He leapt across the gaps between the small, single-story houses. His feet were moving again immediately when they hit the next rooftop, never breaking their stride. He ran across the new rooftop, his feet navigating the gravelly surface with an ease that came after years of practice, adapting to the unfamiliar territory within seconds. The night was dark, lit only by the moon hanging overhead, while he ran. He focused only on what was immediately in front of him, jumping from the rooftop to a railing on a balcony, shifting by instinct from long, graceful steps to small, careful ones. He could feel the wind flowing through his fur as he ran in his dreamlike state, his mind empty except for the next step. Left, right, left, right, jump left, grab edge, pull, swing over, left, right, left, right.
He felt there was a guard on this rooftop, two stories up. The guard watched, his gaze covering the road to the other side of the roof with his back pressed against the chimney. Not a problem. Step left, again, again. Sly leapt over the chimney, quietly tapping down on the other side. Suddenly, the guard shifted, his head turning left, right. Quickly then, behind the chimney, holding his breath in, Sly hid. He hid until the guard stopped moving. He came out from behind the chimney, walking, not running, to the other side of the roof. He leapt to the next rooftop, and finally, let out his breath. And he smiled. These were the moments Sly Cooper lived for.
No plan, no goal, no villain, just him and a city for a playground. Hiding in the shadows, resting on the fringes of other people's consciousness. Even without needing to take anything, these were the moments that Sly knew that he deserved the Cooper legacy. Still, all good things must come to an end. This one came with a vibration from his belt, pulling the raccoon out of the shadows and back to reality. Sly saw a nearby flagpole and quickly climbed up it, balancing on the tip. Unfastening his hip pouch and taking the binocucom out with one hand, he used the other to wipe the sweat from his brow as he brought the device to his eyes.
"What's up, Bentley?" Sly asked.
"Penelope's been flying her helicopter around the area, and she's done most of the recon I needed," Bentley said. "The only thing left is to find where Rainier is keeping his piece of the map."
"Any leads?" Sly turned the binocucom towards the massive castle.
"Yes." Bentley nodded. "According my informant, Rainier was displaying the map piece in his private study."
"Okay, simple enough." Sly smirked. "I'll just go in and grab it."
"No!" Bentley's eyebrows furrowed into a glare. "Rainier's castle is crawling with guards. Not even you could get into the main room unseen, Sly."
Sly's eyebrow rose in silent, cocky doubt. Still, he saw no reason to risk giving Bentley a heart attack. "So, what's the plan?"
"While flying around the castle, Penelope was able to locate the area where the air vents filter out and rip off the grate. If you can get in there, you should be able to eventually find a route into Rainier's office." Bentley shot Sly a look. "Fortunately, my contact told me that the interior air vents are all welded into place, so I don't have to worry about you... acting rashly."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Sly asked with an innocent smile.
Bentley gave him a look. "Good luck, Sly," he eventually said. The transmission feed cut.
Sly shook his head and shrugged his shoulders. After putting the binocucom away, Sly jumped off the flagpole and onto a roof. He began running towards the castle.
After reaching the monstrosity, and climbing all the way up to its roof, Sly noticed a large group of gorillas armed with guns and flashlights, patrolling the area. Fortunately, none of them seemed to notice the missing grate, but there were too many lights around for him to be able to get to the hole unseen. The raccoon was thinking of a way to deal with them when he noticed a beam of light coming towards him. He quickly jumped down and hung from the edge of the roof, using his cane to hold on.
Sly mulled over his problem for a while, taking periodic glances on to the rooftop as he thought. Finally, after having memorized the guards' movements, he came up with a plan. He waited for the beam of light to go past the edge of the roof where he was and sprang up. Quickly, silently, he gave the guard two solid whacks with his cane, knocking him out cold. There were still three guards left, one patrolling up and down the center of the roof and two going in circles, one clockwise, the other counter-clockwise. Sly made his move while all the guards' attentions were directed away from him, running towards a pole sticking out of the roof that was connected to numerous power lines.
He balanced himself on the tip of the pole and sat there, waiting for the guards going in circles to cross in front of him. When they did, with both their lights pointed in opposite directions, Sly jumped down. He dashed to the left, knocking that guard upwards before grabbing him with his cane and slamming him down. He then immediately turned to his right and dashed forward before the other circle-walking guard, who heard the noise and was coming to check, could see him. He ran around that guard, getting to his back and performing the same maneuver onto him. There were now two unconscious gorilla bodies in a pile in front of him. Then, he heard footsteps. He had misjudged how quick the last guard was, able to cross the rooftop in less then a second. A light shone on him. The guard aimed his pistol and began firing. Sly ducked and weaved, jumped and flipped, all around the roof in order to dodge the laser bolts, frantically rummaging through his belt as he did so.
Why don't I keep this thing organized?! he thought as he pushed aside numerous tiny alarm clocks, trying to reach the bottom of the pocket. Come on, come on, A-ha! Sly's fingers finally closed around a smoke pellet. Quickly, he launched it at the guard, hitting him square in the chest. Thick clouds of billowing blue smoke covered the guard, completely obscuring his vision. Faced with a loss of vision, he started firing blindly, but Sly could dodge those shots easily. He came up the cloud of smoke and looked at the guards silhouette, judging where his head was. As soon as it was located, Sly swung his cane up and clobbered the guard square in the chin. The guard flew up into the air and was unconscious before he hit the ground.
Sly leaned onto his cane and slowed his breathing. Wiping the sweat out of his eyes, he located the grate and dropped inside.
After navigating the labyrinth that served as the castle's central heating system, crawling on his belly the whole time, Sly started to hear a very familiar voice. Following the sound, he went through the ducts until he reached an opening.
From his perspective, Sly could tell that the opening was on the floor, as he was looking up at a lavish room. It was very nicely arranged; soothing colors, tasteful decorations, but that wasn't what got Sly's attention as he looked into it and saw a very familiar back to go with the familiar voice.
"So, this is the thing you think Cooper might be after?" asked Inspector Carmelita Fox, as she looked at something on a desk.
Sly smiled. He couldn't help it, the sight of his favorite vixen always put joy in his heart. Still, he had a job to do, and the only thing close to the sight of Carmelita was the look on Bentley's face when he realized she was there too. Sly pulled out his Binocucom and took a picture of the Inspector's back, sending it to Bentley. The response was immediate.
"What!?" Bentley sputtered. "How could she be here? How does Inspector Fox keep finding us?! Oh, this is bad. It's a good thing you saw her so early."
With every word Bentley said, Sly's smile grew. Even with all the times they had outwitted her, Bentley still acted like it was the first time Interpol was on their tail. Sly swept his binocucom around the room, eventually finding the map piece. It was in a display above a bookshelf, angled down, so visitors could look up in wonder at it, along with the three or four other things in the display case. He took a picture and sent it to Bentley.
"Yep," the turtle said. "There it is. But there's no way we're getting it out of this room. I'll try and think of something."
Then Sly fixed his viewfinder onto the toad himself, and sent the last picture to Bentley.
"That's Rainier. He's a bit… slow would be the nice way to put it. But whe- Wait," Bentley's voice suddenly acquired a note of urgency. "Take a picture of that gemstone next to him," he ordered.
Sly raised an eyebrow, but shifted his view and zoomed in on the red gem, snapping a photo and sending it along.
"Oh. My. Gosh! Sly, do you know what that is?" Bentley asked with wonder in his voice.
"A really big rock?"
"Not just any 'big rock', that's the Kahaa Diamond!"
"What? Wait, are you serious?" Sly asked in disbelief.
"Oh yes," Bentley said confidently. "I'd recognize that cut anywhere."
"Huh. Well," Sly cockily said, "I guess we have another thing to add to the list."
"Yeah." Bentley was momentarily lost in wonder at their find. He shook himself out of it. "Come on back Sly, I don't want Inspector Fox to sniff you out. Besides, we've got the food and we can't start eating without you. If Murray's stomach growls any louder, the neighbors will think the safe house's been taken over by wolves."
Sly smiled and shook his head. "Don't worry Bentley, this'll be easy." He turned around, ready to leave the air ducts, hungry for food and an upright position. "There's nothing here we can't deal with."
Meanwhile, Inside The Room
"And this cut! Look at this," Rainier said as he thrust the gemstone into Carmelita's face. "Hand-cut, by the hand of Frederick Zigero himself!'
Carmelita fought the urge to roll her eyes as Rainier continued listing a number of 'distinctions' for his gemstone. It was times like this she really hated her commitment to doing a thorough job. Every time she asked one of these blowhard, old-money punks if they were sure Cooper was coming for something specific, she got a rant explaining why it was worth Cooper's attention, and this was no different. She could almost picture the brochure Rainier had gotten the information from as he waved the diamond around, trying to convince her of its value.
While Rainier was off in his own little world, Carmelita glanced over at Bryce, who was still leaning against the wall. The instant they were allowed into the study, he had found the only undecorated patch of wall in the entire room and leaned against it. He had started to scrape his shoe against the grate near the floor next to him, but a sharp glare from Carmelita stopped that nonsense before it could start. He caught Carmelita looking at him and shrugged.
Rainier eventually paused for breath and Carmelita jumped in. "Thank you for the information, sir," she said, Rainier looking at her like he couldn't believe he'd gotten interrupted. Carmelita pulled a business card out of her vest. "If anything more surfaces, give the number a call and it'll find its way to us." Carmelita turned around and quickly exited the room. Bryce followed, closing the door on the stunned toad.
The officers were silent as they were escorted out the mansion, got into Carmelita's car, and drove out of Rainier's private little hamlet. It wasn't until they were on the highway, driving towards the hotel Interpol had arranged for them to stay in, that one of them felt it was safe to talk.
"He was lying to me," Carmelita said, her hand on her chin as she looked out the window.
"Ohh-" Bryce was cut off by a yawn. He took one hand off the steering wheel and covered his mouth until it passed. He smacked his lips. "Sorry," he said. "What about?"
Carmelita faced Bryce. "The diamond. He made up all of those tag-lines, I'm sure of it." Carmelita knew a rehearsed performance when she saw one, and the way Rainier stumbled when she interrupted him cinched it.
"Why? You think he doesn't want us to know what Cooper's really after?"
"No. He wasn't lying when he told us that Cooper wanted it, he just didn't tell us why." Carmelita rubbed her temple, trying to think through the fog of sleepiness.
Bryce nodded, making a small "hmm" sound.
Carmelita opened her mouth to say a little more, but a face splitting yawn put a stop to whatever it was.
Bryce glanced over and saw her all but pulling at her eyelids to keep them apart. He looked at the GPS. "It's still a twenty, thirty minute drive before we get to the hotel," he said. "Take a nap, I'll wake you when we get there."
Carmelita was too tired to protest, even if she wanted to. She pulled out her cell phone and left a quick note for herself to check through the records and see if there was anything about a diamond that looked like Rainier's, yawning again as she put it away. She propped her elbow up on the window side armrest, cradled her head in her hand, leaned against the car window, and fell asleep to the sound of the purring engine.
A/N: Sorry this one took so long, I hope it's good enough that you thought the wait was worth it. I actually wrote a lot of Sly's part like it was in one of the games and then realized that video game challenge reads a lot like filler, so I had to scrap most of it. What did you guys think? Please let me know in a review, the knowledge that people are enjoying what I write gives me more reason to go on. Also, I'm juggling three stories right now, and knowing more people prefer one over the others gives me more reason to focus on it.