Hello! Now you know what they are doing, where they are going, and why they are doing what they are doing, you can now see this chappie. This chapter will focus mainly on what Sly, Carmelita, Artemis, Nick and Murray discover while on recon. Bentley will be in this chapter, only he's hiding out in the van with his laptop. You will see, my padawans…you will see… here's the chappie!
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Artemis woke up earlier than everyone else the next morning. She stole a glance at the clock. 6:22 a.m. She swung her legs over and stood up, heading over to her closet to change into her thieving gear. She slid on a navy blue mini skirt and a top that stopped just above her belly button that was also navy blue. It had cap sleeves, so as not to get them caught on anything during the heist. She slid on her black choker band with a tiny metal oval on it. To most, it just looked like a cute pendant, but to her, it was her binocucom. She grinned, seeing as how she had updated it and made… "modifications" to it since Bentley gave it to her. She then proceeded to slide on a pair of navy blue boots that stopped just below her knees. If you're having a little difficulty imagining her outfit, think of it as Starfire's outfit on Teen Titans, only navy blue. She brushed her long and newly dyed raven hair and pulled it up into a ponytail, but left one single strip hang in front of her face. This single strip was dyed orange, which she herself had planned to look exactly the way it turned out.
She silently made her way downstairs, carefully listening for any noises that expressed any signs of arousing from any of the rooms. She walked into the living room, and was rather surprised to see Sly fast asleep with a G4 magazine over his head. Laughing softly, so as not to wake him up, she took the magazine off his head and replaced it with a Computer Nerd Weekly magazine (Bentley's, in case you hadn't figured it out).
"That's what you get for taking my mag!" She whispered to the still sleeping raccoon. She tip toed into the kitchen and opened the refrigerator, taking out her favorite Starbucks Mint Mocha Frappuchino. She made her way back to her room and grabbed her laptop (okay, so I don't have a laptop. Give me a break here!) and went back in the kitchen.
Sipping her Frappuchino, she logged on and checked her buddy list. Surprisingly enough, Nick was online (Yeah. Like he's ever online). She Instant Messaged him.
EmberFalcon: Why hello there! Yousa online this early?
NickDude: Ha ha ha. How are S & C going?
EmberFalcon: I'm surprised C's last name is still Fox
NickDude: They're that tight, huh?
EmberFalcon: That's an understatement my friend.
NickDude: Wow.
EmberFalcon: Yeah.
NickDude: you think we'll ever be like that?
EmberFalcon: DUDE?
NickDude: It'd be nice…
EmberFalcon: Okay, I'll give you that one. It would be nice.
NickDude: You think so? You doing anything tonight?
EmberFalcon: B's got another one planned
NickDude: Can I come?
EmberFalcon: No.
NickDude: Please?
EmberFalcon: No.
NickDude: Please?
EmberFalcon: No.
NickDude: Please?
EmberFalcon: No.
NickDude: PLEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAASE?
EmberFalcon: Well…
NickDude: …?
EmberFalcon: When B gets up I'll talk to him about it. There's a good chance he'll say yeah.
NickDude: YEAH!
EmberFalcon: brb. Someone's finally waking up.
NickDude: k.
Artemis turned and saw a very tired looking Bentley trudge in the kitchen and pour himself a glass of orange juice. She smiled warmly.
"Can Nick come on the heist? He's a Master Thief with us, too ya know." Bentley rubbed his chin in thought.
"Well…alright. Tell him…"
"YAY! Thanks!" She turned back to the computer, typing like crazy.
EmberFalcon: B says to get your butt over here.
NickDude: SWEET! I'm coming! I love you!
EmberFalcon: Huh?
NickDude: Uhh… .. … that slipped. It's a typo… .. …uhh see you!
Artemis sighed, and now that last message got her thinking, and that don't really happen often. Now she wondered if he really did love her…
"Is he coming?"
Bentley broke her trace of thought, which brought her back into reality. She turned and nodded, shutting down the computer and closing her laptop. She downed the last of her Frappuchino and tossed it skillfully into the trashcan.
"Ten points!"
Both Bentley and Artemis were surprised to see Sly standing in the doorway of the kitchen. He was leaning casually against the side, his arms crossed, trying to look all cool and everything.
"By the way, nice of you to give me Bentley's mag. Very touching!" He said playfully as he tossed it onto the counter. He walked over and opened the fridge, taking out one of Artemis' Mint Mocha Frappuchinos (Oh NO he didn't!). Artemis instantly flicked out her hand skillfully towards the frappuchino. Instantly, the drink whizzed out of Sly's hand and into her own. His eyes grew wide.
"What was that for?" He asked. Artemis brought the Frappuchino protectively to herself in a hug, giving him a playful child's face that clearly said she wasn't going to share with him.
"My mint mocha! You get the crappy coffee ones!" She said in a squeaky kid voice to match her expression. He laughed as Carmelita walked out looking bright eyed and bushy tailed.
(Carmelita: IT'S NOT BUSHY! IT'S FLUFFY!)
She smiled and said good morning to Artemis and Bentley, then walked over to Sly and kissed him. Bentley looked over to Artemis, who rolled her eyes and shook her head.
Ding…dong.
"Ohhh! Nick must be here! I GOT IT!" Artemis teleported herself into the hallway leading to the "front door" of the hideout. She lifted the eyepiece thingy and looked into it by squinting one eye. She opened the door for Nick.
"Gee, I haven't heard from you in a whole…ten minutes." Artemis said, pausing to count with her fingers. Nick laughed and hugged her, which made Artemis blush a dark red. They walked back into the kitchen and were confronted by the already pumped "The Murray".
"Hello! Now that Nick is here, Bentley said he'll review the plans!" He exclaimed happily as everyone crowded around Bentley at the kitchen table.
"Now, since Nick is here, I think we'll have to slightly re-construct some of the plan…" Artemis cut him off.
"No we won't. Nick can just buddy up with me during recon." Bentley nodded, accepting this new idea.
"Okay, now that that's out of the way, let's review one last time." He pulled out two large bright blue…well…blueprints and laid them out on the table.
"Now, Carm and Sly will have to take Section 242 located on the North side of the base." He pointed to the upper half of the divided blueprint of "The Darkness" hideout. He then trailed his finger to the bottom of the divide.
"This is where Art and Nick will take recon, in section 438. Sly and Carm, I want you to take photos of some of the guard posts and video record their patrol patterns so that I can find a weak spot. Art, Nick, you need to sneak around and snap pics of Damian, "The Darkness" leader. Also, get a few shots of what we came for: Otto Van Cooper's belongings. Now, they might not have them here, and I'll be providing computer support, so I'll know judging by the photos. If that's the case, Art, you added a recorder in your binocucom, right?"
"Voice and Video."
"Excellent! If they DON'T have it there, snoop around until you find out where it IS being kept." Bentley ordered as he gathered up the rest of the papers and placed them neatly in his laptop as he shut it.
"Now, if there aren't any further questions, I say we hit the road!" Everyone agreed, piling in the van. Artemis and Nick sat next to each other on one side in the back, while Sly and Carm sat opposite them. Murray drove and Bentley sat passenger.
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Czechian Underworld (8:36 p.m.)
Murray skillfully drove the van deeper and deeper into the night, careful to keep the headlights bright enough where they can see where they're heading, yet without drawing too much attention to themselves. He swerved left and came to a careful stop in a thicket of bushes and trees. Bentley pulled out his maps and plans again and laid them out on the floor in the back.
"Okay, I have everything set back here. Good luck you guys, this could get real ugly real quick." He said in a low voice, almost a whisper. Generally, when you're risking your butt like this, you don't make any real audible noises. Everyone but Bentley got out of the van and met in a circle.
"Okay, everyone got their GPS tracking chip activated on their binocucoms?" Artemis asked softly, checking her own. Everyone checked and nodded.
"In case anything should go wrong, whether it be during recon or the heist, I need you guys to promise me something…" Sly said in a low voice. Everyone looked towards him, Carmelita placed a comforting hand on his shoulder, silently urging him to go on. Sly looked at everyone's faces one by one, stopping at Carmelita's.
"Should I get caught, because they are prowling for me, given that I'm a Cooper, and all…anyway, if I get caught, promise me none of you will try to help me." Murray gasped.
"We can't promise that!" He hissed in a frantic whisper. Sly gave him a long, determined look.
"Promise me you guys." He urged. Everyone looked at each other for a while before Artemis spoke for everyone.
"Alright, under protest…we promise." She said in a defeated voice. Without anyone saying anything more, they split up into their groups (Or in Murray's case, alone) and headed for their assigned sections.
Sly leaped from a tree branch and landed skillfully on a nearby roof while Carmelita crept silently behind him as she climbed a drainpipe on the rooftop opposite Sly. They looked at each other and silently said good luck. Parting ways, they got down to work.
Carmelita ran quietly across the rooftop and slid down a rope across to the next. She spotted one of the guard's scouting towers, so she pulled out her binocucom and brought it to her eyes. She let her vision get used to the lenses and zoomed in on the tower itself, which was about ten yards away, and snapped a picture of it. She winced, as there was slight static in her ear as she saw Bentley's face appear in the lower right hand corner of her screened vision.
"Okay, that's one of the main patrol towers. You'd better not go any closer to it than about…three yards, or else you'll get detected by the motion sensors they established."
"10-4 little buddy. Carmelita out." She said, slipping her binocucom back into her belt. She allowed her eyes to sweep her surroundings. She was by the center of section 242. There were two other main patrol posts by the entryway, but they weren't close enough for her to be detected. Her thoughts and concentration were disturbed as she received a message on her binocucom. She slid it out and brought it to her eyes once more, opening the link.
"You guys won't believe this. I just found the exact location of Otto's stuff!" Bentley said as Carmelita saw everyone's faces in separate screens. She saw Sly's face light up.
"Where, Ben? I'm on it!" He said as he swept his binocucom to the left and right to make sure no one was close enough for him to be detected.
"Afraid it's not that simple. Everyone come back to the van. I've got enough recon photos to suffice." Everyone's faces disappeared as the link was shut down. Sly stashed his binocucom into his leg pouch and made his way back to the van, wondering what kind of battle plan Bentley could have possibly come up with on the fly.
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Okay, so there's the recon. As you continue to read, you'll notice things will start to go downhill from here…but I won't spoil it for you. R & R please!
