Hello everyone, Lightheart77 is back saying here's chapter 4. This is where our "villain" is to show up. But that is all I can tell you. Any who, I would like to thank all who read, review and favored my story. I'd like to thank the new readers: Caitsith29, Captain Wolf, Evilhumor Author and Shadow Fox for giving me a review and favoring my story. Please to all who read, please review, review, and review! I want to know what thoughts are going through your heads about my story. And thanks for reading.

Chapter 4: An Enemy

"D-dad?" she stammered. "What are you doing here? Is mom with you?"

Ken and Jamie then entered the kitchen and noticed Sly standing on the other side of the room.

"What's up, Mr. C?" Ken asked, trying to stay calm. Whenever a parent was home early, it usually wasn't good.

"Yes. Um… is there something wrong, Mr. Cooper?" Jamie inquired nervously.

"Everything's fine," Sly started out, "if it weren't for the fact that I got a call from your principal today."

"Really?" Alexa replied uneasily. This cannot be good, she thought as she looked to her friends, who were just as shaky as she was.

Her father nodded. "I heard the whole story of what you did at school today. Stole a school monument, and then tried to blame it on someone else. As a father I'm very disappointed in you Ally."

"D-dad, if I could explain," Alexa stammered.

But her father held up one of his hands to silence her. "I'm not finished." His daughter's head went down in shame, and her friends watched helplessly as all three of them expected the worse. "But, as a thief, I'm prouder than I've ever been."

Alexa nearly fell backwards in surprise. Instead of getting the worse of punishments, she was getting praise? But then again, we were talking about her father the master thief. "I kinda figured that from you, Dad, but what about Mom? I thought she would have been in here by now screaming her head off."

"You're mother doesn't know anything about it. Your principal only called me," Sly said with one of his sly smiles.

"Mrs. M did that?" Ken questioned.

"But she usually calls both parents," Jamie inputted.

"Yeah, so why—" but Alexa was cut off again by her father.

"Ally, Ken, Jamie. You three have gotten a handle on the thieving thing." He sat on top the kitchen counter looking at the ceiling and continued, "I remember when my gang and I were at your age. We'd got in trouble almost every day. And no matter what happened we'd be in it together," he looked down back to the three teens.

"Mrs. Melba told me how you three were acting like a true Cooper Gang, sticking up for each other like that, so I figured it was time to dust this off and pass it down," he reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out an old tattered looking book.

It was the Thievius Raccoonus; the prized possession of all Coopers. It was the well of all Cooper knowledge, holding stories dating back in time; stories about thieves, treasure and villains.

Alexa's face lit up with awe and shock. She was getting her birth right, the one held by all Coopers. "You're… You're giving this to me?" she questioned in disbelief.

Sly stared down at the book, "Well… you are our only child and the book must be passed down. You have to keep up the tradition. So, yes, I'm going to give it to you. Now you can start writing all of your adventures in it, too," and with that he put the ages of history into her hands.

Alexa held the book and stared at it for the longest time. She then looked up to her father with the biggest grin he's ever seen, "Thanks, Dad! This is amazing. I would've never thought that you'd give this to me or if I'd even get to keep it with Mom's opinion." Alexa gasped, "Wait. What about Mom?"

"She won't know, unless you tell her," he's said with another one of his famous sly smiles and a wink.

"Thanks again dad," she said happily giving him a hug. She turned to her friends and nearly exclaimed, "Let's go and check this out!"

Her friends nodded, wanting just as much to see what was bound to that book.

Her father smiled at his daughter's excitement. It was like Christmas or her birthday at that moment. He simply grabbed his signature blue hat and placed it upon his head while jumping down from the counter. "Well, I'm off. I have to go back to work before your mother catches on. You know how she's such a great detective." He passed by Alexa, roughing up her hair like he always did since she was a little girl. "You be good, alright?"

"I know, I know. Come on, guys." She waved to her father goodbye and ran up stairs to her room with her friends right behind her. Alexa allowed her friends to go into her room first, but as soon as she walked through the door, Jamie snatched up the book.

"Amazing," she muttered as she thumbed through the book. "This must be centuries old, with Coopers dating all the way back in time."

Alexa was about to snatch it back from her when Ken walked by Jamie, grabbing the book himself.

He scanned through the book, looking ideally at the pictures and then added, "A lot of pics. You could easy learn all of those moves with all of these easy directions."

Finally, Alexa got her book back into her hands, a bit annoyed too, and sat down on her bed. "All of my ancestors have written in this book. It's awesome to finally be holding it in my hands and being able to keep it. I mean, my mom would have never let me have it."

Ken sat on the floor next to Alexa's bed. "I still say it was wrong of your mom to do that," said the brown wolf as he lazily leaned against Alexa's bed.

"Again, you're being so one-sided," the gray fox took Alexa's computer chair, having the back of it be in front of her. "Her mother is a cop. Of course she wouldn't want to have her daughter exposed to thievery."

"Still."

"'Still' nothing. It's reasonable what Mrs. Cooper did."

"Oh, yeah. Well, what if—"

"Okay you two, stop fighting like an old married couple and focus here," Alexa interrupted.

The two of them blushed and looked away from each other; both angry and embarrassed.

"Listen," Alexa began. "We gotta document our little heist in here today before we forget all of the details." She turned to Jamie and asked, "You still have all of the plans and blue prints in your bag, right?"

Jamie turned back to Alexa and nodded. "Yeah," she grabbed her bag and looked through it all, adding, "Everything's here."

"Good, and Ken, you haven't erased everything off the ear pieces yet have you?" she asked turning to Ken.

Ken grabbed the ear pieces from his bag, saying, "No, I haven't. We can still write down everything we said during the heist."

"Perfect. Then let's get to work," Alexa announced.

And with that they three began to organize and pull together all of the pieces into the Thievius Raccoonus. Hours went by as the friends laughed, argued, and agreed on what to put where. They wrote everything down to the last detail. Soon it was four o'clock.

Ken stood up grabbing all of his things, "Sorry guys, I gotta go. My parents will wonder if I got lost on the way home."

"Understandable," Alexa nodded, knowing how Ken's parents were about their sports star.

"It's fine though," Jamie added, looking up to him smiling. "We have all of your stuff documented, so you can go with no regrets."

Ken smiled leaving the room, "Kay, then. See ya later."

"You too," replied the girls.

Alexa watched as he left and perked up her ears, listening. Once she heard the front door close she turned to Jamie and said, "Okay, now that Ken's gone, spill it."

"Huh," Jamie's head cocked to the side in confusion.

"How are you and Kenny getting along?" Alexa asked simply.

"I have no idea what you're talking about," she replied, looking away blushing.

"Ooh. Then why are you blushing?" she asked slyly.

"I'm not blushing," Jamie replied with a bit of anger, looking back at her friend. "It's just hot in here."

"Uh, huh, sure. Then let's see what it says here." Alexa grabbed a small black book out of her bag and opened it to a page she marked. She then began to read aloud, word for word, "'Dear Journal, Alexa has been bugging me and Ken again about how we could be such a cute couple. And… for some reason, I think she might be right,'" Alexa closed the book with a satisfied smile as she noted the surprised expression on her friend's face.

"That's…. But…." Jamie stammered. She snatched her journal and glared at Alexa. "How the heck did you get my journal?" she demanded.

"I told you how I've already read some from the Big Book of Thieves, and well, there was this nice little section on pick pocketing from a bag. And I know for a fact that you carry that little book with you every where you go, so I snagged it. It was a real page turner in math, while you two had science," Alexa explained, leaning back against the wall, relaxed.

"That's cruel, Alexa," she complained. Jamie looked down at her journal and asked, "Have you told him?"

"Of course not. Just because I snagged that book of yours doesn't mean I'm gonna start spilling your secrets all over the place. Besides, I only read the recent stuff."

"But why?" Jamie exclaimed.

Alexa just laughed.

"This isn't funny, Alexa," Jamie growled.

"Relax, okay," Alexa said, trying to calm her friend down. "The reason why is because I wanted to know if you really like Ken. I mean, I think he really does like you, too."

A bright pink appeared on Jamie's cheeks. She opened her mouth but closed it, and then sighed, "Just don't tell him, alright. I'll say something when I'm good and ready, deal?"

Alexa smiled, replying, "No prob. I can do that."

"Besides, what about you?" asked Jamie, trying to get off the subject of her and Ken. "You still don't have a boy friend, you know."

Alexa sighed in annoyance, "Do I have to say it again? There are no guys that I like; period, end of story."

"Oh, come on. That can't be true. I mean, you've had plenty of guys ask you out. Why not one of them?" inquired Jamie.

"Ha," Alexa scoffed. "You're kidding, right? Most of those guys were either complete snobs or fan boys. Now, I could deal with the snobs, it was the fan boys that freak me out," Alexa shivered remembering all of the stuff they said they had collected of her. "Why would I want a boy friend like that?"

"I guess you do have a point," Jamie agreed.

"And besides, my life is just fine how it is: with me being without a boy friend and living life to its fullest." Alexa looked to her friend, "Don't worry about our big lug of a friend, either. I promise won't tell him."

"Thanks," Jamie gave a sigh of relief and looked at the clock. "Do you think you can handle the rest?" she asked packing up her things.

"Yeah. You need to go, too?"

"Yes. I'm going to have to cut our fascinating conversation short because if I don't leave now, I'm afraid my parent's will send a search party."

"Don't worry about it. We got all summer, remember."

"Oh, right," Jamie said a little embarrassed.

"So, see you and Ken, tomorrow?"

Jamie slung her bag over her shoulder and said, "You know it. See ya." And with that she was out the door heading home.

Alexa sighed. "Great, now I'm bored," she muttered falling back on her pillow.

She looked at the Thievius Raccoonus that laid on the floor next to her bed. She grabbed the book and a pen and decided to finish writing in it. There were only a few more things to write about. Most of which were things that they didn't expect to happen, but all the same, they had to be written down. An hour past by, and Alexa slowly stopped writing and fell asleep. All the excitement really did tire her out.

Soon the same black figure appeared in her window. The figure opened the window slowly and quietly stepped down into the room, closing the window behind him. He approached her cautiously, reaching out his hand to grab the book that was in her hands. But Alexa's ear twitched sensing something. She bolted up and her eyes shot open to see… nothing.

She looked around quickly looking to see the window was closed and there was no sign of anyone being in her room. Alexa chuckled nervously, "It must have just been a bad dream." Still, she thought as she looked around again. Something just doesn't feel right. She looked to the clock to see it was around 6:30.

She then heard the front door open and close. "Ally," came her mother's voice. "We're home." Right on time as usual.

"Be right down," Alexa shouted. She jumped off her bed and grabbed the door knob. But that uneasy feeling was still in the back of her mind. She turned back and grabbed the Thievius Raccoonus. She then went to her bedside table and took out the key to it that was around her neck. Once the drawer was opened, she put the book among her other secret and important items. Things any teenager would hide: money, old but beloved toys, electronics, plans for heist, etc.

"Just in case," she muttered as she closed the drawer, locking it. She then hid the key back underneath her shirt and ran out her room to the stairs, closing her door behind her.

Just as she left the figure came up from underneath her bed, looking to the drawer. He reached into his pocket, grabbing a lock pick into his gloved hand. He tried a couple times but it wouldn't open. He cursed underneath his breath, and decided then that he would just have to take it from her personally.

An hour went by since Alexa's parents had gotten home, and they were sitting down for dinner.

Carmelita turned to her daughter and asked her usual question to get conversation started at the table, "So, how was school today? It was the last one, right?"

"Yeah, it was the last day and it was…" Alexa thought for a minute, trying to debate what to tell her mother. What words wouldn't give away the best day: being a day for thieves. She looked to her father. Sly winked at her, acknowledging that it was fine. "It was an awesome day. Just awesome," she decided to reply, stuffing some veggies in her mouth.

"Oh? How come?" she questioned her daughter.

"Umm… we got to do almost anything in class today, even in some of the stiff teacher's classes. And… none of the fan boys or snobs bugged me all day. It was peaceful for once. I didn't have to fight my way through the school," Alexa said, knowing quite well that it was because of how threatening she was before classes started.

"I see," said her father, admiring her quick thinking. "I suppose those boys finally learned not to mess with you," he added with a smile.

"Yep," Alexa agreed.

"Well, don't scare them all away. You may at least want to find one you like," her mother countered.

"I don't know mom. I'm just gonna let it happen when it happens," Alexa stuffed another thing of veggies in her mouth, trying to finish so she could head up stairs and look at her new book.

"Nicely said," approved her father.

"Sly," Carmelita said crossly to her husband.

"What?" he asked defensively.

Carm turned back to her daughter and said, "That isn't the best way to think, Ally."

"Why not?" Alexa questioned. "It happened when it did with you and dad."

"Yes, well… that's different," Carmelita said trying to recover.

"She has a good point," noted Sly.

Carmelita just glared at her husband.

"I'm just saying, my sweet," Sly said quickly, putting up his hands as an attempt to save himself.

"Listen, Ally," Carm sweetly turned back to her little girl. "Sometimes you can't wait, you have to act. So I want you to at least try and find a boy you like and give him a chance. Okay?"

Alexa sighed, grabbing her plate and standing up. She headed for the sink adding, "Fine, mom. I can give it a try."

"That's my girl," her mother said, pleased.

The raccoon-fox breed then put her plate in the sink, heading for the stairs, "I'll be up in my room reading, if you need me."

"Alright, just don't stay up too late," Carmelita said standing up, gathering the rest of the dishes.

"Yes, my darling daughter. Don't get too caught up in your reading," her father added with a wink.

Alexa gave a smile running up stairs, "Don't worry, I won't." She zoomed to her room and went straight for her bedside drawer. She unlocked it to find the book was still there. She sighed with relief, "Good. It's still here."

She turned to her window, opened it and jumped out to the tree beside her house. This was her sanctuary: being out in the fresh air, looking up at the stars, listening to the peace and quiet. What a great place to be. Just to relax, and forget about the world, or in this case, get familiar with a thief like one.

Alexa looked up to see the stars and a beautiful full moon. "Perfect. With the moon full I can read easily tonight." She then looked down to the book, tracing the words on the cover and said, "Well, let's see what we have in here."

She began to read from where she had left off from her last short read. Alexa couldn't believe some of the stuff in here. Be able to become invisible, having decoys, making yourself magnetic for coins, and being able to slow down, speed up, or even stop time. This could have really come in handy today. Oh well, it's not like it didn't work out in the end, she thought.

Soon the moon became high and Alexa was becoming more out of it. She looked down at her digital watch seeing it was 10:00 P.M. Alexa yawned, "Wow, that late already?" She stretched, saying, "I guess, I should head for bed now." Her ear twitched again and she heard a branch break. She wheeled around to the source, asking, "Who's there? Show yourself."

The same black figure stood in front of her. But with the moon this high, Alexa could see more detail. Whoever it was, he was in a long, black hooded trench coat covering his face and tail, if there was one. He held out a gloved hand and simply said, "Give me the book."

Alexa clutched the book tight in her arms, "Who are you and why do you want this?"

"Just give me the book and you won't get hurt," he said again, keeping his hand out in front of him, waiting for the book.

"No," Alexa replied strongly, gripping the book even tighter.

"Fine, your choice," he then charged at her.

But Alexa easily avoided it by jumping up to the next branch, laughing, "Ha. You'll have to do better than that!"

That he did. He grabbed her ankle and pulled her downward. "Gah!" she yelled in surprise as she went down. I let my guard down!

As Alexa fell off the branch, he grabbed the Thievius Raccoonus from her hands. "No!" she shouted. She grabbed a branch to stable herself again while the unknown person jumped off, running down the alley way across the street. "Oh, no you don't!" she jumped down from the branch and ran right after him.

She was right on his tail, no pun intended. The mysterious figure ran down the next alley way hoping to lose her, but instead came to a dead end. He turned around to see Alexa catch up to him, and hadn't even broken a sweat. Just as he expect from the daughter of a Cooper.

"You obviously don't know your way around here. At least not like I do," Alexa stated as she stood only a few feet from the thief of her family possession.

"Oh, I know my way around. I just didn't expect you to keep up. But then again I know everything else about you, Alexa Maria Cooper," he replied in a smug tone.

Alexa looked at him surprised. Barely anyone ever knew her full name. "Wait? You've been watching me?" This can't be good, she thought.

"I've only been watching a while. I've been waiting for the time to get this off your hands," he showed the book in a pocket underneath his coat.

"I see. Your just one of those Cooper-haters, aren't you?" Alexa questioned.

"You could say that. But, I must bid you adieu," he then ran for the fire escape jumping up on the ladder.

But Alexa was quick to the up take. "You're not getting away that easily!" she ran up behind him grabbing his coat, pulling him back.

He lost his balance, and fell back, losing his hood. But he rebounded getting Alexa's back up against the wall. "You're becoming a real pain," he muttered angrily.

Alexa looked up and finally saw his face. And to her surprise it was a raccoon. He had brown hair long enough to go past his ears and dangle in front of his eyes of dark blue eyes. He had the dark fur pattern as most raccoons do, that made him seem to be wearing a mask. "Why do you want the Thievius Raccoonus? Who are you?" she questioned, trying to escape his grip.

"My name is Chase. But I'm sorry to say that I need to get you out of my way," he replied.

Alexa smirked and said, "If you were really watching me, then you'd know I'd pull something… like this!" she pushed her knee up, right into Chase's groin.

Chase yelped in pain and went to his knees. Alexa grabbed the book from his jacket pocket and ran out of the alley way, yelling back, "I guess you weren't watching that closely."

Chase was quick to recover and went chasing right after her, thinking, She's good. I shouldn't have underestimated her.

If I can get inside the house I should be safe. She kept running and soon she reached the tree near her window, she double-jumped from branch to branch, until finally reaching her window. She leapt into her room and landed on her bed. She left the book on her bed as she jumped off to close the window and locking it. "Phew," she sighed with relief.

"Ally?" came her mother's voice from behind her door. "Ally, are you okay? What's all of that noise?"

"Um… I tripped. One sec, mom," she quickly stuffed the thief book underneath her pillow. Just as her mother came through her door, Alexa was sitting on her bed.

"Ally, what do you mean by tripped? Are you all right?" her mother asked in concern.

"Yeah, of course. I was just trying to close my window but I tripped and slammed in shut. I'm sorry, did I wake you and dad?" she asked, hoping Carmelita would buy it.

"You did," she yawned. "Just be more careful, okay?"

"A can do, Mom."

And with that Carmelita waved to her daughter goodnight and was out of the room, heading back to bed.

Alexa gave another sigh of relief, and fell back onto her bed, "That was too close. Good thing Mom doesn't think as much when she's drowsy." But Alexa's thoughts went back to what had just happened. She looked to the window and sat up, saying, "I'm not taking any chances." She grabbed the phone and hit the number two for speed dial.

Come on. Pick up. I know you're there and up, even this late. You always are, she thought impatiently as the phone kept ringing.

Finally a nasally voice answered over the receiver end, "Hello?"

"Hey, Uncle Bent. You got a sec to spare?"

"I was in the middle of an experiment," he muttered angrily to his god child.

"I figured. That's why I called. It's just a quick question," Alexa defended herself.

Bentley the turtle sighed and replied, "What is it, Alexa?"

"How good is our security system?" she asked looking out the window.

"Why do you need to know?" Bentley questioned suspiciously.

"There's been some… robberies lately, and I just want to know if everything was secure," she stated with some honestly.

"Your house has the top of the line security and nothing could get in with out you knowing. Even your father would have trouble dealing with it," he added.

"So… there's no way for any one, except maybe my dad, to get in by the windows, doors, or even a hole in the wall?" she questioned.

"Yes. Now can I get back to my experiment?" Bentley asked a bit peevishly.

"Is Penelope there?" she asked with a grin spreading across her face.

There was no answer at first but then he replied with an annoyed sigh, "Yes."

Alexa giggled, "Then you can. Bye, bye, Bent."

"Good bye," he muttered angrily, hanging up the phone.

Alexa put down the receiver, saying, "Well, that's reassuring." She laid back onto her bed, looking to her window. "Everything's going to be fine," she yawned. "I'll tell Ken and Jamie tomorrow…but parent's… later," she mumbled as her eyes drifted close and she fell asleep.

Chase then appeared on her windowsill to see her sleeping peacefully. "She is good," he whispered to himself. He looked over her sleeping face and added, "And beautiful." He sighed, jumping down to the ground, "If only." He looked up back to her window only once, whispering again, "If only." Then, he ran off down another alley way into the night.

There you have it another chapter. I'm sorry for the little wait but I have school starting Monday, not to mention my online class that my mom wants me to get ahead on. But what cha gonna do? Also the fact that this was a much long chapter than any of them so far. I just couldn't leave you all in total suspense again. That would be cruel.

So what do you guys think? Our new character has been added to the story. Is he what you expected, or at least for those who read about him on my profile. And you have to wonder what he meant when he said "If only." Oh how the plot thickens.

Anyway, thanks so much for reading and I hope all of you review.

Thankyous! Until the next chapter!