Sly's POV

Bentley was explaining to us Operation Moon Crash it was or last chance to stop the mask; if it failed I don't know what we'd do next. Plus with Carmelita running around we wouldn't have much time and we'd have to be more careful.

Its times like this I wish she wasn't so good at her job.

Our first task the Guru was to destroy the gyrocopter while it refuels, seems a little late in the game to get rid of it since it is essentially a giant tracker. But it was amusing watching the Guru smash guards into it.

Our next step was to attach Murray to the crane in order to make the Mask of Dark Earth think Murray is the Moon spirit, the mask's sworn enemy.

Unfortunately things didn't completely go to plan. Turns out we probably should have listened to Lola's warning.

"We got a situation here fellas; looks like Carmelita finally managed to catch up." I said as I watched Carmelita's fast approach.

"Drat! We can't stop the operation now… we'll just have to give her a wide berth." Bentley replied.

"Roger, applying 'wide berth'."

The Mask was attached to a guard and approaching the Guru.

The crane Murray was attached to swung round so Murray was above the guard.

"Here I come master." Murray cried and dropped onto the guard.

Sadly the mask yet again got away and this time its victim was the lovely Inspector Fox.

"Cooper thought I'd find you here." Carmelita said pointing her shock pistol towards me.

"Carmelita, you've got a little something on your face." I said.

"It's not nice to make fun of a girl's looks maybe I should smash you!" the mask improved Carmelita's height and strength making her even more deadly.

She gave chase and luckily Bentley came up with the idea to shoot her with his sleep darts.

Lola's POV

There was a loud ruckus coming from outside and I went to check on it, I couldn't tell much of what was going on but there were no miners anymore and I was nearly shot by Carmelita's shock pistol. But the blast was huge, which was odd till I looked at Carmelita and realised she was now a giantess.

Because you know she doesn't get in the way enough as it is.

I saw green darts being shot and when I follow the direction they were coming from I noticed Bentley standing on top of a rock. I leapt up towards him.

"Hey Bentley, whatcha doing?" I asked.

"Well at the moment I'm trying to shoot Inspector Fox with sleep darts to stop her rampage, save Sly's skin and get that mask of her face." Bentley said clearly panicked.

"Oh well good luck with that, although if you don't mind I'm gonna stay up here away from the chaos." I said holding my ground.

"That's fine but just watch out for the DUCK!" Bentley yelled and pulled me out of the range of one of Carmelita's shots.

"Thanks." I said.

I started to notice something odd though after a few more of Bentley's darts hit Carmelita.

"Hey Bentley…"

"Yeah?"

"Umm… are you noticing anything strange about Carmelita." But of course he didn't reply as Carmelita stopped and Sly came back standing next to Bentley.

But sly must have noticed it to since he couldn't keep his jaw shut.

"Finally! The darts are starting to kick in… or not! The chemicals in my darts must somehow be interacting with the mask to make her even bigger." Now he gets it.

"Whoa! You're not kidding Bentley… she's getting… gigantic! Everyone head for the big truck, that includes you Lola. We've got to get some distance between her and us. She might shrink back down with time." Sly said and we all ran for the van.

I don't really know what I'm doing here but I'd rather be in the big truck than under Carmelita's foot.

Of course Carmelita had a truck of her own under her arm and was throwing bombs at us. This really isn't her most attractive side if I'm honest, no wonder she struggles to get dates, then again I'm no female Casanova.

Luckily the truck had its own claw and we could throw them back, one at a time! So useful when she's throwing handfuls like grenades.

After a while she didn't seem any smaller but we'd slowed her down and made more of a gap between us, but not much.

"She's too huge we can't outrun her in the truck!" Murray said.

"This is bad! We need a new strategy and fast. Force just isn't working." Bentley spoke.

"Time to stop running and deal with the real problem…pry off that Mask of Dark Earth and maybe we'll get back the old Carmelita we all know and love." Sly addressed.

Well I know the rest of us weren't up for the love part oh and thanks Sly. Not that I care anymore.

"I do not love her!" Murray said sounding rather outraged.

Not that I blame him.

"OK, not the point. It's all about taking off that mask. We gotta find a way up there." Sly said.

"You're the climber…and I'm sure you've always wanted to get closer to her…can't get much closer than climbing up her boot laces." Bentley said.

Heh heh I'm fine. Thanks for the invite guys.

"That's not a crazy idea." Sly said.

"Oh yeah…it's crazy!" Murray replied.

Did I mention how much I love Murray?

"You got a better idea?" Sly demanded.

"Yeah but we'd need a giant fighting robot." Murray replied.

Again love that guy. But I was starting to get more concerned with the storming Carmelita just aimlessly stomping around.

"Sorry gonna have to go with the boot lace plan." Sly said and ran towards the truck holding beast.

"Watch out! Carmelita's troops are en route." Bentley called as the mercenaries appeared on jet packs.

The only thing the rest of us could do was watch from a far as Sly attempted to knock the mask off her head.

He had crawled up one side of Carmelita and unclipped the mask and was working on the other side.

The mask came off and Carmelita roared as she shrunk back to her regular size, the mercenaries took care of destroying the mask.

We headed back to the site, after Carmelita-zilla the miners had cleared out and Muggshot, he'd taken the gold from the mines and high tailed it. The only people left in the mine were Bess, Penelope and Carl.

He had his tools returned Penelope mentioned that Muggshot was heading to India to open a club and it was huge talk around any successful criminal. We had to go; we deserved a night on the town.

But what was more surprising was when the Cooper Gang came over Penelope and Bentley were stuck in a gaze. As it turns out these two have been getting to know each other over ThiefNet and exchanging plans and inventions.

I didn't really know what to say at this point, I can't be mad at her for helping them because I did it, I would join them for heists and not tell Penelope and Bess.

Don't get me wrong I think it's cute they have a lot in common and it's nice to see someone like Bentley, and Penelope, out of their comfort zone.

Yet our attention was more drawn to the unconscious police officer lying on the ground, not sure when she was placed there.

We all stood staring at her, personally I wanted to be as far away as possible but I couldn't move.

Plus I remembered that Carmelita knows about people's police files, she has them memorised. This could be my chance; I'll get her when she's still woozy, and make sure her pistol is out of range. Maybe Bess could hold her down.

"So what do we do with her?" Bentley asked.

"Well I guess we'll have to stay here until she shows signs of coming to." Sly said.

"Or we could leave her here and let her squad pick her up." Murray suggested.

"Well it looks like you guys have got this under control so we'll be going." I said and started to walk off.

Bess followed but Penelope held back as she was talking to Bentley.

I didn't want to tear them apart; this was their first meeting face to face. But I couldn't hang around here; I had knots in my stomach. I don't know what was wrong but all I knew was I needed to get out I couldn't breath and my hands felt weak and shaky.

"Wait you don't have to go." Murray called.

I turned back to look over my shoulder and met eyes with a very sad and helpless looking hippo.

I really did miss them; well I missed Bentley and Murray, especially since I found myself having more interesting or intellectual conversations with them. Being with Sly we would normally joke around, challenge each other or I felt incredibly self-conscious and awkward.

Looking at Murray's face brought on some sentimental and sympathetic side of me and I couldn't help walking back and giving him a hug.

"Okay, but we can't stay forever." I smiled sadly facing him.

I took a seat on a rock with my head in my hands as the other slowly started to do the same.

We sat in silence for some time; I could hear Penelope and Bentley quietly muttering jargon, and Bess and Murray were talking about fights and weapons. The Guru was sitting peacefully meditating and looking over the now cleared landscape.

I sat not knowing what to do just occasionally staring at my friends and the passed out cop or I twiddled my thumbs.

I felt a tap on my shoulder and I turned to see an equally uncomfortable looking Sly who called me over to speak privately.

This of course briefly drew the attention of the others as I could see them watch me leave the rock before they went back to their own conversations.

"Yes?" I asked.

"Look, I'm just gonna get straight to the point. We have a huge mission coming up and we need recruits to do it and we could use all the help we could get, and seeing as you don't have anything to do…"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa… nothing to do, do you really think I've just been travelling round here aimlessly because I feel like it? I'll have you know I've got my own tasks to complete." I replied angrily.

How dare he! How dare he just assume that I am just having a lovely vacation, alright so my motives might not be as strong but still, I'm not just wandering around hoping someone will give me something to do?

"Well what are you doing?" Sly asked clueless.

"I'm trying to collect information about my dad! The police have his file and won't let me see it they know where he is and they won't tell me!" I could feel myself getting upset and my eyes watering but with rage.

"Okay. Okay. I'm sorry. I understand. But we really could use some extra help and besides the police follow us wherever we go I'm sure we can do both." Sly said.

This wasn't my plan at all, I don't want this. I spent ages trying to get over him…again…which I did. Plus Bess and Penelope told me to stop thinking of him and he leaving was the best thing that could have happened to me. Yet we keep meeting. How can I move on if he follows me?

I wanted to say no. I was gonna say no, but there was still part of me that wanted to be back with them. You can't beat the Cooper gang and when I was a part of it I loved it. Besides I still have to check with Penelope and Bess and they could say no.

"I'll think about it." I said and walked back to the group.

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