Sly's POV

Born Penniless the Panda King was fascinated by the many fireworks the rich nobleman set off every New Year's. He spent a decade learning the art, but when he offered his fireworks to the nobleman they couldn't see past his shabby clothes and turned him away.

Humiliated the Panda King used his fireworks as an act of revenge to those who shunned him; he was recruited by the fiendish five as a demolitions expert and from then on became feared worldwide, he's last to be located high up in the unstable Kunlun Mountains where he's supposed to be perfecting some new firework technique.

Arriving in China the snow was covering the ground making it more difficult to move in the deep snow. Especially with giant snow covered monkeys rolling at me.

The Panda King has a lot of guards in this place. After getting past icicles, climbing through snow and scaling mountains, I approached Panda Kings hideout.

I saw in the distance a Panda statue and a firework was shooting from that direction I took a closer look on my binocucom.

"Would you look at that a firework show!" Bentley said.

As I took a closer look we could see a destroyed village.

"Oh my gosh, that's awful! That poor village just got buried alive in freezing snow." Bentley said.

"The rocket came from that giant statue, and you can bet the Panda King lit the fuse. I've got to find my way up there fast before that lunatic squashes another town." I replied.

I hurried to get to the Panda Kings hideout, once I was inside the stronghold, I scanned the area; it was pretty fancy for a mountain lair. The temples were nice to look at but trying to get through them was a bit more difficult, like I said a lot of guards.

Our first objective was to collect enough keys so we could set off some fireworks and break into the second part of the Panda Kings hideout.

Murray was back on the field but needed protection from Panda Kings guards and after a rush of guards by one of the temples Murray managed to retrieve a key.

I was making my way through temples and towers, the security was tight in this place, and there was barely a room without either a guard or lasers. Plus my feet were starting to go numb from the cold.

After collecting the keys we managed to break into the second part of the Panda kings lair and closer to the statue.

"I've calculated the trajectory of these rockets and… I'm 99% sure you'll be able to use the fireworks to ride all the way to the top of that statue before they explode." Bentley said as I looked towards the group of locked fireworks nearby.

"What about that other one percent?" I asked.

"Well in that case, Sly, you'll be blown to bits - but the experience will no doubt be spectacular."

"Nice."

"Now we need more keys to unlock those fireworks"

"Right, I'll steal 'em in no time."

Although getting the keys wouldn't be too easy I ran into Inspector Fox on the way.

"Freeze Raccoon." Carmelita said.

"How can I freeze when my heart warms at the sight of you" I replied.

"Shut it Cooper, I don't know what you're doing here in China, but I'm sure it can't be good for whoever runs this place."

"You must only have eyes for me if you're too blind to see what's really going on around here." I replied.

"All I see if a pathetic thief who's escaped justice for far too long."

"I'm proud to be a thief, especially when I'm stealing from a vicious extortionist like the Panda King. Open your eyes Detective; these quaint temples are a front for an explosives factory." I reasoned.

"Don't try to confuse the issue, you criminals are all the same and none of you can escape justice." Carmelita replied.

Carmelita once again firing at me in an attempt to put me in jail, however once again after jumping on platform avoiding shards of glass and not slipping on snow I escaped once again.

I also had to plough through more corridors defeating the Pana kings guards in order to collect keys and Murray managed to get tangled in a race again, which of course he won.

We had most of the keys already we were just waiting for Murray to win the race.

Looking out on the snow reminded me of the winters back in Paris, and a certain someone who I tried to keep repressed. Winter always made me slightly sad as both our break ups were in winter, the second probably worse than the first.

The first was bad and that was face to face.

I was standing at her door, the lights were still on and it wasn't too late at night. But I couldn't bring myself to knock.

Out of nowhere her grandmother opened the door.

"I didn't even knock yet." I said.

"Were you ever going to" She replied.

"Yes…eventually."

"Well you better tell her now, before it's too late, I don't think this is something she wants to find out from her grandma."

"What…how did ya…huh?" I asked confused.

"Parents always do. Let's just hope your intentions are good in her eyes." She said and walked away.

I followed behind, shut the door, and walked upstairs to Lola's room.

Her door was open and she was sitting on her bed watching TV.

She looked so peaceful and I was about to ruin it.

I still knocked to get her attention before walking in, she looked up at me.

"Hey, I haven't seen you in a while." She smiled.

"Yeah I've just been busy, umm… I have to tell you something and you're not gonna like it." I said trying to prepare her.

"Why what's wrong?" she asked.

"I have to go away for a while and I don't know when I'm gonna be back and I don't think it's fair that we stay together as it's not fair that you have to wait for me. I know that this is last minute but I didn't want to mention it earlier and we sit waiting for it." I said as her eyes started to water.

"Oh, well where are you going?" She asked.

I could tell she was trying to keep the conversation going and she was trying to help give her more closure.

"Just a few places, but they're quite isolated like mountains and small villages, I just want to take this opportunity to travel, the orphanage said its fine and I would rather go now than later." I said.

"You mean rather than later with me?" She asked looking hurt.

"No I still want to go with you but when we go I want us to be in more interesting laces than just climbing mountains and living in huts or tents, you know when we go we can visit places like America, Japan, Australia, India you know more scenic places."

"I see."

"Look, I want us to be together and if I was only going for a couple weeks than I wouldn't say anything like this, but I don't know how long it will be. I still love you and I don't want to do this really I don't but I don't want you waiting for me. Besides when I get back you'll be the first to know." I said.

"Fine." She said her voice breaking.

I felt terrible I've never had to do this before and I feel her breaking and I have to leave her like this and she has to fix herself on her own.

I pulled her into a hug and she burst into tears. My heart broke.

I stayed the night with her and tried to get her to sleep, I didn't intend to stay the whole night it would be more difficult in the morning. We just laid there cuddling; I said I loved her which she whispered back. I waited for her to start to fall asleep and told her I was gonna go.

I sighed as I reached the bottom of the stairs, her grandmother was sat on the chair, and she turned to me.

"How'd it go?" she asked.

"Terrible, but it had to be done; I just didn't want to do it." I said.

"I understand. Your young this is what young people do, this happens and your gonna have to do this more than once." She said.

"Thank you." I said as I left.

Even though I thought that was bad the second was much worse.

I was up all night. I was leaving again, but I had to retrieve my family's book, we had finally formulated a solid plan and I needed to act now.

But it meant leaving her behind again, but I couldn't bring her, if something happened her grandmother would kill me, that is if this trip didn't kill me first.

I couldn't do what I did last time and I didn't have a lot of time we had to set out immediately. So here I am now tired and sleepless at 2.00am surrounded by balled up pieces of paper.

I figured I'd write a letter to her explaining myself before I just disappeared. I'm a jerk, I just keep breaking promises and with me gone maybe she could find someone else, although that thought mad me unbelievably angry.

Eventually I finished, the others were finished packing and Murray called me to get in the van.

We need to pull off this operation tonight and we had to stick to schedule.

I got Murray to stop outside her house, the lights were off and everyone asleep, I snuck into her window by climbing the pipe near the side of the house.

The window was open so quietly I snuck in, I placed the letter and calling card on her window sill and left the window with a gap and started to climb the pipe, however I made a loud noise during this and she woke.

Noticing the breeze she went to the window. Murray had moved the van from outside her house and I could see them looking at me beckoning me to come, but I was frozen I had to watch her read the letter. Once again she cried.

Once she started to cry I had to leave it was too hard to watch, I started to move and climbed on top of the van to reach the rooftops.

Murray started to drive and I was taking a higher route, I had to get to Police HQ and I had to try and keep all my emotions down it would jeopardise the mission.

I broke out of my thoughts; I had to stop thinking like that it won't help anyone.

Besides right now I had to stop the Panda King and that was my focus.

Murray had won't the race and we had all the keys.

I set off the firework and hooked on; luckily for me I made it into to the statue.

There in the middle of the ring stood the Panda King.

"I see you carry cane of notorious Cooper thief Clan, have you come here for revenge to steal you back the Thievius Raccoonus?" Panda King asked.

"That was my plan at first, but now I'm more interested in putting an end to your avalanche extortion racket." I replied.

"Why should you care if I bury a few worthless villages in snow? You are a thief, just like me."

"No that's only half right, I am a thief from a long line of master thieves, while you your only a frustrated firework artist turned homicidal pyromaniac."

"Insolent child you shall pay dearly for your disrespect. Still to honour your Cooper ancestry I will send you to your doom with the beauty of my new firework technique Flame Fu." He said and began throwing fire at me as I tried to get close.

I made my way closer either dodging his flames or hiding behind statues. Once I was close his attacks became more difficult to dodge but I managed to get in a few good shots before he pushed me away.

It was tiring having to run in circles until I was close but after battling one on one a couple more times I was able to break him.

I got a message from Bentley after the fight about the location of our next target.

"Sly I did a cross analysis of the metal used in that high tech blasting vehicle and it turns out it can only be found in one place. The Krack– Karov Volcano in Russia. That's got to be where we'll find the fifth member of the Fiendish Five, so get what you came for and let's get going." Bentley said as I collected the pages and got back to the van.

The Panda kings section of the Thievius Raccoonus gave me a chance to learn about my technically minded ancestor Otto Van Cooper, he relied on vehicles due to his inferior physical abilities.

Using his designs we managed to give the van some upgrades.