Chapter 4

Operation: Snake Eyes

United States; Miles from Mesa City

Carmelita's cop car was speeding down the desert highway at a leisurely pace as I had my feet up on the passenger side's dash, taking a little R&R. I let out a relaxed sigh, "It's so good to be back in my homeland." Carmelita rolled her eyes at me. "I really have no idea how Americans like you can live on a continent with such bipolar weather and climates. Just hours ago we were in a rural, grassy area…and it was raining! Now we're in a dry, sand patched wasteland."

"America." I smiled, chuckling some.

We soon arrived at what seemed to be some kind of wooden fence in the crevice of two mountainsides. This was obviously the entrance into the now abandoned Mesa City. "Ok, somehow we need to find a way to-" Before I even finished my sentence, Carmelita floored the gas pedal as we crashed right through the wooden barricade. I think my heart stopped for a minute before it was jumpstarted again from the pain of my face being hit by the air bag. "What the hell was that all about Carmelita?!"

"Hey, we're in right? Come on and stop being such a baby Asmadus." She got out of the car as it seemed this too was where the road ended. Instead of a wooden fence barricading our way, it seems as though someone took a TNT to one of the rocky areas and blew the boulders down to block the path. That's pretty smart for a steroid canine. "Hey Asmadus, you coming?" Carmelita was already at the top of the rock pile blocking the way. I quickly went on after to catch up.

After some time of walking through sand filled roads, a couple abandoned trains, and caves, we soon found ourselves on a mountain pass overlooking Mesa City. "Doesn't seem like there's any kind of searchlight or something for the streets." Carmelita analyzed.

"No kidding. That would indicate that the Mutt actually has a brain. Look." I pointed out to what seemed to be street patrols…armed with tommy guns. "Maybe I judged the guy too soon." I sweated.

"Don't sweat it Dylan. If it's goons, we can take care of them. As long as we stick together, we can-" Carmelita soon broke off from what she was saying as I looked towards what she was looking at. On one of the rooftops, a shadow of someone holding some kind of strange cane can be seen. "COOPER!" Carmelita screamed before she jumped on out ahead of me. "Eh! Hey wait! Whatever happened to sticking together?!" Too late. Carmelita was already off in her cop mode. The least I could do was chase after.

I had to admit, Carmelita was fast. I lost her after trying to give chase for five minutes. I found myself in some weird alleyway, looking around the area for any signs of the Inspector or her little criminal. But soon, a giant shadow could be seen around the corner ahead of me. Taking shelter in one of the dark alleyways, I looked on from the shadows. Coming around was a giant of a panda who was wearing red pants that had a blue flame pattern. I know this guy. It's the Panda King, demolitions expert of the Fiendish Five. But what was he doing here?...

The Panda King stopped as it seemed like he sniffed the air. "Come on out assailant. I can smell the coffee from your breathe." Damn, I should've known drinking Da Vinci's before the investigation was a bad idea. I couldn't hide anymore. I walked on out presenting myself, holding my hands up. "Alright, alright, you got me." I smirked. The Panda King looked down at me with a menacing glare. "Dylan Asmadus. I thought you were in solitary confinement?"

"Hey, what can I say? No holds can keep "The Leech of the World" under maintenance."

"Hmph…maybe I should test that." Through a quick second, the Panda King chopped down at me with his hand, "Homing Chop!" I jumped back as his hand cracked the ground where I was originally standing. It's no use. There is no way I can beat this guy physically. So… "Run Away!" I ran out into the alleyways, knowing that his physique couldn't get through. Boy was I wrong. With two chops to the parallel buildings, the buildings began to topple down at me. What kind of training did this guy have to do to pull that off?! I ran as fast as I could, jumping over crumbles of buildings when they fell in front of me. However, it didn't look like I would be able to make it since already the exit was starting to close off. Thinking quickly, I pulled out one of my gadgets. My grappling hook shot off through the opening and latched on to one of the opposite street's light posts as I was quickly pulled through. Not a moment too soon as the last boulder fell right behind me, closing up the alleyway as the building crumbled down. I dropped down to my knees, panting heavily as my life flashed right before my eyes.

Regaining my balance, I looked up to see a building that had a giant fire hydrant model on the very top of it. This was the center of Mesa City. Muggshot has got to be somewhere here. Walking over to the building, I was shocked to see that at the main entrance, a red mustang was crashed right through the front. I entered into the lobby to see many of the Mafia dogs knocked out, similar to what I saw from Raleigh's men back at the Bermuda Triangle. Finally, I arrived at the top of the lobby stairs to see an elevator to take me straight up to the penthouse. Muggshot was definitely here as it seems like this mess was caused by the Cooper boy. "Going up." I spoke, pressing the Penthouse button. It seemed as if this elevator went on forever, but as the elevator binged, its doors opened up to a giant room with crystals all over the place and Muggshot, beaten up, on the floor. Looking past, his chair at the very head of the room had an opened up safe next to it with…yep, another one of Sly's cards. "Damn."

At that moment, Muggshot started to get up, spotting me with his now regained balance. "'Ey! I know you! You're that info runt that Raleigh always visited!"

"Nice to see that peanut brain of yours still has functioning Long Term Memory after the beating I suggest Cooper gave you."

"Shut it! I went easy on that guy and ended up dropping my guard to which he got a lucky hit in. A mistake I won't make with you." Muggshot raised his massive arms up, getting ready to crush me. As if on cue, a massive electric shot fried Muggshot up. He fell over with wide eyes and a drooped out tongue when Carmelita entered in behind me with a fiery look on her. "Curses! He got away again!" I didn't know what I wanted more, to be smashed by Muggshot or have to face the wrath of Inspector Carmelita Montoya Fox…