Chapter 6: The Grey Fox

"Damn, it's hot in here!" Sly said over the comm. One foot in front of the other, then bring the left arm forward and lean on the right, then change.

"Be careful Sly! It looks like there's a big drop ahead of you!" Bentley warned his raccoon friend.

"Right." Sly acknowledged as he grimaced. "Of course there is." He mumbled.

"What was that, Sly?"

"Nothing." Sly panted as the intense heat took a toll on his body. It wouldn't have been so high, but to Sly, it felt like 100 degrees. "Bentley." Sly looked down the drop. It must have been about ten metres. "Remind me why I'm crawling around in the vents."

"You're crawling around in the ventilation system because there is no other way in."

"Couldn't we have just knocked on the door or something?"

"We don't know whether this 'Grey Fox' is friendly or not. We have to be careful. The schematics say that the specific ventilation shaft that you're in is one of the only ones that haven't been bugged to trigger alarms whenever they sense motion. It also looks like the main foyer is riddled with traps. This is the only you can get in without setting one of those alarms off."

"Don't we want him to know that I'm…" *Urrgh* Sly said as he landed at the bottom of the drop. The vents made an uncomforting creaking sound as he did so. "… here?" Sly ducked and checked the next corner. It looked a little too narrow to fit around. "After all, we want to talk with him, don't we?"

"Yes, but as I said…" Bentley pushed his glasses up his snout. "… we don't know whether he's going to play nice. If he finds you before you find him, things could end badly." Sly continued to squeeze himself around the corner. It was a tight fit, but he made it all the way around… and into a dead end.

"Umm…" Sly almost tried to get up but stopped himself before he hit his head. "I've hit a dead end."

"What? That's impossible!" Bentley replied. "The schematics say that shaft goes on for another twelve metres before another turn."

"Nope. Dead end."

"I see. Well then, I guess you're on your own, Sly."

"What!?"

"I can't trust these schematics. Either the 'Grey fox' has made adjustments or the schematics were always wrong. Either way, it's too dangerous to follow these…"

"Hey, I see something!" Sly looked through a grate to his side. A small room was beyond it. There were small lights all over the place. Sly kicked the grate out and lowered himself from the ventilation shaft."

"Wait Sly, you have to… b… don…"

"Bentley?" Sly tapped his ear piece.

"Sl… b… c…ful… there's a go… it … that room…. Inter…. ence… keep… t… d… d… mine…" Suddenly a burst of white noise shot through the ear piece, causing Sly to pull it out of his ear."

"Perfect." He said to himself. Looking around the room, he could see a few monitors hooked up to the walls and a big control centre on the far wall. The room was about five by five metres big and the walls only shot up for three. On Sly's left was a different coloured wall with foggy glass running across it at head height. A door lay at the end of it. Sly turned his attention to the control centre. It was on and shined a bright light from its multiple monitors. However, Sly refused to touch it. He was no electronics expert and as Bentley said, it was probably rigged with bugs ready to set the alarms off. Sly looked around once more. There seemed to be a lot of seemingly useless L.E.D lights about. He shrugged his shoulders and made for the door at the far end of the left wall. The hallway was way creepier than he had thought it would have been. There weren't any intentionally spooky things about. Just a dark, metallic hallway which seemed more ominous than it did practical.

'Bentley said that this place used to be a sewage cleaning facility. Why would someone want to live in an abandoned sewage plant?" Sly gagged at the thought. He moved through the hallways with all the sneakiness he had in him (which was VERY sneaky). Tiptoeing on the cold hard floor, a thought crossed Sly's mind. 'What was the point in setting up a control centre in a random room in a section of the facility which had no lights?' Sly looked back. It was brighter down there because of the L.E.D's. It was dark where he was standing. Very dark. He immediately made a run for the room and skidded to a halt right outside of the door. Staring at it for just a moment, he sighed and said… "Guess one try won't hurt." Sly turned the handle, only to find that it wouldn't budge. He turned it again. Then another time. He tried again and again but it wouldn't budge. By the end of it he became so frustrated that he began pushing on the door as he attempted to force the handle to turn. This caused him to fall into the room with a crash as he succeeded to pull the handle down. Sly quickly got up and brushed himself off. "Not the smoothest entrance I've ever had, but…" he looked at the control centre. Its monitors still glowed bright blue. Sly smiled as he pressed a button on the keypad. "Let's see what this does." He grinned as he awaited all of the useful data that this control centre could bear. The monitors switched off and the power from the console disappeared. All that was left to light up the room were the L.E.D lights. Sly stared blankly at the equally blank monitor before him. "You've got to be kidding me."

"Oh dear. This is bad." Bentley panicked.

"What is it Bentley?" Murray asked.

"Someone, and I don't know who, is doing a data mine on all of my files and I can't stop them. No kind of counter measure is able to stop it. I can't trace the signal either."

"Does that mean they're gonna find out where our hideout is?" The pink hippo asked.

"I think they already know." Murray replied. "If this was a long distance hack, I'd be able to deal with it, no problem. This has to be local." He frowned. "Murray, find me the bug."

"What kind of bug."

"It's a mechanical bug. One that this hacker is using to mine through my computer. That has to be how they're doing it." He turned his wheel chair around to face Murray. "Take this and go… go!" Murray grabbed the scanner and ran off in search of the bug. Bentley turned his chair back around to face the laptop and he waggled his fingers. "Alright, Mr Hacker. Let's see what you've got!"

Sly strode across the dark hallways in search of the main room that the 'Grey Fox' would be residing in. The hallways were long, dark and creepy. But sly didn't seem to mind. After all the time he had spent walking through them, he had gotten used to the ominous feeling the hallways had and his eyes had adjusted. Whistling as he went, Sly hit a slow, yet well-paced stride, his arms behind his head.

'What a gloomy place.' He thought to himself as he looked around. All of the hallways looked alike and they were all just as dark and boring. Yet for some reason, each hallway seemed creepier than the last. They were identical yet… It was as if it was a sign. A feeling that he was coming close to something. The Grey Fox perhaps? Sly's attention turned to a room branching off from the centre of the current hallway. This hallway seemed longer. That room would have been the last if this were the same length as the other hallways. Plus there was a strange, faint light emitting from that room. Sly returned his arms to their original positions and became more alert. He leaned in forward and crept towards the room with grace and speed, stopping with his back against the wall where it met the door frame. He peered into the room. A tall man stood close to the left side of the room, where the wall was extended the furthest. He was surrounded by monitors. Sly slipped into the room seemingly unnoticed whilst the man mumbled something to himself. It sounded kind of like he was trying to solve some sort of problem. As Sly examined the man from a closer range, he could make out his features more clearly. He was a tall, old, grey fox who wore some sort of black jacket and trousers with a large piece of cloth that looked too thin to be a cape hanging down from his back. Sly prepared to catch the man off guard. "Foun-"

"Ah, you're finally here. It took you long enough." The grey fox said without turning his head. The man's voice sounded like that of an old man. It was refined and slightly frail, yet it seemed too gruff to belong to someone of his age. Sly hesitated for a second. Then he replied.

"You knew I was coming?"

"Of course I did." The man answered instantly. "I sent you the message." Sly frowned. This guy was on his side after all. All the sneaking around had been for nothing. At least it seemed that way. "You know…" The old man started. He turned to face the raccoon and sighed. "You could have just come through the front door. There was no need to go clambering through the vents." Sly slumped.

"You serious." He sighed heavily, and then realized something. "Wait a sec… Bent… an associate of mine told me that there were traps in the foyer."

"The turtle? Of course… Of course he did." The fox turned back to face the monitors. "I must have sent him one of the fake schematics."

"You keep face maps of this place?"

"Of course I do." The man chuckled. "You can't be too careful when you're a master thief." He turned back around and smiled.

"You're a master thief too?!" Sly exclaimed, shocked.

"Too? That implies that you are a master thief." The man began laughing.

"Hey, what's so funny?" Sly said as he angrily pointed his cane at the old man. The fox stopped laughing, but his smiled stayed.

"The way you simply strolled up to this place. You might think that you're sneaky but I had you tagged by the time you came within half a kilometre of this place!"

"Right." Sly returned to his ordinary, smirking expression. "I guess you haven't heard about my previous exploits then?"

"Exploits? You mean blowing up giant robot birds? That's hardly thievery."

"I meant my other exploits." Sly crossed his arms.

"I know what you've done. It's impressive, it really is." The grey fox turned to face the monitors and many images and videos of Sly's adventures and heists appeared. "However, I am yet to be impressed." The man turned back around and the images and videos disappeared. "No offense." He gestured with his hand. Sly took a step back and looked over the man. He must be at least half a metre taller than sly.

"So you said that you could give me some answers."

"Yes. I suppose these past events must have been quite confusing. Infuriating perhaps?" The grey fox held his hands behind his back. Sly nodded.

"I lost my memory. All I can remember was a lot of blood and collapsing outside of the police station… That is what you can tell me about right."

"Yes. They said that you had amnesia, but I didn't think that it would be this bad." He scratched his chin.

"They?"

"My contacts."

"Right, so… What can you tell me about the events from before all that happened?"

"You were shot." The fox put plainly.

"I know that. Carm… Officer Fox told me."

"Perhaps, but you didn't tell me that you knew that you were shot. I was just trying to fill in the gaps. And please, don't hold back on the names of others. I already know everything there is to know about your contacts. Bentley, Murray and 'Miss Fox'…" He gestured with his fingers. "… included."

"Fair enough."

"Good. Now, you were shot by a trained assassin who goes by the name of Dante." Images of a blue Hawk appeared on the screen. He wore a white jacket with a wire vest underneath. He also wore black trousers and boots. His eyes were sharp and so was his demeanour. He didn't look very friendly though. He was frowning in every image. "This man shot you on orders of an organization known as Black cat." A large black and yellow symbol appeared on the central monitor. Sly looked at it carefully. It wasn't exactly what you'd call an intricate pattern. It was just a few lines swirling around and ending up into a circle with the rest trailing off to the left. "I believe the members of this group, which is most likely to consist of a leader and a small number of lieutenants with many henchmen, have motives which do not agree with average moral standards. Not that thievery is morally just, but these guys are planning something devious. I believe it is in both our best interests to work against them.

"So what, now you're just gonna send me on missions. I came here for answers, not work."

"But these 'missions' are where your answers lay."

"Look here, buddy!" Sly pointed his cane at the old man once more. "You promised me answers. I don't want to go gallivanting off on another adventure to ruin the plot of some gangsters, I just want to find this 'Dante' guy and sort things out. I don't care much for revenge, payback, whatever you want to call it."

"What are you going to do with that?" The fox looked down at Sly's cane. "Swish the air with it?" He chuckled.

"What?" Sly looked confused and relaxed his arms slightly. The fox fizzled a little. His form waved around a little. Sly slowly stuck his cane through the old man and the hologram flailed about violently, returning to normal once Sly retracted his cane. "A hologram?"

"You didn't think I'd meet you in person did you? A master thief has to be careful." He laughed again. "I don't know where Dante is, but I have a lead. Find a certain someone who calls themselves 'Puss in Boots'. We believe him to be one of the lieutenants. He may be able to lead you to Dante. Do whatever you wish from then on. You know where to contact me if you reconsider my offer." The hologram began to fizzle out.

"Wait!" Sly jumped forward, but it was too late. The grey fox had disappeared. The monitors also turned off soon after. After a few seconds, there was only the faint light of a few L. that were dotted around the room. Sly looked down at his cane and twirled it. "Puss in boots, huh? You've got to be kidding me."

Carmelita backed down an alleyway, making sure that no one could see her doing it. Once she was sure that she was far down enough that no one would hear her, she continued to speak to her associate.

"So you found him. Thanks. I know that Sly is a hard guy to track down, but you've never let me down before, so… Of course, I understand. Thanks. You're a good friend Julian."

So yeah, that was the grey fox. Hope you aren't to unhappy with the time it took to get this chapter up on the site. I'm in the middle of my Exams. However, they'll be over in a few weeks, so I can speed up with the updates :) Hope you're looking forward to meeting Puss in Boots 'cause I'm gonna enjoy writing the chapter(s). If you haven't left a review yet, try leaving one. Tell me what you think of the style of the story and maybe your hopes for what you will see in future chapters. More Sergeant Spike? More Julian and Neyla? Or perhaps you wish to see more of Bentley and Murray. Should I keep with the darker theme this story is travelling along or should I try a more traditional approach to Sly's adventures? Go on. Tell me!