Break the Law
Sly had no idea that he shared the same building as his cane for the past months. Stashed in the important evidence vault on the second floor, the cane was perhaps the most prided artifact ever confiscated by Interpol. During a sting operation shortly after Bentley and Penelope sealed the new vault, the two lost the cane, but could not steal it back on the grounds that sneaking into the evidence locker in the middle of a building filled with enough armed men to occupy Cherbourg would have been suicide. Now Sly had to get in.
"Constable Cooper?!" assistant said. "I thought you were…"
"Gone?" Sly ended. "No, I left to clear my head."
"By the way," the assistant said. "Steer clear of your office floor, it was incinerated in the explosions, and don't let Barkley catch you here, he'll string you up your thumbs for leaving the hospital against his orders and just disappearing."
"I'll keep that in mind," Sly said, heading for the elevator. But instead of entering the elevators, he ducked into the stairs, and headed for the second floor.
He walked past the maze of offices and cubicles towards the evidence vault. There were a few people who took notice. But one of them was one that Sly wished he hadn't noticed.
"If it isn't ol' Cooper," Charlie said.
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Sly entered the evidence room, heading for the vault. But because of the new pass code system, he'd have to use his ID to enter. Slipping the ID in the slot then out, the locks for the vault came away, allowing passage.
There were several items, including a sniper rifle that was meant to be used against a mob witness. But stashed in a bullet proof case and marked extremely important, was his cane. But Sly knew that there was no way to open it up without Chief Barkley's passkey. So he decided an alternative.
He exited the room and down the hall to the fire axe. He pried open the case and grabbed the axe, marching back into the vault and swinging the blade down into glass panel. Using several forceful blows, the glass started to give. Giving the panel a good kick, it fell away, leaving the cane open to him. He grabbed his heirloom and made a break for the exit, but not before grabbing his leg pouch that had also been captured. But apparently some people had other plans for him.
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"Sorry Cooper, but you're under arrest!" Barkley commanded.
Sly just stood there in surprise. There in front of him, stood several armed cops, guns pointed at him.
"Nice to see ya again Cooper!" Charlie taunted.
"Is this about me breaking your nose?" Sly asked, pretending to ignore the other men and focus his attention on Charlie. "Because I would be so glad to break it again…and again…and again…and maybe jam your nads into a paper shredder."
"SHUT UP COOPER!" Barkely yelled. "And to think I was going to give a promotion to you. But instead it looks like you're going up the river."
"Really?" Sly asked, reaching into his pouch.
In one swift motion, he brought his hand out, throwing something into the ground. The object exploded on impact, causing an instant cloud of smoke. Several cops coughed before the cloud cleared. And then Sly was gone.
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Taking the elevator to the lobby, he was dismayed to find that several more of the cops had gathered there, ready to turn him into cheese. The elevator doors closed just in time for the hail of bullets to come. Sly had no choice but to head for the roof.
The elevator reached the waiting room for the roof top helipad, and to his dismay, a helicopter was heading towards the building, making it impossible to escape by rooftop. So he hid behind the door to the stairs.
BANG!
The stairwell door burst open, slamming in front of Sly and cleverly hiding him. Several men burst into the lobby toting Clarions and 45. Magnums. But as the door started to close, Sly slipped in, the door closing behind him. Grabbing a fire extinguisher off the wall of the stair landing, he jammed the cylinder in knob.
"He's in the stairs!" he could hear someone say, but now the men were locked out of the stairs.
Sly ran as fast as he could down the stairs, but he could here others running up towards him and he took a detour onto his office floor. The chaos from the bombing had left the level of the building scorched and desolate. There were holes in the floor. More men appeared on the other side of the floor near the offices yelling "FREEZE!"
Sly fell to the ground, sliding across the rubble strewn ground until he fell through a hole, landing on the floor beneath. As soon as he hit the ground, he ran for the stairs. He bashed through the door, hoping over the railing and pit and onto the opposite landing continuing down the stairs. On the third floor landing, another cop burst through the door, but none other than Charlie.
"Sorry, can't talk!" Sly yelled. "But I can sure kick your ASS!"
He slammed into Charlie as he swung a gun towards him, but Sly knocked it out with his cane. He grabbed Charlie by the back of the neck and slammed his forehead into the wall, pulling him back with such force that when Charlie slammed into the stair railing, he went over it and tumbled the two stories down, both feet hitting the ground, breaking his legs.
Sly continued down the stairs, bursting through the back door and into the alleyway. He jumped down into the sewers, pulling the manhole over his opening.
Two seconds later, Barkley and several others burst into the alley. "SON OF A BITCH!" he yelled.
Sly Cooper was gone, and with him was his cane, his gear, and what little left of Charlie's dignity.
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"He's got it!" Yves announced.
"Cooper got the cane?" Emile asked hopefully.
"Yeah!" Yves said. "But he put a cop in intensive care, not that we should care."
"Good!" Emile smiled. "He's still got about eight hours to meet with our guys."
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The GSX tore through the Parisian suburbs towards Orleans, from there, he would be told where to go. Night was starting to fall when he reached his designated payphone in Orleans.
"I got it!" Sly said. "Now tell your men to back off of Carmelita!"
"Now lets not get too hasty," Emile replied over the phone. "Now the deadline's changed. I want you at the Lancastria Café in Nante in five hours. It's along the waterfront. And no funny business, or she gets it!"
The line went dead.
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The Lancastria Café was a rundown backwater shack. Sly marched in, hoping to see Emile. With him was his cane. But instead of Emile, he found the café devoid of any life, and then something hit him.
Sly looked down at his shoulder, and pulled out what appeared to be a dart.
"Nighty-night Sly Cooper," Emile said as he watched Sly collapse to the ground.
Please excuse the lack of dialogue, and possible vagueness of the entire chapter, but the next chappy should be better. I would like to note that Emile and his men will unfortunately not get a chance to get into the vault, since the next few chapters will be all about Sly kicking ass and lobing off grenades and all that other violent stuff.
Apparently I'm breaking into my uncontrollable habit of not finishing what I've started, and now I feel the urge to work on another story. But luckily I'll only post three chappters of it and see what people think about it. This time it'll be about some mad dog serial killer who seems to be targeting Carmelita and violently dispatching anyone who gets in his way (If you've watched any of the Halloween franchise movies, then the storyline should be very familiar, as well as the deaths...
Anyway, I'm nearly done with the next chapter to Leviathan, so expect it sometime in the near future.