Hallo, all!

Back to your regularly scheduled updates we go! Aren't I nice? ... Yes, yes I am.

On with the chapter!

Having Sly back was pretty much the best thing ever. Even the dank and dark little Safehouse seemed to brighten merely because of his unwavering sunshine-and-roses personality. There was only one slight damper on things.

We still had to get Murray.

So, it was with bittersweet feelings that Sly and I took up positions in folding chairs in front of the by now familiar slide machine.

"Okay, here's the situation," Bentley began with a few slides of the area surrounding the prison, "I've done some deep data-base crunching and have figured out that Murray is doing time in Cellblock 'D'. Getting him out is going to be a challenge. As we all know he's not exactly light on his feet. First we'll need to get Murray in an isolation cell away from the other inmates."

"And how exactly are we going to do that?" I asked around a forkful of microwavable Kraft Mac & Cheese, one of the only food commodities we'd been able to acquire, "Those cells are usually used for inmates with volatile tempers, right? Murray's more agreeable than a cat who thinks you have tuna."

Sly gave me a sidelong glance and a grin, "Do you like tuna, Jinx?"

I glared and shoved another forkful of macaroni in my mouth.

"As I was saying…" Bentley gave me a glare for interrupting him, "Sly, I'll need you to get a sample of the Contessa's encryption algorithm." Sly gave me a bewildered glance and I shrugged. Seeing our confusion, Bentley sighed, "Don't worry, I'll explain later. You'll also need to pickpocket some things from the Contessa, just watch out for her bodyguards!"

A picture of three massive vultures was all it took to get a loud, nervous gulp from Sly's direction.

"And fourth," a picture of an average black water tower appeared on screen, "We'll need to deactivate her giant attack robot."

It was silent for a moment. Then I snorted loudly and Sly started chuckling.

"No, really guys I'm serious," Bentley sounded put out and navigated back towards the page, pulling out a marker and adding teeth and angry eyes to the water tower as he spoke, "The Contessa has a giant attack robot… it just looks like a water tower. Once we've pulled off all these jobs, we'll be ready to make a play for the big guy."

Sly stood and stretched, "Let's get started."

I stood as well, "How are we going to get Murray into solitary confinement?"

"I have a plan for that." Sly said… slyly. He took me by the elbow and led me out of the Safehouse, Bentley was plenty distracted with the binocucom station. He pointed to the prison, "I'm going to have to go up there to get the Contessa's encryption… thingy. There are crawl tunnels in Cellblock D, where Murray is. While I'm running around, raising hell with the guards, you sneak in and tell Murray to get into a big fight. If he knocks out enough teeth, they'll have to put him in solitary."

I raised an eyebrow, "What makes you say that?"

"Experience, what else?"

I gaped at him, looking him up and down for signs of injury. He'd only just been thrown in 'The Hole' when we'd rescued him, he'd at least have some lingering bruises if he got into a fight of that magnitude, right? Unfortunately, with fur as thick as Sly's there was no way I'd be able to see the bruises just by looking. I sighed.

"That's all well and dandy," I said, unnecessarily shading my eyes to look up at the prison, "But how are we getting up there? I mean, yeah, I've read the Thievious Raccoonus, but I haven't the faintest idea where to even begin with getting over the walls and I'm not nearly as coordinated or balanced as you."

I looked back over at Sly and saw him wearing an unwholesome grin.

"No." I said firmly, "Whatever you're thinking, the answer is absolutely, irrevocably, 'no'."

"I hate you, I hateyou, IhateyouIhateyou…"

He laughed as he ran across the wire, tail fanning out behind him, "C'mon, look at the view!"

I resisted the urge to dig my claws into his neck, settling instead for burying my head in his shoulder, "I can't believe I thought this would be even remotely okay!" Riding around on Sly's back had sounded safe enough until he put about fifty feet between us and the nearest solid landmass.

He laughed again, like he was having the time of his life, and twirled, landing on another wire. He took the pose of a surfer and began to build up speed as he slid along the cord, finally jumping off and landing just outside the prison wall.

"Thank you for flying Air Cooper. Your return flight will be at 4:00 sharp." He said, even as I made a show of dropping to my knees and flinging myself down to hug the dirt.

"Land!"

He jabbed me with his cane, "C'mon, drama queen. We gotta get going."

I rolled my eyes and contemplated chucking his stick into the river below, but realized that was probably crossing a line. He headed inside and I waited till I heard alarms go off before following. It wasn't hard to find Cellblock D, it was in the middle of the place after all, but that also meant the area was well-lit and that there were plenty of guards around.

Sticking to the fences that cordoned off exercise areas wound up, ironically, being the key to not getting caught, the spotlights were only on them for a few seconds and there were obvious blind spots I could hide in when they were.

I found the crawl tunnels under the stairs. And by 'crawl tunnels' I mean 'most disgusting and rank things I've ever had the displeasure of coming into close contact with'. I instantly understood why Sly had tricked me instead of doing it himself.

I managed to make it through by breathing through clenched teeth and imagining all the ways I could get back at the thief for this. I resolved to ask Bentley for more ideas and found myself inside a grate, looking out at the prison cells. I could hear a familiar huffing, though my line of sight was limited, so I whispered, "Murray... Murray, you there?"

"Kaia… is that you?" Murray ran in front of the grate and looked around, "Where are you?"

"Over here, in the grate in the wall!"

He hurried over to the grate and peered into it. "Kaia, I'm so glad to see you! They kept asking us where you were and Sly was freaking out!"

Note to self: Add 'Sly freaking out.' to list of blackmail possibilities.

"How are you Murray?" I asked, finding myself to be genuinely concerned.

"They've been making me eat a bunch of food covered in spice… and I'm feeling really strange." He admitted.

Eff, that must have had something to do with the Contessa's hypnosis techniques. Thankfully Murray was so large that it would take a while to get him so addicted to the stuff that the hypnosis would work, but that didn't mean we could waste time.

"Hang in there, big guy, we'll get you out. Bentley seems to have found some sort of weakness in the solitary confinement cell. If you can start a big enough fight and get them to throw you in there, we should be able to bust you out."

Murray looked a bit worried, "Well, I suppose a force like 'The Murray' could take down fifty foes… if I had to."

I tried to be encouraging, "That's great! You take out fifty of those guys and they'll put you in solitary for sure!"

"All right, bring it on!"

Apparently a little encouragement was all Murray needed. He went out into the common area and proceeded to pummel fifty inmates into submission. Despite his victory, he was a lot slower than usual; leaving me to believe the spice had taken its toll.

When he'd finally been wrestled down by five vultures and escorted to solitary, I somehow managed to wriggle around and crawl back out of the tunnels.

It's a sad, sad day when a prison yard smells better than something else.

When I got back to where Sly was supposed show up to take me back to the Safe House, I was surprised to find him already there. I was also surprised by the smell that accompanied him.

"Is that burning fur?"

He gave me a grin and flicked his tail. I could see a singed spot at the very tip, "The lightning got a little too close for comfort."

I felt my eyes widen, "What were you doing with lightning?"

"Destroying the attack robot."

"… Wait, Bentley was serious?"

He responded with only a grin, which quickly faded, "How was Murray?"

"Murray's fine. You, however may soon be killed if you don't come up with a very good reason for tricking me to go into the tunnels myself!"

He tapped my nose with the tip of his cane, "I have a more sensitive nose than you."

"Bullshi-"

"Sly, Kaia, you read me?" Bentley's nasally voice crackled through the binocucom ear bud.

"Yeah Bentley. Hey, do we have a shower at the Safehouse?" I did not want to think about what that slime on my elbow probably was.

"A shower…?" He sounded bewildered for a moment, but then I could picture him shaking his head and refocusing on the task at hand, "That has nothing to do with anything! You got Murray into solitary, right?"

"Yup, it was surprisingly easy."

"And Sly took care of the attack robot and the encryption algorithm."

"I still can't believe you weren't kidding, pal."

"That means you still have to get the tank plans from the Contessa."

"And how do we do that?"

"We? Nuh-uh, Jinx. I'll be taking care of that. Alone." Sly stipulated firmly.

"Are you kidding me? I'm not gonna let you attempt to take on her and her guards. If all else fails I can be a distraction."

"She'd smell you coming a mile away!"

Back at the Safehouse, Bentley flinched when he heard the sound of a battle cry and a scuffle.

"Guys? GUYS!"

The sounds continued for about a minute until static filled the channel. He slapped his forehead and heaved a long-suffering sigh. Then the static stopped and Sly started talking again, "Bentley, is there any tactical advantage to Jinx helping at all?"

Ignoring the faint 'Don't call me Jinx!' from the speakers, Bentley considered it, "Well, it depends. Kaia, how fast can you run?"

Having won the argument, given Sly a black eye, and received a couple bruises of my own (Sly had pinned me in the end to avoid actually having to fight me), we proceeded around to the other side of the prison, me on Sly's back once again, him grumbling the whole time. I knew he was sore about me being a part of the plot, but hey, it made it much easier to get the plans.

Once we made it to a ledge that overlooked the Contessa's patrol route, I slid off Sly's back, touching softly to the ground. It occurred to my ADD mind that I needed better shoes, my Vans were practically in tatters.

Sly turned to me with a no nonsense look on his face. That's right, this was serious business to him. He took off his hat and slapped it on my head. I adjusted it and looked up at him, my lips quirking at his hat hair.

He took a step back and crossed his arms, looking me over, "There, that ought to make you look like my silhouette from a decent distance, as long as you stay in the shadows. Just make a noise and get one of the guards chasing you, I'll come up behind them once you're far enough away from the Contessa and knock them senseless, just don't let them catch you before then."

I rolled my eyes and gave him a mock salute before shimmying down a nearby pipe. I wasn't stupid enough to think this wasn't dangerous, I just wanted to let him think I was confident. All that was necessary was to lure away the Contessa's guards so Sly could pickpocket her. Simple, right?

Actually, yeah. Yeah it was. I was able to sufficiently distract the guards by sticking to the shadows, 'accidently' knocking over something in earshot, then booking it outta there once they caught sight of me. I'd generally hide behind or under something in a dead end then, when the guards were looking about in confusion, Sly would come up behind them, flip them up, then slam them down. Sweet dreams!

I tried not to focus on how strong Sly would have to be to be pulling this off.

Anyways, seven guards later (Sly had to pickpocket the Contessa three times, great master thief that he is) I was creeping along the crags of the cliff the Contessa's detention center was built on. I lamented the cold rain that was quickly washing away my disguise and watched Sly go in for the final grab. He'd told me to head back to the Safehouse, but I couldn't resist the urge to see him in action.

They say curiosity killed the cat. I wonder what they say about hybrids?

It's probably something along the lines of 'curiosity thoroughly screwed over the hybrid'.

When Sly made the grab, as easily as walking down the sidewalk, mind you, he ducked behind some nearby rubble. The Contessa instantly noticed something was missing and started looking around for her guards. I was only able to make out the tail end of her rant ("-They're all fired!"), before she cast a rope of web above her and snagged a beam overhead to pull herself off the tracks. When I say 'a beam overhead', I mean a beam over my head.

I didn't even have time to react before I came face to face with the Contessa. It was definitely one of those deer-in-the-headlights moments. Unfortunately she reacted much quicker than me. It was only instinct that let me jump back fast enough to avoid her swipe.

Then I was running along the crags faster than I'd ever run. Adrenaline was an impressive ally, but not impressive enough. The Contessa had six legs.

I tried to dive into a ventilation shaft on the outside of the wall, but only got halfway in before my leg was grabbed. I tried to kick of course, but I was yanked out so quickly I wasn't oriented enough to do so for long.

Being upside down while face to face with the Contessa was not so intimidating as being right side up. Mostly because I was so preoccupied with keeping my shirt from falling down and the pain in my leg from where she was holding me up. Was it spiders that could lift one thousand times their body weight or ants? Either way, the fact that she could hold me up like that didn't really surprise me.

"Well, well, what do we have here?" The Contessa asked smarmily, in that weird accent of hers. "If it isn't Sly Cooper's little hostage girl. Interpol will give me the credit for this one. Though," she amended after I snapped at her hand when she tilted my head to get a better look at me, "It looks like you need some rehabilitation of your own. Mmm… yes, too much time with the Cooper gang surely will have traumatized your psyche. Interpol would be pleased if I… volunteered to evaluate you and give them a psychiatrist's opinion. And I'm sure you know where the Cooper gang hides their fortune by now."

That actually made me freeze with fear for a couple of reasons. First, the Contessa's 'evaluations' consisted of drugging up inmates, then hypnotizing them, something I did not want to be on the receiving end of. Second, she was convinced I knew where the gang hid their fortunes and likely wouldn't stop questioning me until I told her. A hesitant 'In the back of their van?' probably wouldn't sate her inquiries.

I didn't have much time to ponder this as the Contessa started moving, climbing vertically up the prison wall. I felt vertigo seep in and shut my eyes tightly to try to keep the mac and cheese I'd eaten just hours ago from coming up, or down as it was in this case.

That's what I was concentrating on until I somehow heard a strangled gasp somewhere below and opened my eyes reflexively, just in time to see the horrified look on Sly's face from where he stood, about fifty feet below. As I watched, his expression morphed from horror to no less than feral rage. I actually flinched merely at the look in his eyes, not to mention the fact that he started chasing the Contessa. I tried waving him off; there was no way he could take on the Contessa by himself. He ignored me though, and I know he saw me, in favor of scaling the crags in pursuit.

The Contessa was over the wall seconds later and I lost sight of the thief in favor of shutting my eyes again against the intense vertigo. I knew he was still following, though, because I soon heard the unmistakable sound of a cane beating flesh and the pained squawks of the guards on the walls.

"What is this!" I heard the Contessa exclaim indignantly. I made the mistake of opening my eyes at the exact wrong time as she tossed me, literally tossed me, to a nearby pair of guards. Fortunately, they caught me and I didn't crash into the ground. Unfortunately, they caught me and held on, giving me no chance to get loose and head to Sly's aid, however ineffective I might have been.

My heart did stop for a moment when I saw all the guards swarm to Sly's position and the Contessa stalking towards the place where he was holding them all off with only his cane.

I did try to get away. I bit and kicked and fought and scratched but managed to do next to no damage. Then one of the guards managed to grow a brain cell and I felt a blow to the back of my neck. I stayed conscious, but only just, vision darkening and my legs giving way, sinking to the ground as much as I could with the guards still holding me up. They started dragging me somewhere while I tried to get my body to obey me again, trying to fight off the discombobulating effects of the hit and get back to where I could still hear the fights going on.

I knew I'd been taken inside somewhere because I felt my legs dragging against stone and the sounds of the scrimmage were muffled. I started to regain some of my foggy vision two flights of stairs later when I heard a door open creakily, and I was tossed (again, what was with the tossing?) to a dirty floor. I heard the door close again and tried to force my unwilling limbs to respond to my commands when I heard something move nearby.

I froze in fear, adopting a 'play dead' mentality. Someone knelt next to me and I was rolled over onto my back. I heard an intake of breath and cracked my eyes open to see brown eyes set into a familiar orange-furred face. The previous intake of breath was released in Spanish.

"Mi Dios…"

I couldn't help but agree with her sentiment. Oh my God.

"Inspector Fox?"

She helped me into a sitting position against the wall as I continued to stare at her, open-mouthed. I knew she'd been arrested when Sly and Murray were, but I didn't know she was here! The grungy cell we were in didn't offer much light to see her by, just what filtered through the barred window from the spotlights, but I could tell she was thinner and could see dark circles around her eyes, like she hadn't been sleeping.

"What are you doing here, Kaia?" she asked incredulously, giving me the same once over I'd given her. "I know you're a smart girl, how did you even get involved with the Cooper gang?" I'd met Inspector Fox at several FBI events over the years and we'd actually gotten along very well, all things considered. She probably knew me a lot better than I knew her by now, though, considering she was in charge of getting me back from the gang.

I trusted her, so I told her. Everything, from the museum, to Paris, to India, to the jungle, to where we were then I told her.

She shook her head when I was finished, "This whole mess started because you got mad at Cooper and continued because you wouldn't let it go. There's too much of your father in you.

I grinned sheepishly, no stranger to the inside joke the force came up with about my dad having some terrier in him because once he sunk his teeth into a case, he just wouldn't let go. When my dad had gotten custody of me after the divorce, the entire bureau had helped him raise me. As a result, I knew enough intimidation techniques to be an old maid the rest of my life and I got more birthday presents than anyone else I knew. Honestly, I wouldn't have it any other way.

She sighed, sinking back on her heels, "At least you look healthy enough. After that stunt Cooper pulled in the jungle, I wasn't sure what to think."

I grimaced, rubbing my head, "Oh trust me, he regretted that very much. He was in the proverbial doghouse for two days before I was convinced he was sorry."

She gave me a tiny smile. "You would have him wrapped around your finger by now. How did you wind up in here?"

"I was with Sly, helping him pickpocket some stuff from the Contessa. Oh, don't give me that look," I said in response to her critical eye, "They're trying to bust Murray out. Would you leave anyone to the Contessa's mercy? Or complete lack thereof?"

She shook her head, "But didn't he try to come after you when the Contessa grabbed you?"

"Are you kidding? Of course he did! I thought he was gonna tear her apart, but there were too many guards. Judging from the sound of explosions," and there had been quite a few, "he probably got away. Not that I'm not going to catch hell for getting caught when he busts us out."

She blinked at me in surprise, "Us?"

I rolled my eyes, "Yeah, 'us'. If Sly and Bentley had known you were in the same detention center, we probably would have been planning to come get you too."

She averted her gaze, "It's hard to know what Ringtail will do…"

Seeing a prime opportunity for teasing I leaned forward conspiratorially and asked, "So is 'Ringtail' your pet name for Sly or something?"

Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to claim the title of the first person to ever make Inspector Carmelita Fox choke on air, look thoroughly scandalized, and turn a miraculous shade of red.

It took me awhile to stop laughing enough to inhale, "Oh, I knew it! I knew it!" I muffled my giggles at her glare, but then remembered something, "So, how was it that he managed to handcuff you to a rail?"

The shade of red deepened, "He… distracted me."

"How? He refuses to tell me!"

She averted her eyes and started picking at a loose thread on her pants. "Well, you must know by now how Cooper and I had to work together to take down Clockwerk two years ago. He got me out of a gas chamber and I got him a jet pack so he could fly up to Clockwerk's level. I told him that after it was over though, I'd go right back to chasing him. He asked if I really would and I told him I'd give him a ten second head start. And after it all, I did."

"… And?"

She gave a sardonic smirk, "I had my shock pistol trained right on him, handcuffs in my other hand, just waiting for him to start running. But he didn't, he just… stood there for all ten seconds." I tried to hide a smirk of my own. Sly would only do that if he had something up his sleeve, "Then he used that stupid cane of his to get rid of my shock pistol and, just when his ten seconds were up he was right there and-" The look on her face and the way she unconsciously touched the tips of her fingers to her lips told the rest of the story.

I doubled over laughing, "He kissed you? Oh, that's priceless!"

She smiled too, evidently she'd gotten past the point of being embarrassed and found the memory funny herself. "I'll catch him one of these days, though. He can't one-up me forever."

"Knowing Sly, he'll probably last longer than you'd think. How many other times have the two of you bumped heads?"

She looked up at the ceiling, a fond smile touching her lips, "Well, there was this one time…"

We didn't get long for me to hear about that one time. It was maybe an hour after I'd joined Carmelita in the cell when we both heard the unmistakable sound of explosions.

I gave my companion a toothy grin and said, "Told ya."

She frowned, moving toward the small, barred window high on the wall and raising herself to the tips of her toes to peer out, "Are you sure? Those explosions weren't exactly close."

"No," I agreed, "They're probably going to get Murray out and find a terminal before they even know where we are, but they're coming."

She gave me an odd look, the fluorescent orange light coming in lines from outside throwing her face into contrast, "You have a lot of faith in them."

I shrugged, getting to my feet creakily. "They're honest people. They may be thieves, but they aren't liars. And they're crazy loyal. No reason not to have faith in them."

She smiled at me, like she knew something I didn't. I opened my mouth to question her on this when her ears sudden swiveled in the direction of the hallway and she froze, alert. I followed her example and was able to hear the sound of running footsteps coming straight for our door.

Carmelita grabbed my arm and forced me to stand in a corner behind her while she crouched in a defensive position in front of the door, tail slowly waving behind her in anticipation. The door opened and she leapt, going for the shock pistol in the belt of the vulture behind the door while simultaneously directing a punch straight into his beak and kneeing him in the gut.

He fell back with a pained squawk and Carmelita hefted a pistol, aiming at something farther down the hall.

"Kaia, go!"

The tone of her voice was so commanding that I didn't dare question her or hesitate. I bolted in the opposite direction she was aiming and ran only a short distance before being confronted with a flight of stairs. I dropped to all fours for the ascent and didn't fully straighten when I was running again, keeping my head down, ready to dodge or attack.

At the end of the hall I was running through I saw an open archway. I saw the rain reflecting the torch and spotlights from the outdoors. Lightning flashed and I was temporarily blinded when I cleared threshold of the archway. I stopped before I could run into something and waited for my vision to clear. When it did, I hastily looked around myself.

Was I on a balcony? It looked like it. The entire area, except the part I'd just come through, was roped off like a sort of fence. It seemed too big to be a balcony, though…

A gust of wind tore through the air, passing through my t-shirt and jeans like they weren't even there and chilling me to the bone, making all my fur fluff up. The floor beneath me pitched and moved, throwing me to my knees. Then I realized the surface under my fingers was not stone. With a sinking feeling I lifted my eyes upward and saw what looked to be a large balloon.

I groaned. Loudly.

I was on a blimp!

I heard the unmistakable sound of footsteps behind me and turned with a sense of foreboding to the way I'd come. I was trapped, after all.

There were five guards, two vultures and three wolves. One of the vultures had his shock pistol trained on Inspector Fox, who was standing in front of them, giving them the evil eye, despite being handcuffed. In this light I could see how thin she was, how dull her fur looked. She really had seen better days. My lips twitched when I realized that, in spite of this, her eyes held the same old fire.

"Hands on your head," One of the vultures wheezed, "And no sudden moves."

I gave them the exact same glare as Carmelita, putting my hands on the back of my head slowly. I was moderately please when I saw one of the wolves flinch. Normally, the way my eyes scared some people annoyed me, but in this case, I intended to use it to my advantage.

One of the other wolves came forward and forced my wrists behind my back, securing them with a length of rope. Apparently they only had one set of handcuffs. Good job, them. Good job.

The rest of the guards hurried onto the platform, one of them untying the blimp from its moorings. I felt ill when it started floating upward. Being scared of heights had distinct disadvantages .

Inspector Fox and I were shoved to one side of the platform with a guard to keep us from 'trying anything' while the rest bustled about the blimp, directing it up toward the walls of the prison. I did catch sight of an abandoned tank in front of Cell Block D and fought the urge to smirk. So Bentley and Sly were able to blow the doors after all.

I caught Carmelita's eye and mouthed 'sorry'. She shook her head, eyed the guard, rolled her shoulders, and nodded to the edge. It didn't matter, wait until she attacked the guard, and make a break for it. I couldn't point out the obvious flaw in her plan because just then the blimp cleared the wall and the Contessa, cornered by Sly and the gang, jumped aboard, clinging to the side.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw Carmelita lunge. I instinctively dodged out of her way when she bodily tackled the guard and made for the single gap in the rope fence. I halted though, when I made it.

It was such a long way down…

"Kaia!"

I snapped out of my stupor to see Sly standing on the edge of the wall, cane by his feet, arms extended toward me. I hopped back, planted a foot on the edge of the platform, tensing my muscles to spring.

But I didn't even have my arms to balance myself…

"Stop her!" The Contessa screamed.

Sly's eyes found mine and I couldn't look away.

"Jump!"

I jumped.

...

Hey, remember, I'm the nice one. Hope you enjoyed the chapter! Let me know what you think and God bless!