Hey guys.

I'm updating a little early because I've had kind of a rough day and I'm feeling not-so-great emotionally and I've noticed that the best way to kind of snap myself out of that mindset is to be productive and this is the easiest productive thing I can think to do. Besides, your reviews always cheer me up. After this I'll probably do homework and work on my manuscript. And yes, that is in order of easiness.

Only one more chapter and an epilogue after this! And do be sure to check in on the blog, I'm going to be writing drabbles for the series on request and it's easiest way to contact me and ask me questions. Please check to make sure I haven't already answered the question, though. I'll be making a FAQ soon, so that should help some.

And now, on with the chapter!

When I woke up to one of Bentley's robo-arms jabbing me in the side, I knew the day wasn't going to end well.

"We need to get going and you can't be late," he justified from the other side of the table. "If she complains to Le Paradox about you and breaks your cover, we'll be in trouble."

I grimaced at him as I peeled an orange, but didn't comment otherwise. It was still early, just after daybreak. Murray had fallen asleep working on the arcade machine, Sly was over by his sleeping bag, Salim had curled up on some cushions in the corner, and Kristian was closer to the entrance... staring at the ceiling.

Frowning, I padded over and sat next to him, "Did you get any sleep?" I remembered him getting up once in the night and heading outside, I assumed he was going for a walk to tire himself out, but it didn't look like it had worked.

Grimacing, he pinched the bridge of his nose, "No. I have this... song stuck in my head."

"So much that you can't sleep?"

"It's not like I chose it."

Looking over at Bentley, I saw he was already watching the exchange. He raised an eyebrow at me and I bit my lip. I didn't want to send Kristian back to Paris, but we might have to. He really didn't look good.

"Just try to get some rest," I advised. He glared at me, but then sighed and closed his eyes, clearly trying to relax.

"What do you think?" Bentley whispered as I approached.

"I say we give him until tomorrow," I whispered back. "Now, what's the plan?"

Bentley plunked a statue down on the table. It was a perfect likeness of Le Paradox and, for a moment, I just had to stare at it in amazement. "Plant that in her office. It's bugged, of course. It should let us listen in on her communications with Le Paradox."

"Classy," I said dryly, picking the statue up carefully.

"I know, the craftsmanship is remarkable. Now get going. We'll call for you if we need you."

"Sure thing," I turned to go, then turned back, pointed to Kristian and mouthed 'keep an eye on him'. Bentley gave me a thumbs up and I took off.

I ran into a couple of guards on patrol to test my theory, but none of them gave me any trouble, so I gave myself a mental pat on the back for successful infiltration. Good thing too, because when I went to go to Miss Decibel's office, I had to pass through a checkpoint. Apparently, the gang's successful rescue mission had her scared for her safety.

She wasn't actually in her office when I got there, so I placed the statue on her desk and tried to do some inconspicuous snooping.

I wasn't able to turn up anything but sheet music and possible venues for her to play in public. Wherever the forgeries were, they weren't in her office. Surely she hadn't given them to Le Paradox already, we'd have gotten a call from Dimitri, ranting about the 'king skunk'.

So where were they?

Hearing heavy footsteps approaching, I quickly took a step back from Miss Decibel's desk. "Good morning," I said, when she entered the room.

She jumped slightly, "Oh pardon me, dear, I didn't see you there. You are prompt, aren't you?"

Consider I was still mostly asleep, I figured the safest way to answer that question was to ignore it, "What do you need help with today?"

"I'm not sure I need any help today. I was just going to organize some of my music," she was fidgeting, though. I was pretty sure she was resisting the urge to check over her shoulder. I was seriously curious about what the others had pulled off to scare her so bad.

"I could organize in here," I offered, looking around at the haphazard stacks of books.

"No, no, that's fine. Why don't you go enjoy the day?"

She seemed awfully eager to get rid of me. Well, her place was bugged, "I'll be around, if you change your mind."

I kept an eye out as I made my way out of the palace and back to the Safehouse, but couldn't see anything unusual. It seemed to be just Miss Decibel who was acting weird. I wasn't sure what to make of that, but I looked forward to hearing what we'd glean from the bug.

"That didn't last long," I commented, walking into the Safehouse. At least it looked like everyone was awake now, even if Salim looked like it was an affront to his dignity to not be taking a nap right then.

"Mission accomplished, though," Bentley said, gesturing to the new speaker in the middle of the table.

Sly was rocking back on the legs of his chair again as he listened to the voice coming over the speaker, "So far, she hasn't said anything about the forgeries."

"She seemed really skittish when I saw her," I said, sitting next to Kristian, who was staring miserably into a bowl of cornflakes. "It's like she thinks we'll be coming after her again, like we still have something to steal."

"We should probably proceed as though the forgeries are completed," Bentley said, tapping a finger against his chin, "Just to be on the safe side. We need to get behind that ornate door in the lamp shop. That's where Miss Decibel is supposed to hand off the forgeries when they're finished."

"If she has the forgeries, wouldn't she have already given them to Le Paradox?" Murray asked.

Then, of all people, Kristian grunted, "Ink."

"Ugh, make some sense," Salim complained around a mouthful of scorpion claws.

Kristian glared, but elaborated, "She'll be waiting for the ink to dry. Those documents require a special ink that takes twenty-four hours to dry."

I thought back to Miss Decibel's office. I hadn't actually seen anything but Miss Decibel's personal papers, but... "Could she be using fans to dry the forgeries?"

Kristian shook his head, "Fans could displace the ink."

"How do you know all this?" Sly asked.

"When I'm not chasing you all, I'm stationed in London. You wouldn't believe the amount of forged royal documentation that comes through. I work closely with the team that goes over those documents. I know how they're forged, and I know how to spot them. What I want to know is how she knows. She's never pinged my team's radar." Kristian moved his spoon through his cereal without actually scooping any up, "No one just pulls this kind of forgery off with a few pictures of the real deal."

"What matters is that she knows. Now, I'm working on a plan to get us all through that door, but we're going to have to be careful. We can't afford to let them on to what we're up to..."

Normally, even if I interrupted them, I paid very close attention to Bentley's briefings. Just then, though, I was staring at Kristian. He was blinking sleepily and looking like being upright physically pained him. He was also humming something under his breath. It didn't even seem like he knew he was doing it. The song was familiar, I knew I'd heard it recently. It was-

It was the song Miss Decibel had been practicing the day before.

I felt my eyes go almost painfully wide as the pieces crashed together in my mind. Carefully, casually, I leaned over to Bentley, who had stopped talking for the moment and was furiously typing into his computer, and whispered, "Bentley, I need you to give me a sleep dart and I need you to not ask why."

He looked up at me in confusion but, bless him, did not say a word. Not appearing to do anything more than run a hand along the wheel of his wheelchair, he pulled a dart free of his ammo box and passed it stealthily to me.

Continuing to be as nonchalant as possible, I stood and took one step behind Kristian's chair. Then, when I was sure he wasn't paying attention, I grabbed his shoulder with my left hand and jabbed the dart into his neck with my right. He stiffened, but then almost immediately slumped to the side.

"Whoa!" Sly shouted in surprise, watching as I carefully lowered the now unconscious cougar to the ground, "Want to fill us in, Jinx?"

"He knows how to make forgeries, he hasn't been sleeping, he's been having migraines, and he's humming classical music to himself."

Bentley, at least, seemed to follow my logic, "You think Miss Decibel hypnotized him?"

I shrugged, "It makes sense, doesn't it?"

"But when would she have had the chance?" Murray asked.

"He has been wandering off by himself quite often," Salim said.

"She probably got him when he went on his first walk," Bentley theorized, wheeling over. "That was right before he started feeling weird too."

I bit my lip, "Do you think she's been keeping him from remembering what happened? Because he'd have said something if he knew what was going on."

"Undoubtedly," Bentley said, checking Kristian's eyes with a penlight. "Fortunately, I've been analyzing the devices used to hypnotize the other thieves. I should be able to come up with a way to break him out of the hypnosis without Miss Decibel. It just won't be pleasant."

"Define 'not pleasant'."

"You think I've been musically hypnotized," Kristian said with angry skepticism. "Really?" It was possible that his ire stemmed from the fact that he woke up in the Forty Thieves' old hideout chained to the wall, but I wouldn't want to jump to any conclusions.

"Yes, I'm glad you follow." I grunted, dragging a thin stone pedestal over to one of the spots Bentley had marked.

Kristian's chains rattled as he gestured, "You realize this is totally insane?"

Sly packed away the power drill he'd used to actually install the chains. The ones that had been there before were looking a little rusty, "Not the most insane thing we've seen, trust me. It'll make more sense once you get to know us."

"I have no intention of doing that." With a final tug on the chains, a rather pathetic one considering he was still coming out of the sedatives, he turned on Bentley, "You're supposed to be the sane one here."

Instead of replying to that, Bentley asked, "Do you believe people can be hypnotized?"

"Well, yeah, I saw a show once, the guy hypnotized people in the audience and they didn't even realize-" Kristian cut himself off. "You're kidding."

"All that's needed for someone to be susceptible to hypnosis is that they believe it's possible," Bentley said, screwing together the third of three odd devices that he said had been taken from the thieves' cells, "And once someone's been hypnotized before, it's easier to do so again."

"How do you even know all this?" Kristian was grimacing and I had a feeling that his headache had returned with a vengeance.

"The Contessa had both Murray and Sly, for a while." Bentley ran his hands over the device in his lap, probably checking for mistakes, "It's why Murray's not here and Sly is. She succeeded in hypnotizing Murray, but not Sly."

"I'm stubborn," Sly said, snapping his toolbox shut.

"I never would have guessed," Kristian drawled.

Salim came down the stairs then, "What is taking so long? Some of us would have liked to take a nap before we have to go into mortal peril."

Now Kristian was back to yanking on the chains. He was going to have some serious bruises later, "You're leaving me here while you go after Le Paradox?!"

"We don't have the time to wait for this to work," Bentley said, giving me the devices to put on the pedestals around the room. "Miss Decibel is scheduled to meet with Le Paradox in a little over an hour and we need to get there first. And right now you're a pretty big liability."

"If you don't come back, I'm going to be stuck here forever."

"No you won't." Bentley gestured around the room, "These devices are going to analyze the modifications made to your brainwaves and counter them with music, sort of like the original hypnotism, but in reverse. They'll shut off once they've detected that your brainwaves have normalized and release the clamp holding your manacles closed."

"And we're not taking the van," I said, going over to stand by the entrance after placing all the devices, "So if something happens to us, all you have to do is go get it from the Safehouse."

"It's already preset to take you to Paris." Bentley agreed.

Kristian scowled, but changed the subject by looking at me, "Was the dart really necessary?"

I shrugged, "Maybe not, but it sure was fun."

His head thudded against the cave wall when he threw it back, "I kind of wish I knew you before you got involved with all this. Then at least I'd know whether you were just naturally insane and reckless or if it was all the bad influences."

"Please, you've met my parents. I'm sure you can hazard a guess."

Rolling his eyes, he said, "I think you take after your mother a lot."

I narrowed my eyes at him, "That's not funny."

"Do you see me laughing?"

"Alright then, I'm out." I turned on my heel. "I'm going upstairs. Someone come find me when it's time to go."

Taking the steps two at a time took me up into the dusk light of the desert. Salim, when he wasn't complaining, was repairing the contraption to hide the entrance of the cave. I doubted it would help, though, unless he could soundproof it, considering Bentley had modified the hypnotic devices to use rock and roll instead of classical music. He did love his irony points.

I headed back to the Safehouse, trying to think of what I'd need to do to prepare for our next job, but, honestly, it was pretty simple. I'd con the guards in the shop into the leaving, the rest of the gang would come in and get the door open, and we'd improvise from there.

When I got to the Safehouse, Murray seemed to be preparing for the job by holding up swatches of different colored silk and considering them seriously. Knowing better than to get involved, I just gave him a thumbs-up and a wave and went to go over my gear.

My backpack was only so large, and I only had so much room for things other than the medkit. I stuck a shirt in there, because walking around in what was basically a bra was not my favorite pastime, and checked to make sure my phone was charged. I couldn't call anyone, but it doubled as a pretty bright flashlight. It also ran on solar energy, because Bentley had gotten bored one day and stolen it.

I literally couldn't think of anything else since my binocucom, knife, and baton were all strapped to my belt, so I threw a couple of books in. If something happened to my baton, I wanted my backpack to have some heft.

Sly and Murray came in as I was checking the straps on my bag and making sure they were still in good shape.

To my lack of surprise, Sly came over immediately.

"Can we talk about it later?" I asked hopefully, loosening and tightening the strap I currently had my hands on just so I wouldn't have to look up.

The breath he let out sounded amused, "When have we ever agreed to talk about something later and actually had the chance to do it?"

My lips twitched up without my meaning them to, "Never. Kinda the point."

"You don't have to tell me," his hand covered mine where I was still fiddling with the strap, "but I'm worried about you."

I groaned, leaning my head back, "That's not fair."

He shrugged, unrepentant, "That doesn't make it less true."

Biting my lip, I turned to look at him. It wasn't that I didn't want to talk about it, well, I didn't actually, it was a sore subject, but there's a kind of intrinsic guilt to complaining about your parents to someone who doesn't have any.

"My parents split when I was six and divorced when I was seven," I told him, keeping my voice as calm, even, and quiet as I could, "The court put me with my dad since he had a stable job and home address and my mom was a freelance journalist who went anywhere and everywhere. Still does, as far as I know. She visited until I was nine, called occasionally until I was fourteen, but I haven't talked to her since. She started trying to get in contact with me after the whole Clock-La debacle, but I have no idea if that means she genuinely cares or if the news coverage reminded her she had a daughter or if she's looking for a story and figures I'm the easiest way to get the story no one else has been able to. She renewed her efforts after Kaine Island. She might be for real, but she's been out of my life for six years and I'm not going to let her try to use me against you on a juvenile hope."

Sly didn't even blink under the torrent of words. When I finished, he just nodded, "Feel better?"

I paused, considering. "Yeah, some."

"Good," he squeezed my hand, then took a step back. "Ready to find out what's behind that door?"

"More than you know," I agreed, happy the conversation was over. Swinging my backpack onto my shoulders as Sly walked over to greet Salim, who'd just come in, I paused, realizing something.

I knew all about Sly's dad, Sly mentioned him all the time.

But never once had he volunteered information about his mother.

Getting the guards out of the lamp shop was the easy part.

I just ran down the stairs, spotted them, and said, "Oh good, there you are. Miss Decibel wants all guards at the palace. She's convinced she saw an intruder and wants the place searched top to bottom."

One of the guards seemed totally okay with this explanation and ready to get going. The other was suspicious. "I don't recognize you," he growled.

"Miss Decibel's personal assistant, hired by Le Paradox," I gave a little wave. "Look, I get that you don't want to leave your post, but you know what Miss Decibel's like if her orders aren't followed to the letter. If you're that concerned, I'll stay here and take full responsibility if anything happens, you're the last guards I had to find."

Less suspicious guard was already halfway up the stairs by the time suspicious guard caved, "You take the fall if anyone gets in."

"Already agreed to that," I muttered, giving a more sarcastic wave as he vanished up the stairs. It only took a few more seconds before the rest of the gang came running down.

"Nicely done," Bentley said, rolling over to the door.

I shrugged, opening up my backpack to retrieve my shirt. "Well, we don't have unlimited time. The palace is only so far away."

"She's right," Sly said, with something amused about his tone, "we're going to need a lookout."

When I pulled my shirt over my head, I found they were all looking my way. "Oh, come on!" I complained, "I get you guys inside, but don't even get to see what's in there?"

"We don't know what's going to be in there," Bentley said. "We could need Sly's climbing, or Murray's strength, or for me to hack."

"Yeah, and I don't have a specialty, your point is made," I sighed, swinging my backpack onto my shoulders, "But we still have nearly an hour before we can expect Miss Decibel, so you do have some leeway."

"Are we going to stand around, blathering like fools, or are we going to open this door?" Salim demanded, tapping his cane against the large gears.

Bentley put away his keyboard and his robo arms came out. "I've analyzed this door and I believe I've discovered how to get it open. Murray, you grab that gear. Sly, you climb on Murray's back..."

I stood back and watched them struggle to get the doors open while simultaneously trying not to topple to the ground. Even when the gears spun, Murray had to pry the unlocked doors open by hand. How was that door supposed to be opened, even with a key?

"Enjoy getting to do the exciting stuff," I said, when Murray finally wrestled the thing open.

"We will," Bentley said innocently. I glared at him.

Salim, though, wasn't starting toward the door. "Sly," he said hesitantly, "I am thinking I should go no further. I have passed my greatest wisdom onto you, the last of my friends are now retired, and I have had enough snakes and scorpions and climbing for three lifetimes. Besides, I was thinking Kaia should not be alone if the guards return with allies."

Noting both the slightly disappointed look on Sly's face and the fact that Salim had actually used my name, I kept my mouth shut. It was weird, to see a Cooper retire. I always kind of assumed that didn't happen. It was morbid of me, but I'd been under the impression the Clockwerk usually caught up to the Coopers while they were still young and actively thieving. It made me wonder where the owl had been, in all this. Hadn't he been stalking Sly's family for hundreds of years?

"Alright, Salim," Sly said, with a small smile, "We couldn't have made it this far without you, but I think we can handle it from here. You've definitely earned your retirement, go enjoy it."

"Thank you, I will."

Sly smiled again, then noticed that Murray was really starting to struggle with the door and quickly hurried over to duck under the hippo's arm and into the next room. Murray stepped back and the doors slammed shut, leaving Salim and I alone in the lamp shop.

"What do you think is on the other side?" I asked in an attempt to keep awkward silence from descending.

He huffed, "How should I know? You all have your loud contraptions and bugs that are not bugs and ways to cross the stars, why do you not guess?"

Tilting my head in thought, I eventually shrugged, "Just going from our bad guy track record, I'm gonna have to say 'blimp'. There's caverns under these shops, right? Sly and Murray got lost in them earlier. If you had to stash a time-travelling aerial vehicle, here would be the place to do it."

"A blimp? What is a blimp?"

After trying and failing to think of a way to describe it simply, I settled on, "The bad guy vehicle of choice, in our experience."

"'Bad guy' is such a gauche description," came an accented voice from behind us. "I prefer 'villain'."

Chills swept from my toes to the top of my head as adrenaline poured into my system, but I forced myself to turn around calmly, placing a hand casually on my baton as I came face to face with the man who'd been causing us so much grief, "I am sure you do."

Le Paradox gave a patronizing smile and for some reason I was surprised that he wasn't taller. There were at least half a dozen of the rat guards we'd been seeing everywhere behind him. "How kind of you to bring me what I've been searching for, it saves me a good deal of trouble," he said, eyes zeroing in on Salim's cane.

I saw Salim shift out of the corner of my eye to what must have been his fighting stance. As for me, I simply slid my baton out of its holster and flicked my wrist to open it. I wanted to contact Sly, Bentley, and Murray with all my heart, but the bud in my ear was dead silent and I could only guess that whatever had prevented Bentley from scanning past the door was also interfering with our communications.

"It would be so much easier if you just surrendered," Paradox said, and I have never wanted to punch the smug grin off someone's face more.

For some idiotic reason, the only think of was that I was standing there in a pastel blue shirt with the pink genie pants that Bentley had made and that I was absolutely not threatening at all. It made facing the skunk down slightly harder, "Not going to happen."

Most villains at that point would have indulged in some sort of gloating monologue, at least in my experience with villains (which, admittedly, was more than the average person's), but Le Paradox just waved his men forward and things started happening very quickly.

The main problem Salim and I faced was that we had short range weapons whereas they had gas grenades and their weird guns and in under a minute the room was filled with suffocating green smoke.

My main strategy was to swing my baton around and hope I hit something. I kept an ear out for Salim to make sure he wasn't the thing I was hitting, which was pretty easy considering he was shouting words at the rats and Le Paradox that I had never even heard, much less knew the meaning of. Though I did wonder how he could shout with all the gas in the room, it was difficult for me to even get a breath in without choking.

I didn't honestly think we could win a fight, not really. What I was trying to do was work my way around the room and get to the stairs and get out of there. I was sure Salim would be okay, Le Paradox hadn't actually hurt the other Coopers, just imprisoned them, and we could definitely break Salim out. Well, Tennessee had been scheduled for the noose, but I was sure that was more Toothpick than Le Paradox.

By my guess, I was about five feet from the stairs when a tiny form crashed into me from behind. It landed on top of me when I fell, then another piled on, then another until I couldn't move, could barely breathe, at the bottom of the rat pile.

"Excellent," the voice was nearby, but I couldn't pinpoint exactly where. My vision was starting to go in and out, I couldn't get a breath. "Throw him outside. Bring her."

On the other side of the door was a hangar. The hangar for a blimp, to be precise. All Sly could think of while Bentley took out the guards and the door lasers was how much the blimp would cause Jinx to rant ("Blimps! Why do the bad guys always have blimps? That's, like, the least menacing means of travel short of tugboat.").

Bentley was in his element now that he was finally in a high tech area. There had been spots of tech here and there throughout all the time periods they'd visited, but this place was actually entirely automated and Sly was genuinely surprised that his oldest friend hadn't burst out into song.

"Password, way too easy. Overriding security, power grid rerouting... accessing laser network... PC load letters... shutdown in three, two, one- yes!"

It was probably that relief to finally be doing something technical, that comfort in his familiar medium, that made Bentley miss something when he disabled the next laser gate.

When the gate snapped back into existence after he and Murray had just stepped beyond it and an alarm started blaring, Sly was understandably concerned, "Uh, Bentley, what just happened?"

"I'm not sure! I must have tripped some kind of fail-safe back-up! Hold on a sec!"

But they didn't have a second. Sly wasn't even sure where all the rat troopers were parachuting in from. Honestly, he wondered about the rat troopers in general. He was pretty sure they were mercenaries, Le Paradox's very own private army for hire. That was a lot of money being thrown around. What was it all for?

Guarding Murray's back against the seemingly endless waves of troops while the hippo destroyed the gas cannons blocking their path was easier said than done, but it was doable. The victory was short lived, though, because they'd only barely joined back up with Bentley and proceeded to the next platform when the blimp started to rise, balloon eventually clearing the platform and revealing the control room... and Le Paradox.

The skunk had his back to them at first, but when he did turn, didn't seem surprised by their presence. In fact he seemed... smug? "Ah, the three musketeers! One step behind, as usual. May you never change."

"And may you always stay downwind," it was an easy jab, but Sly was having trouble reconciling the guy they'd been chasing to the man in front of him. He'd expected him to be taller.

"Ah, Cooper. You're so pathetic. You don't even realize you've already lost."

"We haven't lost yet, Le Paradox." Sly glanced over to where Bentley was analyzing the blimp by sight and Murray was cracking his knuckles. Yeah, for once it looked like they'd caught up to Le Paradox and were close enough to end this.

However, Le Paradox only raised his eyebrows, smugness still radiating off him like it was attached to the smell, "No?" He looked over behind them and waved, "Bonjour, my large friend! What took you so long?"

It was Miss Decibel. How they hadn't heard her coming was anyone's guess, but she was behind them now and she-

"Oh drat..." Bentley's voice was resigned, but unsurprised at the sight of the older raccoon hanging limp in Miss Decibel's grasp.

Sly just hoped his ancestor was still breathing. "Salim!"

"Hello, Cyrille!" Miss Decibel greeted, completely ignoring them. "I found this filthy old scoundrel unconscious outside."

"Actually, he's yesterday's trash," Le Paradox corrected. "Precisely why I threw him away."

"But, I don't understand. I thought you were after him."

"You're right, you don't understand!" The delighted way Le Paradox was acting made a bad feeling start building in Sly's chest. "I don't care about that old bag of bones, just his cane. Which, as you can see," Le Paradox reached behind him and pulled out a familiar object, "I already have!"

The "uh oh" and "double drat!" of his friends were both, Sly felt, severe understatements.

The revelation barely phased Miss Decibel for a second, though, "Well... good. Then our deal is complete! I'm coming aboard! Hold that blimp!"

"So sorry, cherie. But with Monsieur Cooper here, I am afraid the schedule has changed and I must make my exit now. I cannot risk that flea-bitten rat ruining my plans!" Le Paradox disappeared from sight and the blimp started to hum and rise from the dock and into the sky through the ceiling that was opening overhead.

"Wait! Cyrille, wait for me!" Miss Decibel tossed Salim aside and started to chase after the blimp.

"He's got the cane!" Murray shouted.

"He's got the documents!" Bentley agreed, turning to Sly. "Sly, if they return to the present and Le Paradox establishes a royal ancestry for himself, all of our futures are in peril! You've got to stop them!"

Sly hesitated, "How's Salim?"

"I tried..." Salim managed, raising a hand, "to stop him..."

"He'll be fine, Sly," Bentley said, running a cursory eye over the older raccoon. "Right now, you've gotta stop that pachyderm!"

"I'm on it!"

As Sly ran toward where Miss Decibel was trying to wave the blimp back, though, only half his mind was on stopping her.

The other half was wondering, if Le Paradox had managed to incapacitate Salim, steal his cane, and get into the hangar... then where was Kaia?

Pretending to pass out was incredibly effective against megalomaniacs. That was definitely something to remember for the future.

Of course, it had gotten me captured and hog-tied, but it had also landed me behind enemy lines. AKA, I'd managed to infiltrate Le Paradox's blimp, admittedly using the loosest possible definition of 'infiltrate'. And, okay, to be perfectly honest, the only reason my charade had worked so well was because I really had been barely clinging to consciousness at the time.

I could have attempted to get away after the dog pile (or rat pile) had dispersed, but there were too many to fight or outrun and I was too busy trying to take the deepest breaths possible without letting on that I was conscious.

There was one big advantage to that, though. Being conscious while being tied up meant that I could bend my elbow just slightly when they were tying the rope, giving myself a few extra inches of slack to wriggle out of.

It was a technique I'd learned as a kid. I'd been on a streak of watching illusionists on TV, escape artists in particular. My next birthday was a sleepover and, rather than board games or hide and seek or anything else eight-year-olds should be doing, I suggested a game. One person would be 'it', the others would collaborate to tie them to a chair and whoever was 'it' would try to get free. We'd used the tassels that tied back the living room curtains and it had been quite the learning experience. I also learned to never, ever bet against those of my friends whose parents owned boats, because they could tie quite a knot.

The question just became when to slip out of the ropes. It had to be when no one was paying attention because, while I could slip out of the ropes around my torso with relative ease, there were also some around my legs and ankles and I was going to have to untie those myself. There weren't any guards on the bridge or whatever the control room was called, but I didn't want to underestimate Le Paradox.

I was fairly confident I could take Le Paradox. My backpack had been confiscated, but my baton was on the floor by the pilot's seat. Le Paradox had some sort of obsession with taking people's weapons like they were collector's items, but that played into my hands this time. I didn't have to win a fight against him to tase him.

Provided I could get my hands on my baton, at least.

It sounded like there was a fight going on outside. Fights followed the Cooper gang like a bad smell, really. The upside of the fact that Sly was fighting... whoever Sly was fighting, was that Le Paradox was distracted by sitting in front of a screen and baiting... both of them?

Whatever. In any event, it gave me the opportunity to wriggle free of the first set of ropes (why they left my wrists and hands free was anyone's guess) and to start picking at the bindings around my legs. I was paranoid that Le Paradox was going to look over and see what I was up to, so I managed to scoot far enough out of his line of sight that only my shoes were visible. Then I kept trying to work out the knot.

By the time the entire blimp was shaking with the fight that had moved to a platform on the top of said blimp (first of all, how, second of all, why), I'd gotten my legs free. Now it was just a matter of being able to get my baton out from under Le Paradox's nose.

My opportunity came when Sly won the fight (I was totally guessing that was what had occurred based on the fact that Le Paradox sighed in frustration and made a comment about his game being over). Le Paradox stood and went over to the window that made up the front of the bridge and I quietly slipped over to where he'd been sitting and retrieved my baton. The comforting weight firmly in my grasp, I only barely stopped myself from extending it, the noise would have given me away.

The blimp pitched alarmingly to one side and suddenly Miss Decibel was hanging in front of the window from a rope, "Cyrille! Open the hatch! Let me in!" How she wasn't picking up on Le Paradox's obvious disdain for her was beyond me, but it gave me the advantage of the skunk being distracted enough that I could begin to sneak up behind him.

"I... don't think so," Le Paradox said with incredulous amusement, presumably over the fact that Miss Decibel was still trying to get in after he'd quite explicitly ditched her. "You see, we have already reached maximum weight capacity. Perhaps due to my new guest-"

He turned to indicate where I'd been, then froze at only seeing the discarded ropes. Knowing it was then or never, I lunged forward, thumbing the button on the side of my baton's hilt as I extended it in a sweeping arc. Electricity crackled and Le Paradox turned at the sound.

Sly paraglided by the window, a flash of blue in the corner of my eye, "Kaia!"

I was too busy being dumbfounded to react properly to his call. Le Paradox had... caught my baton. He was holding it in his hand, even as electricity crackled over its surface. My eyes darted to his bright yellow gloves- were they made of rubber?!

"Ah," he said, just as smug as ever, despite the fact that I knew I'd surprised him, "So brave. So foolish."

Then he reached onto his belt, pulled something out of a pouch, and threw it down before I could come out of my stupor enough to launch an attack that might have some chance of hitting him in an area outside his gloves or jumpsuit.

A cloud of green smoke puffed into existence, almost instantly destroying visibility on the bridge. I coughed, eyes watering at the smell, and backed away, turning off the taser on my baton so I wouldn't accidentally hit myself with it.

This was not good, this was very much not good. I couldn't see, had no idea where Le Paradox was, and my coughing was definitely giving away my position. He, though, he was used to the smell he'd unleashed and definitely had the upper hand. I had a bad feeling that that was exactly what he was going for.

I was proven correct when I caught sight of a bright yellow glove coming out of the smoke just enough to shove my shoulder. Having been looking around frantically, I was hardly properly balanced and that shove had me tripping over my own feet, trying desperately to avoid falling and, ultimately, failing to do so.

I knew I was falling fast, but I had no idea how fast until my head cracked against the window.

Back down on the platform, Sly stood with his gang, not moving, not breathing as the green smoke cleared from within the bridge of the blimp.

Le Paradox stood unharmed, which was bad enough, but Sly couldn't see Kaia at all. At least, not until he caught sight of a spot of black and white lying motionless against the glass. "Kaia!"

Frowning, Le Paradox dusted off the shoulder of his jumpsuit before making a show of craning his neck to look over at the unconscious hybrid and, ultimately, shrugging, "She's probably alive."

Sly was stuck between feeling like his own breath was choking him and frothing homicide. "This isn't over, Le Paradox!"

"Isn't it? I believe there is a perfect saying for this situation," Le Paradox paused, appearing to contemplate what that saying could possibly be, "Ah, yes. The fat lady, she has sung! Au revoir, Sly Cooper!"

The blimp ascended, vanished and Sly was left standing on the platform below wondering how things could possibly get worse when Bentley awkwardly cleared his throat.

"Uh, guys? My sensors indicate that Kristian's hypnotism has been reversed... and he's headed our way."

...

Funtimes, am I right?