The Cooper X Gang
By Mutitoon90
Chapter 4: Down Under Thunder, Day 1
Australia, 6: 12 a.m.
The next day of the Cooper X Gang's arrival, the plan is soon in motion. Rad, still a little worried about the mission, waited for Sam at the small kitchen nook. Sam was halfway down the stairs when Rad called to her.
"Hey, Sam." Rad said to get Sam's attention. It worked.
"Morning, Rad." Sam responded.
"Can I ask you a question?"
"Sure"
Rad cleared his throat and whispered the question: "Are you ready?"
Sam just shook her head, and said, "I'm ready. But, the real question is are you ready?"
Rad blushed at Sam's statement. He knew that Sam was right about it. Sam knew that Rad was really nervous about the mission.
"Rad, if you feel scared or nervous about the job, remember that I'm going with you." Sam said, trying to comfort Rad.
Rad was still nervous about the job. Then, the two thieves heard 'kissy' noises. They turned their heads to see Justin making the noises with his lips.
"Come on." Justin said eagerly, "Kiss already."
Sam saw no amusement at Justin's joke, so she grabbed a book and threw it at Justin. Justin dodged the projectile, and then stuck his tongue at the furious feline. Sam threw another book at Justin, and the taunting husky dodged it. Justin started to laugh at Sam. Little did Justin knew that Sam was had taken her shoes off of her feet and tied the laces of her shoes together. Sam threw the makeshift weapon at Justin. The next thing that Justin knew was a pair of blue and white tennis shoes hit him in the face. Sam and Rad were the ones laughing at Justin's dismay.
"Well, you know what they say:" Sam said.
"Yeah, 'The third time's the charm.'" Rad finished.
"Well, if that's quite enough, we can get started."
Sam and Rad stopped laughing to see a stone faced Belle at the top of the stairs. Sam knew that Belle was right, for the gang had a few jobs to do that day.
"All right," Sam confirmed the green haired mouse, "let's get started."
5:00 p.m. Day one the setup begins.
Rad, Sam, Justin, and Luna were on their way to the jobs they were to do that day. They stopped at the first of the mines that Rad and Sam were to steal from.
"Remember," Rad said, "this is our first job, so be careful."
"Understood." Justin said before running off with Luna to their job.
Then, Rad turned to Sam, and said, "Let's go."
Sam just nodded to agree with him. So, the raccoon and the cat entered the mine.
The mine was dark with some light in it. Rad and Sam knew there were guards in the cave.
"This might get tough, Sam." Rad said to his feline friend, "Before we do this, I want to say something to you."
Sam gave Rad a curious look, and asked, "What?"
Before Rad could say anything, a voice broke though the ear commutation line.
"What are you two doing?" Belle said loudly.
"Nothing." The thieves answered.
"Well, get the Moon Stone and make it quick. More guards might be on their way to your position."
"Understood, Belle. Over and out." Rad responded.
Sam grinned and said, "Let's see if the guards are smarter than the ones your dad faced."
"Right." Rad said, while grinning a Cooper grin.
It took the duo a few minutes to find something that the Moon Stone could be hidden in. Rad picked the lock, while Sam looked out for any guards.
A few moments later, Rad had the Moon Stone.
"Let's hope that none of the guards know we're here." Sam said as the duo made their escape.
"We have to hurry. The Moon Stone is attached to a light-sensitive bomb." Rad said as he held the stone, "If we don't get out of the cave soon, we're going to be all over the mine."
"Right." Sam said as she and Rad ran to the mine entrance.
The thieves heard a voice ring though out the mine.
"Intruders! Intruders!"
"Looks like they found us." Rad said with a concerned look on his face.
"But," Sam said with confident look on her face, "they're not going to catch us."
The raccoon and cat team ran though the mine and encountered a few dingoes and kangaroos, all of them miners.
"You two waggas aren't leaving." One of the miners said as he approached them.
"Yeah?" Sam said, "Said that to my whip."
The feline used her whip to attack, pound, or hit any and every miner that came within one foot of her and Rad.
Rad used the Cooper Cane to defend himself and Sam if any miners managed to avoid Sam's whip. But, Rad knew that time was running out on the bomb.
"Sam, we need to get outta here quick!" Rad said as Sam finished off the last attacking miner.
"Let's go then!" Sam yelled as the duo ran to the cave entrance.
Rad saw the entrance within a few seconds of running.
"The entrance!" Rad thought. "We need to hurry!"
"Over there!" Sam announced to Rad.
The thieves ran towards the entrance.
"Thirty seconds." Rad thought.
Rad ran faster and faster, knowing that at any second the bomb was going to blow up. The timer kept counting down. Rad looked at the timer again.
"Twenty seconds until the bang." Rad thought as he ran.
He knew that Sam was becoming anxious. Sam used her whip to swing from place to place as Rad used the Cooper Cane to do the same. Rad looked at the timer for the third time.
"Ten seconds!" Rad yelled to Sam.
"We're near the exit!" Sam shouted back.
The team of two ran faster to get outside, so the bomb would power down.
Five.
Rad ran towards the exit, but trips on a rock.
Four.
Rad threw the bomb-strapped stone to Sam, who saw him falling down.
Three.
Sam catches the stone and finishes the run to the entrance.
Two.
Sam jumps out of the cave and to the hot Outback sun.
One.
"Too late!" Rad said as Sam leaped out to the mine, and covered his head and ears.
But, no explosion came. The realization of the lack of noise made Rad jump to his feet and ran outside.
Outside, Rad saw Sam, who breathing several sighs of relief. In Sam's hand, there were the stone and a powered down bomb.
"If the stone was tough, then I'm looking forward about the stick." Sam announced to her co-worker.
"Okay, to the next cave." Rad said as he pointed his cane to the direction of the mine.
At the entrance of the second mine, Rad and Sam was looking at the opening of the mine for anything that might jeopardize the job.
"Let's hope you don't trip again." Sam said, remembering Rad's fall.
"Ha ha." Rad said, annoyed that Sam mentioned about the fall.
Sam shook her head, and said, "Let's go."
They entered the mine and found out that the mine they were in was pitch black.
"I can't see anything, not even my hand in front of my face." Sam said.
"Not to worry." Rad said. As he spoke, he pulled out the Moon Stone from his dad's red backpack. The stone had a glow that was bright enough for the two of them to see.
"Whoa," Sam said in astonishment, "I didn't know the stone could do that."
"My dad used it in the same way." Rad bragged out with the Cooper grin. Sam wasn't impressed a lot after the brag.
"We have a walking stick to find, not a impression." Sam said, waiting for Rad to go deeper into the cave, removing the grin.
"Okay, it got chilly in here just now." Rad said as he rubbed his arms as if they were cold. Then, he started to walk into the darker parts of the cave with Sam following him.
As they did in the last cave, they found a safe, which did have the Guru's walking stick in it. Rad noticed that something was wrong.
"Uh-o."
Sam heard Rad's word, and immediately knew something was wrong.
"What is it?" Sam asked nervously, "A bomb?"
"That's the good news: There's no bomb." Rad said.
"And the bad news?" Sam asked with a whine in her voice.
"We got company coming." Rad answered.
Sam and Rad towards the cave's entrance. As they ran, the miners attacked them. Sam and Rad used the attack method, that they had used in the other mine to defeat the miners.
"Aw, no more?" Rad asked in a fake whine.
"Yep," Sam confirmed, "let's go."
The duo continued their dash out of the mine. As the two of them stepped outside, Sam took a deep breath of the hot Outback air.
"Enjoying ourselves?" Rad asked with the Cooper grin on his face.
Sam answered with a "Yep."
Sam started to head towards the safe house with the Moon Stone and walking staff in her bag, but she stopped. Rad became confused at Sam's action. Then, Sam ran back to Rad and hugged him.
"Please, be careful." Sam whispered.
As Sam started towards the safe house, Rad said, "See ya at the hideout."
Sam ran back to the safe house, still feeling Rad's body against her own body, and how it remains her of her father before he died.
Rad ran to the giant truck as he saw Justin running to the same place.
"Hey, Just!" Rad yelled to his pink haired friend.
Justin waved back as the two of them raced to their next destination.
"Hey, there's Belle." Justin yelled to Rad.
Rad just smiled as he thought, 'That girl's is the best friend a guy can ask for.'
"Hey, guys!" Belle said as they climbed to the top of the truck, "What took you guys so long?"
"Give us a few minutes." Justin said as he easily scaled the huge truck, "We 're still on our way."
Belle waited until Rad and Justin had climbed to the top of the truck.
"Okay," Belle said, "what took you guys so long?"
Rad gave Belle a hard glare, and said, "Would you be here earlier if you were being chased by miners?"
"Or if you were in a fight against a recently resurrected Mask of Dark Earth." Justin added.
"Okay, okay, I get it, guys." Belle said as she walked to the truck's interior.
Justin followed his long-time friend to the driver's seat. Rad entered into the backseat of the giant automobile.
Justin started the machine, after he hot-wired the truck. Rad and Belle braced themselves as Justin shifted the gear into drive. Justin was infamous as a crazy driver when he was driving big automobiles.
"YAHOO!" Justin yelled as he drove.
"Oh, no." Rad and Belle said in unison as Justin shifted the truck into second gear.
As the truck finally stopped at the target mine's location, Justin turned to his friends, and said, "We're here."
His two friends were too frightened by Justin's driving to speak, much less yell at him.
"Sorry." Justin apologized to his friends.
Belle was the first to recover from Justin's driving. She has been though more of Justin's 'crazy' drives than Rad did.
"That's okay." Belle said, as dizziness was in her eyes.
Rad, who suffered the most from the ride, said, "I don't know about that."
Belle shook her head, and explained the plan for the miners to her friends.
Rad had completely recovered from the ride when Belle finished explaining the plan. Belle gave Rad two cards as he shook his head.
"What are these?" Rad asked as he took the cards from Belle's hand.
"These are the security cards, which the guards use to operate the machinery after our dads caused a lot of damage here." Belle explained to Rad.
Rad, with a sly grin, asked, "How did you do it?"
"A few darts here and picked a few pockets there." Belle said as she blushed.
"Alright!" Rad announced as he started to leave the truck.
"Good luck." Belle said to Rad.
"Don't worry about me." Rad responded, "Just make sure that Justin doesn't overdo the driving."
And with that, the young raccoon exited the truck.
When Rad finally got to the controls, he had already knocked out the guards. He pulled the lever, which caused the drill to dig deeper into the earth.
Justin had an easy part in the job: catch giant scorpions using the truck's E-brake. Belle was there to remind Justin that he was supposed to catch the red scorpions, and not the blue ones.
Justin managed to get twenty of them before he dumped them into the mine.
Justin drove the giant automobile to the drill to pick up Rad, and drove back to the valley.
The trio returned to the valley and to the hideout. After Rad, Belle, and Justin returned, Mar grabbed the items, ran to the Guru's prison. It took Mar a half an hour, but he made it to the stockade in one piece.
"Guru, it's me, Mar." The worried rat called quietly.
The Guru came out of the darkness of his prison and answered Mar in his native language.
"Here is are your mystical items." Rad announced as he returned the items to the Guru.
The Guru spoke more to Mar. Mar understood what he said.
"I did hear about Justin and Luna fighting against someone who had the Mask of Dark Earth." Mar confirmed.
The Guru spoke again.
"I know," Mar agreed, "with all the stuff that's been happening, I can understand."
The Guru spoke to warn Mar.
"A guard?" Mar said, "I'll hide."
Mar ran off to hide in a bush as a dingo guard came into the stockade gate.
The guard looked inside the prison and saw no one in the stockade, not even the prisoner.
"What the-?" The guard exclaimed before climbing the gate.
The Guru waited until the guard had his back turned to him. Then, the Guru jumped onto the dingo's back, taking over his mind.
"All right, Guru!" Mar said quietly.
Then, the Guru drove the dingo into the gate, freeing the Guru and knocking out the guard. Mar revealed himself to the liberated mystic.
"That was amazing!" Mar exclaimed to his mentor, "But, we have to do a few things before we can go to the safe house."
The Guru nodded, then he followed his student to where to start their job.
Mar and the Guru arrived to the generator, that powered the heavy machinery in the valley.
"That's big." Mar said as he saw the machine.
The Guru agreed in his language.
"Hey, guys." Belle said through via earpiece.
Mar placed his finger onto the earpiece, and said, "Hi, Belle."
"What's your post?" Belle asked professionally.
"We're at the generator area." Mar answered.
"Okay," Belle said, "you know what to do."
"Yep." Was Mar's answer.
"Okay, over and out" Belle said.
Mar removed his finger off the earpiece and turned to his mentor.
"Let's go, Guru." Mar said.
The Guru nodded to Mar.
"Hey!" a gruff voice yelled at them.
Mar and the Guru turned to see a kangaroo guard.
Mar grinned as he said, "Victim number one's coming right up."
The guard attacked the two. The Guru hid while Mar taunted the guard by dodging his punches.
"Hold still, Wagga!" The guard yelled at Mar.
The Guru jumped onto the kangaroo's back, taking over the guard's mind. Mar jumped out of the way of the controlled kangaroo. The guard ran towards the generator. The guard kept on running even after the Guru had jumped off of him.
"Let's get outta here!" Mar yelled to the Guru.
Mar had run of five seconds when an explosion came from the generator. Mar and the Guru looked back and saw the flames danced around the generator.
"Let's go." Mar said.
The Guru agreed with Mar in his language. Then, they heard a noise.
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
Then from the sky, the kangaroo guard fell out of the sky and landed in front of them. He groaned as lay on the ground.
"I hate to be that guy right now." Mar said to the Guru.
The Guru laughed in agreement with Mar before they went to the safe house.
8:00 p.m. Day one setup completed.
In the safe house, the gang, including the Guru and Mar, was preparing the next part of the operation.
"Can someone help me with the projector?" Belle asked as she struggled with the machine.
"I help." Mar volunteered as he got up from his chair.
Mar nearly ran to the green haired mouse, and he grabbed the projector.
"Thanks, Mar." Belle said, relieved.
"No prob." Mar replied as he carried the projector from Belle's arms to the table.
Belle started to blush as the others entered the room.
"What's wrong?" Sam asked as she walked near the shy mouse.
Belle's face changed to another shade of red when she heard Sam's question.
Sam, who was oblivious to Belle's blushing being a sign of affection, placed her hand on Belle's forehand. Belle was a little shocked at Sam's action.
"Sam?"
"Yeah, Belle?"
"What are you doing?"
"Checking if you're sick. Why?"
Belle drew in a breathe of relief.
"Don't worry, Sam. I'm not ill."
"Are you sure?" Sam asked in concern, "You look a little red."
"It's nothing, really." Belle said, trying to reinsure the feline.
"Okay." Sam said, very unsure about her friend's well being.
Belle walked to the table, where Mar placed the projector, and started the machine.
"Lights off!" Belle commanded.
"Right!" Rad said as he turned off the lights.
"Thank you." Belle said to Rad before she started talking about the jobs for the next day.
"Okay, we all know by know that Mz. Sapphire has possibly resurrected the Mask of Dark Earth."
The picture was of Mz. Sapphire.
"From the last Cooper Gang's exploits, the Mask of Dark Earth was destroyed after having it pulled off of Inspector Fox's face, which happened after a failed attempt to destroy it with a Thunder Flop."
The next picture was of the last Cooper Gang: Sly, Murry, Bently, and the Guru.
"That's funny every time I hear that story." Justin said.
"Yeah." Rad agreed.
"As I was saying," Belle said, "I have a plan to stop Mz. Sapphire and destroy The Mask of Dark Earth at the same time."
"First, if we want to purposely repeat history, we have to get explosives."
The next picture was of a group of oil wells.
"There're several containers of high explosives at the oil wells. We need those who have strength out their side as well as a friend who can operate the claw."
"I'm in." Rad said.
"Same here." Justin said.
Belle resumed, "Second, we need to thin out the ranks of miners, and we have some help. Mar, Luna, and Guru, are you up for it?"
Mar and the Guru nodded while Luna said, "Let's do it."
Belle continued, "Finally, we need to hit where they rest. At the local lemonade bar, we need to cause a riot, and we have a secret weapon."
Belle turned to Sam with a cocky grin on her face. The others started to look at a confused Sam.
It took Sam a moment until she realized what Belle meant by 'secret weapon.'
"No way!" Sam announced to her co-workers, folding her arms across her chest.
"No worries, Sam." Belle said to the reluctant feline, "Rad will be behind you, and that is the last job for the day."
"He better be there." Sam warned Belle.
"Okay. Sam, can you turn on the lights, please?" Belle asked.
Sam turned on the lights.
"Only, any questions?" Belle asked.
"Not me." Rad announced.
"Don't look here." Luna said.
Justin and Mar shook their heads. Sam kept quiet.
"Okay, let's rest up for tomorrow." Belle announced before retiring to her room.
Sam stayed behind as one by one the others retired themselves to their rooms.
Rad asked, placing his face in front of Sam's face, "What's wrong, Sam?"
Sam sighed, trying to ignore Rad, but Rad was persistent.
"Sam," Rad said firmly, "you won't feel better if you hold it all in."
Sam gave in and said; "I just don't feel all right about my job tomorrow."
"Don't worry." Rad said, "I'll be there to protect you."
Then, Rad embraced Sam, who blushed at the moment he touched her.
"It's so much like being in my dad's arms again." Sam thought as soon as she was embraced.
Sam started to cry, which was something she has not done in years since her parents were killed. Rad felt the warm tears on his shirt, so he held Sam closer to himself.
"I promise you that I'll protect you." Rad said as Sam continued to cry.
Next chapter: Down Under Thunder, Day 2