realized that the man wasn't slowing down at all. They didn't call him 'Pain Mountain' for nothing, he supposed.

"The police girl could not dodge forever, thief, and neither can you!" Gol Bora roared, his attacks growing increasingly erratic as List gracefully avoided each blow in turn.

"I don't need to. I just need to keep attacking until you fall down." List retorted, though he was concealing his own increasing exhaustion. Being unconscious in the snow had left him weak, and with the adrenaline high starting to lose its impact, he was feeling that in force.

In desperation, and finding that his foothold was running out as he backed towards the edge of the platform, the monstrous man swung both arms together, finally catching the thief in a crushing embrace. In a moment, the situation had become hopeless again; List was left dangling in the air, held by the huge bear with a single hand as the mobster began to laugh again.

"You see, little thief? I did not get this far by being easily defeated!" he growled, still furious but ecstatic that he had caught List. "You were talented, but you should have run! None can overcome Pain Mountain!"

"Given five more minutes, I would be planting my very own little flag on your ugly mug." List growled, as the gangster fished around in his suit for a fresh magazine. He really did know his weapons, as he demonstrated by using his free hand to jam the fresh mag into his grenade launcher, before pointing the weapon at List.

"I do not want any doubt, thief. You survived before, and you will not survive again." he explained.

Time came to a halt. List knew he couldn't die here; he wouldn't disappoint his ancestors like that. The Constable was still too injured to be of help, and he was almost out of options…

He wasn't ready to die yet. And besides, he couldn't let himself die if it meant...

Steeled in his resolve, he made his decision. As Gol Bora pulled the trigger, he felt his weapon grow just ever so slightly more heavy, and his eyes went down to it, curiosity overriding his desire to watch the annoying thief die.

His eyes went wide. In an instant, he understood the situation, with clarity he himself found truly terrifying.

The grenade, primed by its 'launch', ricocheted back into its brethren. The entire magazine went up in the resulting explosion, taking the weapon apart.

List flew up, then hit the ground hard, skidding a short distance and stopping next to the Constable. The blockage wasn't so lucky, sent spinning off into the valley below by the blast - List couldn't see which way it went.

Gol Bora, too, took the impact hard, stumbling back just one step too far. With a roar of anguish, the bear slipped over the edge of the platform, falling to his doom on the rocks so far below.

Breathing heavily, List barely retained his hold on consciousness, the world flickering out as he watched the Constable finally pull herself up, stunned.

"Voleur… You said that was too precious to just part with." she managed, looking over at the thief, the fire of battle gone from her eyes.

"Hehe… What kind of man would I be to value… Objects… More than… Life?…"

With that, he lost his grip on consciousness, slumping fully into the snow.

—

Yes, this is the actual end of the chapter. That was exciting, huh? I know, it was a little weak at points, but what do you want from me I'm only human.

Or AM I?

Hehe. Anyways, that was the 'Boss Fight' portion of this mission. Next chapter will be basically equivalent to the outro segment. Hope to see you then.

Gol Bora is gone, but what will become of the Cooper Gang now, with Constable Alayna fully aware of their safe house and right next to their unconscious leader? And what precisely is it that List used to block the grenade at the last second? Find out next time, in Chapter 8: A Snowy Goodbye!

Review if you have something to tell me. Fave if you liked it. Follow if you want to see what happens now.

KeyFire awaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa…