Thieves of Honor and Love Chapter 14: Carmelita strikes back, a sly cooper fanfic

Okay, I said the updates were going to be more frequent, and so they will be! Here's the next chapter (warning: some slightly humorous parts and the chapter is kinda on the long side, so grab a bag of popcorn), and I'm basically throwing the ending ALL in this chapter, seeing as how I know after so many chapters, a story can lose its touch, so this chapter will be considerably longer than the others, but I will add an epilogue chapter to this. Enjoy! (Oh, and some serious Nick bashing because he's totally getting on my last nerves, and he made fun of me when I told him that my boyfriend broke up with me)

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When Carmelita had said that it would be difficult to get back to the rendezvous point with the other would be difficult, Sly found that she was putting it…lightly.

No sooner than they had escaped the basement chambers, they were confronted with a seemingly endless wave of guards that had been near where the entrance and exit of the basement had been, proving to the two thieves that there was no easy way out of this without a fight, and a rough one at that. Thankfully, Sly was an able fighter even without the Cooper Cane as a weapon.

"You know, why is it that the guards are always a pain in the ass?" Sly mumbled mostly to himself as he raised his fists for combat. "I swear that they were only hired to be stupid and look tough." Carmelita laughed under her breath slightly as she tensed for the fight. The guards were closing in on them, surrounding the pair of thieves in a circle that was steadily shrinking around them.

"Well, I guess you'd be right, otherwise they'd have gotten better jobs, eh?"

"Nevertheless, looks like we have to fight 'em…again." Just as one of the larger guards raised his fists to begin the fight, well…

"THUNDER FLOP!!!"

…need I say more?

Yes, it was none other than "The Murray" that had let out the guttural roar before slamming down on the unsuspecting mob of enemies, the impact knocking at least half of the guards unconscious or reeling a few feet back in shock.

"Damn, Murray did you have to shout that directly in my ears?" Carmelita mumbled as she massaged the clay red fur covered appendage delicately to rid it of the ringing that Murray's voice left behind.

"Oh…heh, sorry about that, Carm-SLYOMIGODYOU'REOKAYTHAT'SAWESOME!!!!!" The poor raccoon and fox weren't entirely sure of what just blurted out of their hippo friend's mouth, but they didn't have time to ponder over it for very long, considering that the other guards that were still conscious seemed rather pissed at our oversized hippo friend for knocking out or injuring so many of their buddies. The three thieves formed a triangle, back-to-back-to-back in anticipation for the rumble…

…until they saw a tiny blinking red object drop in front of their feet.

"Guys, that's Bentley's new stun grenade! MOVE!" Murray roared as he ushered his two comrades away with a powerful sweep of his arm before following closely on their heels. The guards weren't so fortunate, for the grenade went off in a spectacular flash of brilliant white light. The three thieves covered their eyes from the flash as they ducked out of the hallway. Bentley stood before them, a triumphant smirk evident on his tiny turtle face.

"So, I see that you've witnessed the power of my newly upgraded stun grenade in action!" He chuckled, putting away the stash of grenades he had left at his disposal in an attempt to rid himself of any temptation to overuse the marvelous weapon of moderate destruction. "Now, Penelope and the others are already waiting in the van for the getaway, so I suggest that we get there so we can…get…away…?" The sirens that had been blaring in their ears had suddenly came to a stop. The shuffling of the feet of guards searching for them seemed to fade into a hushed quiet. Everything…stopped. The silence that surrounded the four came so suddenly, and yet weighed down on them immensely. The air was suddenly stagnant and heavy, a sense of urgency and suspense surrounded the group. With a simultaneous nod of agreement, the four began to make their way back to the van, Bentley basically leading because he was the only one who knew where they hid the van (I know, it's a first that Murray doesn't know where his baby is but bear with me).

"Bentley, where exactly is the van?" Carmelita hissed, careful not to alert anyone of their presence. He regarded her a moment, before pulling out his binocucom and flicking the screen on. The intel screen blipped into view, showing four blue dots all huddled together in a diamond on a flat layout of the HQ they were in. "Those four dots are us…" He tapped a finger lightly on the screen at the four blue dots before dragging his finger up the screen more toward the outside of the building at a larger green dot that wasn't far away from the wall they were closest to just ahead of them. "…And that's the van. If we keep heading to the end of the hallway from here, there's a door that'll lead right to where I brought the van over to." He hissed back, clicking the binocucom shut and tucking it safely back into his shell. The others nodded in agreement before they continued to sneak over to the end of the said hallway.

Just as they could see the door that Bentley had mentioned before, the sirens blared again, seemingly more fiercely than before (or that could have been due to the fact that they were right next to the sound system) It only blared about three times before the sound of crunching metal and static was heard, followed by the siren slowly fading into silence once more. Everyone turned and eyed Murray skeptically.

"What? I didn't do it! See, the system's still in one piece!" The hippo defended, pointing to the siren control system, which was, as Murray had pointed out, still perfectly in tact.

"He didn't do it. I did." The four friends whirled around at the sound of Damian's voice behind them. There the wolf stood, mere yards away from them, a broken remote siren control clutched in his left paw, the Cooper Cane in his right. "So, this is the Cooper Gang that I have dreaded for so long? A pathetic hippo, a midget turtle, and a fox whor-"

That did it!

Before anyone in the hallway could comprehend what Damian had said, Sly had charged forward and delivered a solid punch to the arrogant wolf's jaw. The hit sent Damian reeling back in shock, giving Sly the opening to deal another blow to his stomach. While the wolf was still stunned, the raccoon thief took the opportunity to rip the Cooper Cane from his grasp and jabbed the blunt end into Damian's side.

"Don't you ever…ever…insult my friends again, you hear me?" Sly growled deep in his chest, tipping his cane to rest on his shoulder as he watched the wolf stumble to regain his composure. Wiping his mouth free of a jagged crimson streak of blood that slipped from his lips to his chin with the back of his hand, Damian growled under his breath a moment before a dark grin took over his features. He straightened his back as he adjusted his black suit jacket a bit, his eyes never leaving the raccoon thief before him.

"Impressive, Cooper…I underestimated you." The maniacal wolf chuckled under his breath. Sly tensed his muscles in anticipation for the fight. Murray, sensing that there was going to be a rumble (because his superpower is that his muscle senses start tingling when there's a fight), stepped up to assist his friend, cracking his knuckles within his closed fists. The hippo was rather surprised when Sly held out his arm to keep him from advancing.

"It wouldn't be right to gang up on him. No matter how low of a bastard this guy is, I won't let myself or anyone else around me for that matter, stoop to his level." Murray nodded, backing down to the sidelines. Sly's attention returned to the wolf, who had started laughing maniacally at the raccoon thief's declaration.

"You think this is about dignity, about honor? You think that I personally care about respect and reputation? I think not," Damian reached into his jacket and stylishly flicked out his silver magnum gun. Carmelita's eyes grew wide in horror as Damian aimed right for Sly's head.

"HYAAAAAAAA!!!"

"Wha…? Ack-!" All anyone saw was a flash of green streak across the air above Damian's head before the wolf collapsed unconscious. At first, no one was sure what had happened, but, sure enough, Bentley's shell rolled skillfully on its side toward the three thieves before his head and limbs popped out of their respectful holes.

"Sorry if I blew the perfect opportunity for a good fighting scene, but he had a gun, it was pointed at my friend, and I wasn't going to sit there with my thumb up my ass while he shot one of my best buds." The brainy turtle said while brushing off some of the dust and dirt that had gotten on his spiffy shell. "Let's get outta here; Czech police are closing in on this location." With a nod in agreement from everyone, the four continued toward the door before Damian decided to wake up again.

"Here we are!" Bentley breathed in relief as he pulled the door open from the handle (with a little help from a nearby cardboard box) and the four thieves were welcomed with a breath of the fresh night air. "Come on, let's hurry and get outta here. I can see the police chopper over there. En route to this damned headquarters, no doubt." Without another word, everyone piled in the van as Murray revved up the van's engine. Of course, Sly was dog piled by everyone in the van the moment he hopped in the back after Carmelita, but that was basically expected.

"Ack…come on guys…guh…can't breathe…-gasp-…" Sly breathed from the bottom of the pile of bodies that had assaulted him. Even the Guru forgot his 'peacefulness and calm' and topped the group of friends in glee. After a few moments, Sly's friends decided to spare him death by suffocation, and therefore let him up. "Phew, thanks for letting me breathe again. But, I can't help but ask…why'd you guys come back? I mean, it's not that I'm not glad that I'm outta that hellhole, but you guys swore under Thief's Oath to leave." Bentley rolled his eyes behind his thick lenses.

"We didn't technically go against it…it's more or less of a guideline. And besides, we had our fingers crossed." Bentley stated matter-of-factly as he crossed his arms in the 'whatever-I-say-is-right-and-that's-that' manner that he was so very infamous for. Sly chuckled and agreed that it was very much true before turning to the vixen of the group.

"So, miss me?" He pecked her lips as his arm went around her waist. She leaned against his muscular shoulder in though before answering.

"…Do you really need me to answer that?" When Sly shook his head, Carmelita smiled before closing her eyes sleepily. "Good, oh, and there's one more thing before I forget…" She lifted her hand a moment as if to look at her watch, then suddenly took a cheap shot punch to Sly's stomach, which left the poor man gasping for air.

"What the hell was that for…?" He wheezed as he placed a hand on his stomach over the sensitive spot she hit.

"You ate my chocolate bar."

"That was a week ago!"

"You don't eat the chocolate bar that belongs to a girl on her period."

"But…it was a week ago!"

"And it was my chocolate. I win."

ta-da! Only one more chappie to go (the epilogue) and then I'm moving on to my next project. But I need some ideas. If you have any, please don't hesitate to ask (I take any and all requests!)