Had a bit of trouble writing this chapter. Damn writer's block.

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Chapter 9: Escape

Carmelita stared at the white tiger standing in front of her and Sly. Marakov had his Desert Eagle aimed straight at her. She quickly aimed her shock pistol back at him. He smiled.

"By the time you fire your little toy at me, the bullet from my gun will have already passed through your head. I suggest putting the weapon down Inspector." She looked around for anything that she could use as a distraction, but there was nothing more than the torture table and a few other machines. She slowly placed the shock pistol on the ground and put her hands in the air, along with Sly. "Push your pistol over to me. Slowly." Carmelita kicked her shock pistol over to Markov. He picked it up, looked at it for a moment, and threw it across the room. He kept his gun aimed at Carmelita.

"I see you didn't bring the cane," Marakov said. "Most unfortunate. Both of you get down on your knees and place your hands on your head." Carmelita and Sly both did as they were told. Marakov chuckled. "You know, I never thought I'd ever be in a position where I would have to make a difficult choice such as this." Carmelita's heart was pounding. "You see, I have but a single gun. And yet, there are two of you. Such a tough decision. Who shall I kill first?" He panned his gun over to Sly's head. "Shall I kill Inspector Sly Cooper? The one who has been after me for almost a month? The one who owns the very object I am after?" He looked over to Carmelita and aimed his gun at her. "Or shall I kill the beautiful Inspector Carmelita Fox?"

"Don't kill her!" Sly interrupted. "Please!" Marakov smiled at the raccoon.

"Actually, I have a better idea." He walked in front of Sly and Carmelita to face them. "As you both know, I am still after Sly's cane." Sly looked angrily at the arms dealer. "We can avoid all of this, if you just tell me where it is."

"I don't believe you," Carmelita said. "You'll just kill us as soon as we tell you."

"I see you have no reason to trust me." Marakov looked at Carmelita. Suddenly, an evil idea came to him. "Well, I think I'll kill you first, Inspector Fox." He aimed his gun at her.

"No! Don't shoot her!" Sly yelled desperately.

"Why? Do you love her Sly?" Sly felt tears pouring down his face. "How adorable. Tell me where the cane is Sly, and I'll let her go." Sly looked over at Carmelita. She had a frightened look on her face as she eyed Marakov's Desert Eagle. Sly couldn't put her in danger. He couldn't bear the thought of her being killed because of him. He took a deep breath.

"Okay, I'll tell you," Sly finally said.

"Sly! No! Don't tell him!" Carmelita pleaded.

"Where is it Sly?" Marakov said, ignoring Carmelita.

"It's... it's at a safe house that belongs to Bentley and Penelope."

"The same house you and Carmelita walked out of last night?" Sly nodded. Marakov pulled his gun away from Carmelita. "You made the right choice Sly." Suddenly, he aimed it at Sly's head. "Good-bye."

"What the hell are you doing?!" Carmelita shouted. "You said you'd let us go if he told you!" Marakov smirked.

"I do believe I said I would let you go. Not him." Sly's eyes widened. Suddenly, before he could pull the trigger, Carmelita jumped up and threw her body into Marakov. He staggered and pulled the trigger.

"Agh!" Sly went down face first. He was shot in the arm.

Carmelita wanted anything to look over at Sly to see if he was okay. Unfortunately, that wasn't an option right now. She was too busy dealing with Marakov. She grabbed his right arm and tried to swipe the gun from his hands. The sound of gunshots filled the room as the two fought over the weapon. In the middle of it all, the gun dropped from his hands. He dove for it, but Carmelita kicked it across the room before he could pick it up. While he was on the ground, she kicked him in the ribs and made a run for the gun. As she ran past Marakov, he grabbed her leg and pulled. She fell to the ground.

Carmelita ignored the pain and jumped up from the ground. She tried to get in front of the tiger before he could get up and make a run for the gun. As he got up she punched him in the jaw. He retaliated with a kick, but Carmelita caught his leg and threw him to the ground. She made a dash for the Desert Eagle. It was so close. She just needed to get to it and she'll be fine. She was suddenly tackled to the ground by Marakov. Before he got up off of her, he punched her in the face. She thrust her leg up and hit him between the legs, and he went down. She got up and ran over to the gun. She picked it up and aimed it at the white tiger. He looked up and his eyes widened.

"Make one move that I don't okay and you're dead. Get it?" Carmelita had an unusual anger in her voice. Sly hadn't ever heard it before. Carmelita kept the gun aimed at Marakov's head. Anger burned within her eyes. This man was responsible for everything that had been going on. He was the reason why Sly was in so much pain. He had tortured Sly continuously, and now he had shot him in the arm. She pulled out a pair of cuffs from her jeans and pressed the barrel of the gun hard into Marakov's head. She grabbed one of his arms and placed one cuff around his wrist. Before he could do anything that could put her in danger, she quickly cuffed the other wrist. "Stay down," she said dangerously. She ran over to Sly and knelt down next to him. He tried to push himself off the ground, but the pain he was feeling was too much for him.

"Don't move," Carmelita told him. "It'll only make it worse." She pulled out her binocucom and brought it to her face. "Bentley. I've got Sly. He's been shot. We're going to need some help getting out of here. Marakov is in cuffs, but there's still his partner to deal with. Not to mention he probably has tons of guards in this place."

"Understood," Bentley said. "I assume the vent cover in the cell room is still open, yes?"

"Umm, yeah why?" Carmelita asked, confused.

"Just wait a couple minutes. You'll see." The transmission was cut off. Carmelita put the device away in her coat pocket. She looked down at Sly. She slowly turned him over onto his back. She bent down and kissed Sly.

"You holding up alright?" she asked.

"Yeah," Sly replied. "Hurts like hell, but I'll survive." Carmelita took a quick look over at Marakov to make sure he was still there. She pulled out her binocucom again and brought it up to her face.

"Bentley, I have to report this to Interpol. I know you said they would complicate things, but we have Marakov in cuffs now. Getting out of here should be much easier."

"Do what you gotta do."

Carmelita put the binocucom away and brought out her cell phone to call the Chief. He was rather surprised to head that she had Phillip Marakov in custody, and he couldn't believe that Sly was there as well. He sent backup to the building to take Marakov in. Just as she closed the cell phone, she heard a strange chopping sound. It almost sounded like a small helicopter.

And that's exactly what it was.

"Ha! Betcha didn't know I still had one of these babies!" Penelope said through Carmelita's binocucom. Sly smirked.

"Well, that will certainly make things much easier," Sly said. He slowly got to his feet. He stumbled a bit from the pain and blood loss, but he had to bear it until they got out of there. Carmelita walked over to her shock pistol and picked it up. She looked to make sure nothing was broken.

"One more thing before we go," she said. She walked over to Marakov, who glared angrily at her. She aimed her shock pistol at him and fired. The electricity hit him on his lower back and surged throughout his body. He shouted out in pain, and went unconscious. Carmelita smiled. "That's payback for what you did to Sly you bastard."

They headed out of the torture room and ran down the stairs to the first floor, where they found a few guards patrolling the rooms. Carmelita had Sly wait at the top of the stairs, as he was in no condition to dodge gunfire. When she got to the bottom of the stairs, two of the guards noticed her immediately and aimed their weapons at her. Before they fired off any shots, Carmelita fired her shock pistol at one of them. The other guard opened fire, but Carmelita ducked out of the way. She took another shot at the guard and the surge of electricity hit the guard right in the chest. Suddenly, about a dozen more guards came running to see what was going on. Two of them went down from shots from Carmelita's pistol before the others were able to pull out their guns from behind their backs. Carmelita ducked behind a crate of weapons for cover. She needed to think of something fast. There was no way she could bring down that many guards by herself. And then, she remembered the helicopter. She pulled out her binocucom.

"I could use a little help here Pen," she said. She waited until she heard a chopping noise from over the gunfire. Some of the guards ceased fire and looked up at the RC helicopter in confusion. The helicopter dropped a device onto the ground by all of the guards. Before they could do anything, the device exploded and green smoke enveloped the guards. When the smoke cleared away, the guards were asleep. Carmelita smiled. She ran back to Sly and led him downstairs. It wasn't long before they reached the door to the outside of the building. Carmelita brought her binocucom out and brought it up to her face.

"We're almost out," she said. "Get ready for pickup."

"Got it," came Bentley's reply.

Sly and Carmelita stepped outside into the night and waited. They could hear police sirens in the distance. They had to hurry, or the Cooper Gang could get arrested. Suddenly, a large blue van came racing down the streets. It stopped next to Sly and Carmelita.

"Hurry up! Get in!" Murray said.

Sly and Carmelita ran around to the back. Penelope opened the doors and they got in. As soon as they were inside, Murray stepped on the gas and sped off.

"Okay Sly. Where were you shot?" Bentley said immediately. Sly pointed at the gunshot wound on his arm. Bentley inspected it. "You're lucky. The bullet went completely through. That'll save you some pain."

"Good," Sly said, "because I think I've taken all the pain I can bear for one day."

"I saw what they did to you," Bentley said. "Those sick freaks!" Sly merely nodded.

"Well, it's over now."

"Not necessarily," Carmelita said. "What about that other guy? The one who tortured you? I didn't see him at all in there."

"Maybe he bailed once he saw that there was an intruder," Penelope suggested.

"Maybe," Carmelita agreed. "I can't believe it. All that, for money. I always thought criminals were stupid but..."

"They weren't after just money," Sly interrupted. All heads, except for Murray's obviously, turned towards him.

"What do you mean Sly?" Bentley asked, as he dabbed hydrogen peroxide on Sly's arm.

"Marakov seemed to think there was something more than just money in my family vault. What it was though, I have no clue."

"Something besides money? You think he might have been talking about one of those machines in the Inner Sanctum?" Bentley asked. He finished cleaning the wound up and wrapped a bandage around Sly's arm.

"No, I don't think so. It's gotta be something that's hidden in the vault. And if that's the case, it's probably still on Kaine Island. I don't suppose you two found anything besides money in there when you re-located the vault did you?" He turned towards Penelope and Bentley.

"No," Penelope answered. "Nothing. Maybe we overlooked something?"

"It's possible," Bentley said.

"Sly I don't think you should worry about it too much," Carmelita said. "Marakov is probably being taken to the station now. We can interrogate him about that later. Also, there's still that badger to take care of." Sly nodded.

"You're right." He sighed. "Is it safe to go back to the apartment? I need some sleep."

"Not yet," Bentley said. "There's someone on the loose who was after your cane. He surely knows about your escape. He'll probably stake your apartment out." Sly suddenly gasped as he realized something.

"Bentley, they know where the safe house is."

"WHAT?!" Carmelita nodded.

"You guys need to get a new safe house as soon as possible. They know the cane is there as well." She looked over at Sly, who hung his head in shame.

"You told them?" Penelope asked him.

"He was going to kill Carmelita. I had to." Sly avoided the gaze of his friends. Bentley thought for a moment.

"We'll have to get everything out of the house tonight. I do have another safe house in mind. I always keep a back up in case something happens that forces us to change safe houses." Sly smiled.

"Always thinking ahead aren't you?" Bentley grinned.

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Hmm, a bit of a short chapter I suppose. Oh well. I like how it came out. Much better than my last chapter.

Only one more chapter (I think) to go until this fic is done! And then, it's on to the sequel. Yes, I know what you're thinking. I know there are plenty of unanswered questions, but fear not! Everything will be explained in the sequel! I promise!

Until next chapter folks!

-eaglefan101