Disclaimer: I do not own Sly Cooper or any other character from the Sly Cooper games. The only characters I own are Cedric, Hugo, and any other OCs I throw in to the mix.
Different Paths
"The Headhunters? The two of you are The Headhunters?" asked Carmelita astonished.
"I've heard of you, aren't the two of you supposed to have worked for Interpol?" asked Sly intrigued.
"We're mercs. We take almost any job for the right price" said Hugo.
"What he means is we've worked for a large clientele, on both sides of the law. We've worked for Interpol and other government agencies to help find dishonorable criminals and honorable criminals have hired us to evade capture or break them out. We've worked with Interpol twice, the CIA five times, and MI6 once. We've engineered five breakouts, destroyed three drug rings and helped cause the fall of both Saddam Hussain and Osama Bin Laden," listed Cedric.
"I thought it was the Americans who found Saddam," mentioned Sly.
"Who do think told them where to look?" asked Hugo arrogantly.
"But the two of you can't be The Headhunters. They've been working for close to fifty years now and you two don't look older than 19!"
"Appearances can be deceiving, we're actually 17," mocked Hugo.
"And we're not the original Headhunters. If you look carefully, you'll notice that several people have lived longer than is possible, some close to a couple hundred years. This is because such titles are passed down to new bearers when the others get too old," explained Cedric. "We took up the title a year ago and have been inactive for the past few months. Anyway, getting back to business. You two are currently fugitives and the only way for you to escape Wainwright is to help us take him down and no Interpol cop can do that. We need the Master Thief and his gang.
"Why are you trying to help us? We didn't hire you," asked Carmelita suspiciously.
"No, we were hired to capture you. However, we refused to capture two honorable people and returned the client's money. We may not be on the 'right' side of the law, but we're not evil."
Carmelita reached behind her slowly and pulled out her shock pistol as if to shoot the two of them. "I don't care why you helped us. I have your confession and I know you're criminals so it is my duty to take you into custody."
"You can try but you won't succeed," said Hugo menacingly.
"You really think we're evil simply because we're not on your side of the law?" asked Cedric, his face unreadable.
"You commit crimes and disturb the populace. You steal from innocents and abuse the citizens. Isn't that what all criminals do?"
Cedric sighed. "This is going to take a while to explain. Let me give you an example. A common motif is that what ever lives in the light is good, but anything that happens in the dark is bad. In truth, there is good and evil, and there is light and darkness, but the two aren't the same. Are all cops perfect? No, some are immoral and sadistic. Not all criminals are evil just as not all cops are good. Cooper and his friend are a perfect example of this. They only go after criminals who deserve to be caught and not those who don't deserve it, citizen or criminal. There is good and evil in everyone. No one has never done anything wrong, no one has never done anything good. There are many paths that lead to good and many that lead to evil. Some lie in the dark others in the light. We each have free will and it's our duty to make the right choices. 'God is not willing to do everything, and thus take away our free will and that share of glory which belongs to us,'- Niccolò Machiavelli."
"What you're saying is that the entire justice system is flawed?" asked Carmelita.
"No. Interpol and other groups catch many crooks who hurt innocents. The honorable crooks are harder to catch because of connections with other honorable crooks. The system usually works and people like Cooper, Hugo, and myself catch those that otherwise would not be caught by the cops. Plus, our jobs are more fun. Here's an idea. You can watch us work and if you still feel the same after we take down Wainwright, feel free to try to catch us. Call it infiltration, it's a chance to learn about how we work."
"Alright, but after you take down Wainwright, you're all mine."
"Fair enough. We won't resist...much. Deal?"
"Deal."
"What am I chopped liver?" asked Sly who had been strangely quiet throughout all this.
"Well, are you going to help?" asked Hugo.
"I will follow Carmelita to the end of the world. If she goes, I go," Sly responded.
"Then let's get this party started," said Cedric as a feral smile grew on his face.