A/N Well, I hope you liked the last chapter I posted! This is the turning point of the story, and it's going to be mostly the fun, happy, Sly Cooper that we loved. Mostly.
Chapter 7- Idea
The Man sat in his London hotel room watching the news. Hundreds of deaths caused by exploding jumbo jets in France. Next. Beverly Hills home ripped open by explosions.
"Dear God," the man muttered. He picked up his phone to call Dimitri.
"Yes sir?" he answered rather carefully.
"How's our man in Interpol doing?"
"He's doing well, I suppose sir. I mean, I can't be completely sure but-"
"He's not doing his job! He's supposed to cover up our stories!"
"Well yes sir," Dimitri stammered, "but I'm afraid we have been raising hell! A whole lot of it! I mean, we really should be more careful!" The Man hung up. Punishment would come later.
The van rumbled sleekly through the small streets. They had come up in a small town and were now headed to a drive-in theatre, just another van in the crowd of mooching teenagers. Murray struggled into the back with the others. For a moment they all stared at each other.
Sly remembered stealing a priceless piece of art from the Museum of London once, the very same museum he had protected not too long ago! He started to laugh the most contagious laugh on Earth. The gang started laughing, Bentley nearly falling off his wheelchair. Murray patted Sly on the back while Bentley shook his hand. Penelope hugged him, all the while laughing.
"It's so great to see you, buddy!" Murray laughed.
"We've missed you, man!" Bentley practically cried.
"Yeah, Sly, we really have!" Penelope nodded.
"I've missed you guys so much!" Sly laughed.
After a full and rich five minutes of laughing they settled down.
"So, Sly, I see the Interpol business is going well," Bentley stated.
"Uhhh yeah actually, as far as pay goes. Wouldn't mind some more permanent lodgings but what you gonna do?"
"Hey Sly how's Ms. Fox!" Murray asked.
"Oh she's great," Sly chuckled.
"Well we've all missed you Sly," Bentley started carefully, "but we have important business to attend to."
"Shoot," he responded calmly. It was just like the good old days! It looked like Bentley was about to reveal his master plan. Sly could feel his fur bristle with excitement. The nostalgia was overwhelming!
"Now, to put things simply, Penelope and I are attempting to build a time machine. We have pretty much all the tools necessary except for the sonic power converter," he said, waving his hand at the large box.
"OK, but since the item's stolen, why do you need me?" Sly asked, confused. Bentley eyed Penelope nervously.
"Well, we don't need any thieving Sly. We're here to warn you. Some men, maybe a kind of Mafia have been following me from France."
"And me from Bogotá!" Murray piped up.
"They've obviously been trying to kill us," Penelope put in. "We've been lucky to escape so far."
"We have nothing on their group affiliations, name, nothing! We just know that they're aware of the time machine, and they're willing to do anything to get it!" Sly looked at him with a puzzled expression.
"I don't get it. Why would they kill you if you haven't even made the machine? They need you alive don't they?" Now it was Bentley's turn to be puzzled.
"Well, yes I suppose, but…" He looked weakly at Sly. Bentley truly had no clue as to what these men wanted.
"What if," Penelope began, a thought forming in her head, "they want us dead? They don't care much for the time machine at all!"
"But the guy in Bogotá asked me for the package," Murray said, grateful to be of some use in this conversation.
"What if they want both?" Sly inquired.
"That would be probable, but why?" Bentley asked.
"Oh, just about half the world wants us dead, Bent," Sly yawned, "We've stolen, thrown in jail, just generally beat up, and ruined a lot of people."
"Yes, but they wouldn't come after us! These men are world-wide Sly! They really look like some sort of Mafia," Penelope interjected. They all jumped up slightly when Bentley's laptop beeped. He took a quick look and chuckled.
"Speak of the devil, huh guys?" he said, showing them the laptop.
On it, in big bold letters it said,
WILD BUCK'S PARK OF DREAMS
COME JOIN THE WILD AND WACKY FUN!
"Well that's all very interesting," Sly almost laughed, "but what's it have to do with us?"
"Wild Buck is our one lead on our attackers," Bentley smiled. He typed something in and showed them a picture.
Wild Buck was a… well buck with long, strong antlers. He had a stone expression and a scar running from his temple to his cheek. He wore a Canadian Mounty's uniform, and a sword was sitting heavily in its sheath.
"How do we know he's our guy?" Murray asked, massaging his knuckles while he imagined ramming his fist into Buck's face.
"I made a big search over a wide net. Very hard to track down. I looked for henchmen of this sort. Henchmen for hire, suited baddies. As I said, this was a very wide search. This Wild Buck, his theme park went down the drain. There was some scandal about Buck having ties with the Mafia. Some nearby theme park's managers, all doing a lot better than him, suddenly died. Buck was seen with suited men from then on. Bankruptcy got his theme park, but no one wanted the property. He supposedly still lives there with all of his armed security. They look like the same guys that were following us around."
He started typing furiously into his laptop.
"Uhhh… Bentley?" Murray asked. Penelope shook her head.
"Once he's like this, he won't stop until he finds something out," she smiled.
"That's Bentley for you," Sly chuckled. Bentley continued the tapping.
He went through investments, employee charts, personal information and all other kinds of files before he got to funding.
"Eureka!" Bentley cried in joy.
"What you got?" Sly asked.
"His colleagues. They're a group of five. Wild Buck, Anna Condis, Master Shan, Hawkeye, and Fang. They're always shipping weapons to each other, funding each other's respective businesses, and are all in someone's payroll.
Sly smiled.
This was great! It was perfect! Just like the good old days. They would go to the people's domains, work their magic, beat the people up, and then on to the next one.
"So we got a plan?" he asked excitedly. Boy, these guys were no different than the Fiendish Five or the Klaww Gang! They would take them out easy and get rid of a giant world-wide organization while they were at it. Just another adventure.
Sly was so absorbed in his thoughts that he didn't catch Bentley's put-down. They looked at him strangely. He shook off his dazed smile.
"I'm sorry, what?" he asked, his mind in the conversation again.
"I said there won't be a 'we' in this Sly. I can't allow you to leave Ms. Fox now that you finally have her!" He looked at him seriously.
"What! You guys are my friends! I have to go with you!" he exclaimed. Murray looked uneasy.
"Well Sly, you do have a pretty good gig with Interpol," he said carefully, "a legal gig." Sly smiled disbelievingly.
"Guys, if I was scared of the consequences I wouldn't have gotten in this van and escaped!"
"We could use Sly's expertise," Penelope pointed out. Bentley shot her a look.
"Listen Sly, we'd obviously love to have you back but you're in too deep. I mean, look at you! Criminals shake in their boots when you arrive. They're more reluctant to commit crimes in the first place!" Sly put his hand on Bentley's shoulder and looked him in the eye.
"Bent, whoever these guys are, they need to be stopped." He said nothing else and sat back. Bentley shook his head and laughed.
"There's just no way I can argue with you, is there?" Sly smiled. "But how can you help us without destroying your Interpol relationship?" Sly frowned.
"What do you mean?" he inquired. Penelope sat up.
"Well, let's face it. As much as you want to help us, you want to keep Ms. Fox. Am I correct?" Sly nodded, a little guiltily. "So, there's got to be some way you can help us, without damaging your relationship." They sat there for a while.
"How about Sly says he has to go away on a house call?" Murray offered. They looked at him incredulously.
"Uhhh, Murray," Bentley said in a slight whisper, "it's a well-known fact that the Cooper Family is… well… non-existent."
"Its okay buddy, you don't have to whisper. No harm done," Sly said.
"How about this?" Penelope asked excitedly. "We kidnap Sly!"
A/N There it is, hope you liked it! More coming soon! REVIEW!!