Hello my fans!!!! Thanks so much for your touching reviews!! Here's another chapter, just for you!!

At the museum...

The Cooper gang got into the museum past the guards, security and the like with a route so secret that I didn't even know.

And so did Mona.

She crept her way into the museum through a different route, yet occasionally tailed the gang to check on what part of their break-in they were up to.

Mona watched from behind a wide sculpture as Bentley hacked his way into a security panel. She whooshed away and casually-but quietly- walked up to the camera room.

In the security room...

"So Joe, I'll tells ya, she's gonna give me this look like duhhhhh when-"

The security guard stopped in mid-sentence to turn his attention at a screen-among all the others-that flicked off. Suddenly, each camera screen began to flick off, one after the other.

The room that was once lit with the glow of the cameras was now almost pitch black. The security guard spun his chair around to face the other guard.

"Huh?"

The other guard flicked on his flashlight and switched it back and forth.

"Whaddya think happened here?"

They exchanged glances. "I don't know."

Both guards faced yet another surprise when the door flew open and Mona's silhouette then appeared in the doorway.

The first guard was dumbfounded. He pointed his stubby finger in Mona's direction. "Heya...you lady, you shouldn't be here."

Mona put her hands oh her hips. Says who?

The other guard began to walk towards her. "The museum's closed." He leaned in closed to Mona's chest, and she instictly leaned back. "Nor do you have any badges; not to mention your suspicious get-up, you don't look like you should be here."

Mona closed her loose heavy jacket. "You can't possibly think I look suspicious." She arranged her wide sunglasses.

"You look suspicious enough; I'll lead you out, come on." He reached for Mona's arm and she grabbed his in defense. He looked at her with surprise for a split second, before she back flipped him on the hard tile floor. As he lay moaning in pain, Mona walked over to the other security guard.

"Heya look lady..." He backed into the wall and pulled out his walkie-talkie but never got to call for back-up. Mona had already smacked the walkie-talkie out of his hand. He shrieked, and she swiped his belt for his taser and tased him-senseless.

She kicked the first guard to shut him up and shut the door. Mona plopped on the warm chair and slid off her gloves and glasses. She waited a second before pulling a flash drive out of her bosom and inserting it into the right port.

"The bad thing about computers are..." She typed. "...Is that there's always a way to get around them. Theives these days should stick to pulling the wires out of the cameras themselves."

With a click each screen buzzed back to life.

Meanwhile...

Sly crept in the hall before Bentley. Murray trotted last, and curiosity drove him to look up at the camera lens. Behind the camera, a red light flicked green. Murray smiled-unknowingly-and trotted on.

Back in the security room...

Mona pulled off her sleeves and removed the purse from her shoulder. She pulled out a floppy disk and respectfully slid it into the computer's hard disk drive. She then typed on the keyboard another set of words that commanded the screens to generate a floor plan of the museum. Amongst the floor plan were yellow blips, each one resembling a guard. She blinked, scanned the floor plan, and found the blips she was looking for. One was blue, the other was green, and the last was red.

Somewhere in the museum...

Gabby had her legs crossed; shaking her ankle nervously. She flied her nails with an old nail file she discovered in the desk drawer. She occasionaly stopped filing to get a long look around the room, above the rafters and behind her desk, which was for some creepy reason located in the center of the room. Her brown eyes returned to her nails, until her cellphone rang. Gabby jumped a little, then turned over in her seat to the bag. She fumbled to find the bluetooth, slipped out all the contents of the bag, shuffled her hand around the items, then stopped to recognize the weight on her left ear. She pressed the button on the bluetooth.

"He-hello?"

"What took you so long to answer?"

"I forgot I had it on, sorry."

"Stay where you are." Mona said drone-like, absorbed in watching the other blips on the screen shift and blink.

Gabby sighed and groaned out, "Okey-dokey."

Meanwhile...

The three thieves made their way to the gem, suspicious of the difficulty of the task- or better yet, lack of difficulty. Sly cooper literally waltzed over to the case holding the gem and slid the point of his cane under the senser on the left corner of the pedestal. Of course, Sly made sure to do this simple task with a flourish and failed to impress Bentley. The turtle rolled his eyes as Murray lifted the other end of the case. He reached up and grabbed the gem. As Murray gently replaced the case and Sly removed his cane from the sensor, they jumped at the gasps of Bentley's coughing fit. Murray snatched the gem.

"You okay buddy?"

"Yeah, " Bentley gasped. Sly patted his back. Bentley looked at his hands then patted his shirt.

"There seemed to be some type of powder on the gem."

"For fingerprints?" Sly asked.

"No."

"Maybe it's baby powder."

Sly and Bentley turned at awe at the hippo, his mouth suddenly small.

Murray shrugged. He trotted with the gem ahead Sly and Bentley-with pasted faces of disbelief.

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oooooooohhhh, I can't capture Bentley's personallity at all, i just cant make him any other way except mean at Sly. arg..

It wasn't the loaf of bread birthday cake or the masking tape streamers that made Laura suspect her birthday had been forgotten.

But the sack of oranges she got for a present was obviously from the tree in the backyard.