Thieves of Honor and Love Chapter 7: Calling in the Cavalry, a sly cooper fanfic

Again, I apologize for the wait until I started updating again. None of the waits will be that long, I promise. I want to give a special thanks to Heiduska for accepting my invite to my C2 staff! You rock! Here's the next chapter!

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Penelope leaned back against the work desk a bit, wiping the sweat from her brow with the back of a tan-gloved hand. She tossed her yellow, grease covered cloth on the desk before pushing off it and walking over to her toolbox. Just as she was about to pull her drill out, her cell phone began to ring.

She already had a bad feeling about this.

Only the gang, and a few friends in Holland had her phone number, and none of her friends from home had brains enough to actually GET a phone, so it was the gang, whom only called during one of two situations-

Heist Bentley planned without her (which she would beat the crap out of him later for)

Something was horribly wrong.

She flipped the top of her phone up and answered.

"Hello?"

"Penelope, it's me." Bentley's unmistakable nasally voice responded over the other side of the phone. There was a sudden urgency in his voice, like he needed help or something. Penelope began twirling a lock of stray blonde hair around her finger, a nervous habit of hers.

"What's up, Bentley?" She returned to leaning her back against the desk, placing her free hand beside her to grip the desk's edge.

"Something's gone horribly wrong. We need you back here ASAP. When's the soonest you can leave?" She stole a glance over at her newly finished navy blue biplane before letting a grin spread across her face despite the dire news.

"I'll see you in twenty minutes."

Click.

"There's one down." Bentley placed the phone on the hanger, sighing heavily. He looked over at Murray, signaling with his hands to see how his conversation with the Guru was coming along. Murray responded with a thumbs up before replying to something the Guru said.

"I can't really say right now, Master, but something really bad has happened. We need you to come back as soon as you can…half an hour?...Okay, see you then!" He clicked his phone shut, turning to his little turtle friend.

"Half an hour, I presume?" Bentley took off his glasses to polish them up a bit. The hippo nodded as Artemis walked in. Bentley turned to her with a serious and concerned expression evident on his features.

"How's she doing?" Artemis walked over to her purse on the counter and began rummaging through it, a small frown on her face. She grinned as she pulled out her cell phone and put her purse in its original spot.

"She's sad and worried, like the rest of us. I think she's taking it the worst, though." She paused a moment, then let a grin spread on her face.

"All she really said was to remind her to hit him for stealing her chocolate bar." Bentley blinked at her for a moment as though she were a Martian that landed from outer space.

"That was a week ago."

"Yeah, well…she likes chocolate, what more do you want me to tell you?"

"Aah…the quiet life…it's so good to be back in the US for a while!" Suzuna stretched her arms over her head while she continued to look at pictures from past camping trips.

"Hee hee…I remember this one! Oh, did Artemis put me in a chokehold for taking a picture of THAT…"

Ring!

"I GOT IT!" Suzuna shouted as she made a beeline for the cordless phone in her room. She grabbed it before anyone else bothered to acknowledge the phone was even ringing.

"Hello?"

"Suzuna, it's me, Artemis." The grin on Suzuna's face was washed away from the seriousness in her voice. Artemis was never this serious before. Come to think of it, she never WAS serious to begin with…

"What's wrong? You're usually all hyper, and bouncy…what's up?"

"Something's happened, Suz, and it ain't good." Suzuna took a deep breath and let it out slowly. Something bad happened…and when you're a thief, you don't want to hear anything like that.

"You'll fill me in when I get there, right?"

"You know it. We need you to come back as soon as you possibly can. Do you have any idea when that is?" Suzuna glanced over at the clock. The blood red digital numbers told her it was 11:27 a.m. Her flight was originally scheduled for 2:00, but she could always "hitch a ride" on an earlier flight. That's what thieves do best.

"I'll see you in an hour, two at tops."

"Right, I'll call Nina and tell her, too. See you then, buddy."

With that, Suzuna hung up the phone.

"EVERYBODY'S GOIN' TO THE PARTY, HAVE A REAL GOOD TIME!" Nina banged her head in the air along with the rhythm of the System of a Down music playing off of her computer, not even caring that her black braids were being thrown all over the place, giving her the ever fashionable "I-just-got-some" look. Her music was so loud, she almost failed to notice her cell phone ringing like crazy in her back pocket…until the vibration kicked in…

"AHHHHH! MY ASS IS VIBRATING! Oh…wait…it's my cell phone." She turned her music off and flipped her cell phone open skillfully with her thumb.

"Konnichiwa, buddy!" This was her normal greeting to Artemis, and, had the circumstances been a bit lighter, she would have responded in like.

"Nina, it's me, Art." Nina froze in place. Artemis was never serious…and she couldn't recall the last time Artemis wasn't high off of sugar. This must mean something really, really, REALLY bad must have happened.

"Okay, you haven't eaten sugar…and you haven't said 'Konnichiwa' back to me…what happened? Something bad?" She began to run her fingers through her braided hair in an attempt to rid herself of the bed head appearance.

"You hit it right on the head. How soon can you get back? The rest of the gang is already on their way." Nina flopped on her bed and picked up her clock radio. The neon green digits told her it was 11:43 a.m. She was originally planning on getting back at around five because of her flight, but she had ways of showing up sooner.

"See you in about an hour an a half, no later!"

"'Kay, see you then."

"Well, that's everyone." Artemis sighed, clicking the end button on her phone. She never did like that fact that she was the only one here without a flip phone. She shrugged off the thought and dropped her phone back in her purse.

"Wait, what about Panda King and Dimitri? Shouldn't we call them up, too?" Bentley piped up from his computer. Artemis rolled her eyes.

"About the Panda King- he already repaid the Cooper Gang for helping him save his daughter. That, and you know his past with Sly. There's no way the two would cooperate again. And as for Dimitri- he's in jail for a cracked attempt at robbery. I swear, the guy's gotten even worse than when you took him on back in Paris all that time ago…he's real rusty. Anyway, busting him out of jail would take more time than Sly might have, so we can't afford to make a jailbreak for Lizard Man even if he begged." Bentley nodded in affirmation that he understood the new information.

"Agreed. All we can do now is wait for the rest of the gang to show up. In the meantime, I'll start constructing a plan for Sly's jailbreak."

"Uh…Bentley…"

"Yeah?"

"Do you remember what happened the last time you tried planning something without Penelope?" Bentley shuddered at the memory.

"You're right…still…I'll just go over the blueprints again, just to pass the time." Without another word, the rest of the gang went about their business until the others showed up.

"Well, might as well kick back and wait 'till the cavalry comes." Murray said as he ascended the stairs and walked down the hall to his room. Everyone else nodded dully before trying to find something to occupy themselves with…anything to keep their minds off of what horrible things could be happening to Sly.

Nick let out a long, exasperated sigh as he logged onto the internet from the computer in the guest room. He brought up his buddy list to see who was online. Upon seeing that EmberFalcon was also connected to the internet, he decided to IM her just for kicks.

NickDude: How u doin?

EmberFalcon: about as good as u can expect

NickDude: worried?

EmberFalcon: depends on what ur talking about

NickDude: what exactly r u worried about?

EmberFalcon: I'm worried about C…she hasn't gotten out of her room since I went up there.

NickDude: there's more, isn't there?

EmberFalcon: naturally, I'm also worried about S, but C's taking it a lot harder than any of us

NickDude: how so?

EmberFalcon: she won't eat much, won't sleep for more than twenty minutes at a time, won't come out of her room…I'm worried

NickDude: don't be

EmberFalcon: ARE U FG KIDDING ME? HOW CAN I NOT WORRY!

NickDude: things will work out in the end, like u said to C

EmberFalcon: yeah

EmberFalcon: wait, wait, wait u were SPYING?

NickDude: it's a bad habit for ur average civilian, the best one for a thief.

Nick got a little worried when Artemis didn't respond. He tensed a moment, wondering how she would exact her revenge on him.

NickDude: Art…?

EmberFalcon is no longer available for this online session.

WHAM!

Before he could even register what had happened, he was laying on the ground, blinking away stars that were forming in his eyes. Artemis grinned as she dusted her hands off.

"Sneak attacks; they're a bad habit for your average civilian, the best one for a thief."

I know nothing really happened, but I love making people wait for the big stuff. See ya in the next chapter!