Hey all, lightheart77 here. Coming at you with chapter 11! We are truly in the double digits. Yes, we are here with the story of a life time. THE COOPER GANG HAS COME BACK!

Thanks to all who reviewed and then gave me suggestions for this chapter. I hope I didn't miss anyone. If so, just send me a message and I'll see if I can put the idea in a later chapter. If not, I'm so terribly sorry.

And I'm also so sorry for those who have been trying to review anonymously. I didn't realize I had the "block anonymous reviews" thing was enabled. You must know that I'm no computer guru and for that I must apologize again. I hope now, all of you who couldn't review can review now.

Also, I want to thank all of you who have been reading because I'm happy to report the story has had over 3000 hits! Now I will honor this special occasion by drawing a picture of one of my characters. I want you readers to send in a review for who it will be. The choices are: Chase, Alexa, Ken, Jamie, and Marsh. I hope to see many reviews from you. (This will also, hopefully, mean I get a deviant art account :P)

But enough of my ongoing rambling; you just read on and find out what happens next.

Chapter 11: The Cooper Gang is BACK?

Marsh was putting hand cuffs on another criminal, reciting their rights, and then handing them off to a lieutenant. He sighed, turning to his lynx friend, Lieutenant Miller, "Gawd, this is taking forever. How many criminals can you have at one party?"

He shrugged, replying, "Who knows. But hey at least no one escaped."

"Well, except four people," Marsh corrected, "Two female and two male. What's really sucks is that I think I danced with one of those girls. She reminded me of-"

"Lieutenant Marsh!" cried a corporal duck, running toward him. "Marsh," he panted, trying to catch his breath. "The major found something," he panted again, "He wants you to take a look at it. He says you may recognize it," he finished and then ran back.

"What the heck was that about?" questioned Miller.

"I don't know… but it has to be big," Marsh stood there for a minute, and then thought aloud, "What would I recognize that no one else would…" he gasped, and sprinted off toward where the major would be.

"Marsh!" called Miller.

"I'll be right back. I have to see what their talking about!" He continued to sprint to the other end of the ball room. A girl who looks like Alexa, even acts like her, then an item such as that jewel gets stolen in the middle of a party of thieves. It's a Cooper kind of thing to do, but if there is no calling card it can't be her… it just can't be. He reached the crowd of police men and even a couple reporters were there huddling around the glass case. The ringed-tail lemur captain looked up and called Marsh over.

"Lieutenant, I want you to look into that case and tell me what that is," requested the captain.

Marsh nodded and looked into the glass. He gasped and saw the famous Cooper symbol staring back at him. And there was no way to confuse it as a copy cat Cooper. Right next to the calling card was a note with the only thing visible was Alexa's signature, which Marsh could tell in a heartbeat.

The captain lifted the glass case with his gloved hands, handing it to a squirrel lieutenant, "Get this dusted and finger printed, and run it through codas," he told him. He then turned back to the platform and removed the letter from its place. He handed it to Marsh and ordered, "Read it."

Marsh put on his gloves and took the letter into his hands. He knew it was hers, he knew her hand writing well… he helped her so many times with her homework and papers, he knew it so well. He unfolded the note and read it out loud in a whisper, hearing her voice as if she was saying the words that were written, "'Dear police officers, it would appear that you have a new thief on your hands. I'm a Cooper, I'm sure you must know my father, Sly Cooper. I just want all of you in his ranks to know he had nothing to do with this. It was me and my gang alone. Mrs. Fox, my mother, also has no ties with us. They don't know our current location, so don't bother asking them, nor do they know where we're going to strike next. We follow the Cooper philosophies of stealing only from criminals, so no need to worry about anything else getting stolen but the stuff from criminals. We'll help where we can on some of those hunt-and-capture missions you have, but I can't guarantee that all the things they've stolen will still be there. I'm sorry if I've done anything to upset anyone doing this. I have to do this for the protection of my family and their traditions. I hope you will come to understand this. So until we meet again, good hunting, Alexa Cooper,'" Marsh finished.

Protection of her family and its traditions… Why didn't she just ask for help? Wait a minute… he thought to himself, this is Alexa. She wouldn't ask for help unless she had no idea what the next move would be. And this was the path she chose.

"I'm sure you know Miss Cooper well enough to know if this is actually her writing or not," the captain stated after Marsh finished reading.

"It's hers… it makes sense, how this is going. She ran away a while ago, so this would explain what happened to her," he paused for a moment. "Captain, do the Coopers know about this yet?"

"No, we haven't reported back to them yet," the lemur replied. "I thought it'd be best if you told them yourself. After all, you've know the family much longer than anyone else here."

"Yes, sir," Marsh nodded, "I'll call them right now." He walked away, pushing through the hordes of people, trying to get his cell phone out. He was finally able to open his phone and he quickly dialed the number. He held it up to his ear, muttering, "Come on, please pick up…"

…

Sly and Carmelita were reviewing files again, and again there was no luck. Most everyone they've caught is either in jail for life or they've change their ways completely and will never go into thieving again, or dead. And even if it was one of the first two, they wouldn't have the resources to do anything. As their choices narrowed down, it was getting harder to find the right suspect.

Carm sighed, putting another file aside, stating, "Sly, this becoming impossible… maybe it isn't someone we've captured, you know together."

Sly dropped the file he was reading into the pile, nodding his head thinking, "That could be the case…. But where would we start? There's probably a ton more people in that description than in this mountain files!"

"Maybe I could help," a nasal voice came behind the couple. Bentley came into the room, wheeling by them to Carm's computer.

"You heard all that Bent?" Sly asked.

"Yes. And by my research, I found out that it is none of your recent or previous criminals you've caught together or alone are the ones who may be after Alexa," he stated. "If I'm correct, the most likely candidates would be the criminals that Sly helped detain before he became a cop," he concluded, searching for a list of files.

"Wait," Carm interjected. "Are you saying that the person where looking for is a criminal that Sly has stolen from, and then I captured them after that?"

"That is correct," he replied typing up a list.

"So then…" Sly thought aloud, "it must be some from the Fiendish Five, the KLAWW Gang, or anyone we stole from during the Cooper Vault job."

"Again, that is correct," Bentley saved the document and printed it out. He then handed it over to Carmelita.

"Well, that narrow downs the search," Carm sighed in relief, taking a look.

"But we still have a lot of work to do," Sly noted. "But where to start…"

Just then the phone rang. Sly looked over to the caller ID. "Odd, it's Marsh."

"Well answer it," Carm said with a hurried tone, "He probably wants to know how the search is going."

Sly picked up the phone and held it up to his ear saying, "Hey, Marsh. How's India?"

"Mr. Cooper…." He began but his voice trailed off.

"What is it Marsh?" Sly asked worriedly. Marsh was an easy to read person. Whenever his tone changed to one this somber, something was wrong.

"Mr. Cooper, your daughter's in India."

"What! You've found her?" Sly shouted happily.

"They found her?" Carm and Bentley questioned, with Carmelita putting the phone on speaker.

Marsh gave a static sigh, "No, I'm sorry to say. But your Alexa has gotten into trouble."

"What do you mean? Do you know where she is or not?" he asked pleadingly.

"No… but we do know that she and her gang are the ones who stole the ruby that was displayed at Katz's party."

"They did that? Are you sure?" Carm yelled in the other receiver.

"Oh, M-Mrs. Fox… y-you're listening?" he asked in a nervous surprise.

"Of course I'm listening! It deals with my daughter! Now tell me, Marsh, what have you found?" she called with her voice breaking.

"She left a calling card and a letter stating that you two know nothing about where they are or where they're going to strike next," he mumbled. "I'm sorry but that's all we have. I wish we had more."

"No… thank you, Marsh," Sly sighed. "We appreciate you giving us a call, and telling us this." In grief, Carm laid the other phone receive back down in the holder, and began to sob.

"Mr. Cooper?"

"Yes, Marsh?" he asked.

"Why didn't you tell me that Alexa ran away to become a thief?"

Sly felt a prang of guilt and sadness; they tried to avoid telling Marsh about their daughter's choice because it's been obvious for years that he cared deeply for her. Therefore, they knew it would impact him greatly.

"Is it because… you thought I wouldn't be able to take it. Because I care so much for your daughter…" Marsh's voice became stern, and he continued, "I want to help get her back! And nothing will stop me from doing just that!"

"Marsh…" Sly mumbled.

"Please, Mr. Cooper. I'll do all that I can… just tell me why she did it. What's going on with her?" he pleaded.

Sly sighed, and answered, "She doing it so that her family doesn't get hurt. There's someone after her, trying to steal the Thievius Raccoonus… you probably know that's one of the major reasons that the Cooper thieving line became famous. Along with that they want to take her life. She left thinking it was the best for everyone."

There was a long pause over the phone.

"Marsh?"

"Yes, I'm still here," the young fox replied quickly. "I… again, I'll do whatever I can. I'll do my best to keep you updated if any more information comes up about Alexa, okay?"

"Thanks again, Marsh. You stay out of trouble, alright?"

"Yes, sir," with that, the phone went dead.

Sly put the receiver down, and walked over to the still crying Carmelita. He took her into his arms and said, "At least we know she's alive and well. We'll find her… I promise."

"I hope you keep that promise, Ring-tail," she sniffled. "Otherwise, I'll turn my shock pistol on you."

Sly chuckle, "I'll take that in mind." He released her and looked into her eyes and said, "Listen. I have a plan. And for it to work you need to stay here."

"What!" Carm nearly screamed. "Our child is out playing thief and you expect me to stay here?"

"Carm, listen to me," he shook her shoulders to get his point across. "I know this will be hard on you. But believe me. While we're looking for her, you need to stay here just in case she comes back."

"We?" she questioned.

"Well, what do you think?" he smiled one of his glorious smiles, "To catch a thief, it's best to be one, as my past has showed."

Carmelita looked down, and said, "Sly…" she looked back up with a smile, "You better bring her back. And I hope you don't get caught. Chief wasn't exactly happy about you coming into the force in the first place. To hear you're being a thief again… Well, let's just say he won't be happy."

Sly chuckled, "With my team and luck, I think I'll survive." He got to his feet and helped his wife to hers. He turned to Bentley, "We better go before 'The Murray' get's impatient. You know how distressed he's been since he realized the van was taken into action again."

"Yes," Bent replied, grabbing his list from Carm's desk. He turned and opened the door, giving Sly enough room to walk out. Bentley then wheeled himself out behind the raccoon.

Carm sighed, and looked at her computer, and began to laugh at what was on the screen. "I guess… the old Cooper gang is about to meet the new one." On her screen was the Cooper Gang symbol.

And that's it. Now I know most of you are probably saying that you wanted to know what's going on with the newer Cooper Gang. Well, unfortunately, I need to finish writing the chapter… but with spring break just around the corner, I'll be able to finish up writing and hopefully get started on what I hope to be, all of your requests for characters to draw.

So for now know that things are going to get very interesting… MUHAHAHAH!

Sorry, I had too :D

Until the next chapter everybody,

Later