Chapter 4- Cops and Robbers

Boom was victorious. Again. Boom was a robber famous for his pyrotechnics. But his specialty was, well, his name says it all. He had been born to explosives, grown up with them, worked with them, and loved them. He could make bombs out of scratch. Yet he didn't become a scientist, because with his bomb skills and imagination, he would be a great friend of the army's. There was something else he was good at, and that was robbing.

Boom loved robbing almost as much as he did blowing things up. He had planned this heist on the Museum of London for quite some time. There were lasers, fake cameras for intimidation, and guards. No biggy. Tonight he had pulled it off. Starting off by building a small bubble on the side of the museum. He then placed a C4 and detonated it. The bubble was soundproof, so no one from outside heard. He entered and shut off the alarms. He then placed a small ball on the floor and shimmied up an air vent. When the guards got there, the "small ball" would detonate, sending them all flying. Boom let some Soniks, which were bombs Boom had created that could blast sonic waves in every direction with tremendous power, into the control room. To do this, he had blasted a hole from the air vent. Then he had dropped about five Soniks and continued crawling along. Since the guards knew he was in the air vent, Boom placed some Peekers on the air vent. Peekers were another one of Boom's inventions. They were "petit seekers" hence the name Peekers. He sent them to seek out air vent entrance #34, which was on the other side of the museum. The guards started shooting up at the air vents when they heard "Boom" moving along them. Unfortunately for them, Boom was actually above the inner sanctum. When the lasers shut off because of some sonic problems in the control room, Boom blew a hole in the roof and jumped in.

So now, here he was, victorious. The inner sanctum was all shiny and pretty, even in the moonlight. The tall windows cast ghostly shadows into the room, making it all a sort of faded blue colour. The tall pillars gave it an eerie look. But in the middle of the room was what Boom had come for.

It was a diamond. An ugly, black lump of diamond. It was formed all lumpy, because it had to be handled with extreme care. If they chiselled and shaped it, there would be a risk of sparks that could set off the largest bomb in the world. This diamond was packed with more boom than five of his most specially designed nuclear bombs. And that reasonably meant that he had to relieve it from this museum. He very carefully took out his flame thrower and melted the metal frame of the bullet-proof glass. An alarm went off. No matter now. He would be out in less than a minute. He grabbed the diamond that was currently in a protective ball of some strange gel. He would get rid of that back at home.

"You going somewhere?" someone said from the shadows. Boom looked around just to see hazel eyes staring back from a dark corner. The eyes blinked. "Well? You gonna put it back?" he then stepped out of the shadows. Gray fur, black stripes, hazel eyes, it was none other than…

"Sly Cooper," Boom breathed. This guy was like a bounty hunter working for Interpol. Sly smiled.

"It's always good to know that low-life criminal scum like you know my name," he winked. "Nah, I'm just kidding. I used to be a criminal, too you know? I suggest a more silent approach next time." Boom didn't have time to register this. His underground sources had told him that Sly was a victim of amnesia. He couldn't wait to spread the news in ThiefNet.

Boom threw some Soniks at Sly. He jumped and swerved and twisted around them, just to land behind Boom. Boom heard a click and tried jumping a way but it was too late. Two electric blasts hit him, full in the back. Electricity coursed through him, and he fell. The click had come from Sly's electros, which he constantly kept under a lock, hence the click. Electro is slang for electric pistol, something that all high-ranking Interpol agents carried.

Sly's electros were shiny black, because they were constantly polished by him. At the hilt, there was a strange C kind of shape, like the top of a cane. He used these C's to whack people.

He himself wore black boots, black baggy pants, a black shirt, but over that, a big black trench coat. The coat had red cuffs, and a matching collar. He always kept the coat open. His mask was red, not unlike the TMNT, and from the knot, two long strands hung. He always liked his mask to be long, so that the strands hung very low, just above his waist. He wore a black cap that was exactly like the one in his criminal days, and liked wearing it low, sometimes completely covering his right eye.

When Sly got closer, two funnels popped out from Boom's sleeve, coming out from his pinky finger's side. The funnels spewed fire, which Sly dodged. Boom threw some flying Peekers after him. Sly ran away from them and tried dodging one after the other. They were all coming at him, so he jumped to make them all hit each other and explode. They hit each other all right. They just didn't detonate. Boom had designed them too greatly. Boom flew up with his jetpack. The jetpack came equipped with rocket launchers. The rocket launchers were slung above his shoulders. He fired off two of them. Sly barely dodged them. Boom then grabbed a disc, about the size of a Frisbee, and threw it. It joined the chase for Sly. The seeker was called a Frisblade. It suddenly made a chink! noise, the type you get when a samurai takes out his katana. Following this sound, fifty centimetre long blades came out around it. Sly tried shooting Boom but he pulled out a strange shield and blocked his shots.

Boom placed his fists on his waist, and laughed.

Sly was getting tired. Very tired. The chase for him was going good, the deadly bombs closing in on him. He finally decided that to get out of this, he would have to endure some pain.

Sly ran up a pillar and shot behind him. It took a couple of shots, but one of the Peekers finally blew, blowing up all of the other bombs. Sly was shot up to the roof.

Unfortunately, Sly had still been in range, so the bombs ended up slightly injuring his legs. They felt like Boom was torching them with his flamethrowers. Sly "dropped" one of his electros. It was falling, heading towards Boom's underside, but he was enjoying Sly's suffering too much to notice. The electro let out an electric burst. Boom was shocked at the sudden blast. He took out his strange laser-like shield. He swung it down to block… just to notice that the shot was closer than arm length. The shot hit his left flamethrower on the barrel, making the flames shoot out like a kind of slow motion bomb. The fire gulped him up in seconds. He flew around the room, screaming and cursing. Sly thudded to the ground.

"Ahhhh!!!" he shouted in pain. His legs were killing him.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!" This was from Boom, who currently looked like a torch. His rockets went off. The original flames that Boom had managed to make a small layer thanks to his fast flying, was instantly joined by the new explosions.

Sly crawled toward the diamond. Boom threw a bomb at the wall and flew toward the diamond himself. The bomb blew a hole in the wall, revealing the dark night. Sly knew he himself couldn't get the diamond, get up, and run out of there. It was time for a change of plans. He smiled to himself.

The devious cop made a move, making Boom push himself to his flying limits, making him an asteroid. But instead of Sly picking up the diamond, he pushed it. Boom didn't have time to stop. He smashed into a pillar, head-first. Boom broke it in half and smashed into the wall.

After that, Sly knew he wouldn't be getting up.

He shakily got to his feet. A big line of water came out of nowhere and showered Boom. The room was suddenly full of activity. The cops and detectives, the security and the janitors. But Sly only noticed one person. The love of his life had just arrived.

"Wow, Sly, you managed not to blow up the museum."

"You'll find I'm quite good at it," he said with a smile.

Captain Carmelita Fox always got him feeling like a child in love with an equally attracted girl. "Have you forgotten our policy about not incinerating the crooks?" she asked, hiding a grin futilely.

"I try, but it's hard when you're messing with…" he pointed at Boom, "that." He had been moved to a stretcher and was being rolled out of the room.

"He's lucky that we managed to get the hose attached to the plumbing system," she answered, smiling from ear to ear.

"You're kidding!"

"Nope!" Their playful moment was shattered when Bane Calligan entered the room. Bane was tall, yellow eyed, his voice was husky. He was a wolf with dark, rich grey fur. But what Sly hated most of him was that shiny Captain badge of his.

He towered over Sly, hands behind his back.

"Well, Cooper," he said darkly, "you managed not to cost us millions of dollars… barely." He then turned on his heel, and left.

"Why I ought to…" Sly began, walking forward. He limped and inhaled sharply.

"Let's go fix up your legs," Carmelita said, taking Sly away from his rival.