Alrighty guys, fun chapter now to balance out all the serious and drama! As always, thanks for your crazy amount of support. 37 reviews already? Holy ego-tripping, Batman. If my update schedule weren't set in stone, I'd bribe you with an early update if we get to fifty reviews within the week. Instead, though, I'll just plant the idea in your awesome little brains and see what happens.

On with the chapter!

"Aha! I found it!"

"Jinx! Give that back!"

"Never!"

Bentley sighed and put down the soldering iron he was using. Pushing up his welding mask, he watched Kaia come dashing into the lab, dodging past the half-dismantled wheelchair lift to dive behind his workstation, peering out as Sly flew in after her.

The turtle turned to look at the girl hiding behind his desk, "I was working, you know."

She grinned at him, completely unabashed, "Yeah, but you're always working. You need some excitement in your life."

"Actually, I could do without it, thanks."

"Bentley," Sly broke in, "She took my cane!"

"Ah," Sure enough, the artifact was clutched in Kaia's hands, "Yes, you'd better give that back."

"Awwww, but why? I mean, it's not like- OW! Since when did this part become a blade?"

"Since two days ago when Bentley decided it needed a little more bite to it." Sly said, impatiently tapping his foot on the floor, "Which is why I've been hiding it since."

"Did you ever think of just saying, 'Hey, Kaia, my cane is now sharp and pointy, you probably shouldn't touch the lethal side'?" The hybrid complained, shaking a white hand that now bore a wide red mark across the palm.

"Of course not, that's ridiculous. I'd never call you by your first name."

Bentley decided it was time to intervene when Kaia bared her teeth, "Alright, you two. Since you're obviously bored, I have a few errands for you to run."

"What sort of errands?" the hybrid asked suspiciously.

"Sly and I talked about this earlier, you need some gear. Gloves and boots and stuff." The thief nodded, "We'd order it from ThiefNet, but they cater to specifics and have absolutely nothing for hybrids."

"Awesome," Kaia said with a scowl. "Because I can be seen buying this stuff."

"It's not like we're going to buy it all in one place," Sly said, swiping his cane back, "Besides, you're going to need a variety of stuff, being auxiliary support."

"And field medic. You're going to need a kit." Bentley eyed Kaia's hand, "Though, you're getting plenty of practice using medical supplies. You should probably stop the bleeding before you head out. You remember where the first aid kit is?"

"Yup. It's not like I've forgotten since last night."

"How do you manage to injure yourself so much, Jinx?"

"Well, when some people fail to inform me of danger, it's a lot easier."

"How about some common sense?"

"How about you take your common sense and…"

Bentley shook his head as the two headed up the stairs and pulled his welding mask back down.

"Alright," Sly said as we got out of the car, "You need to go find some clothes that are light and easy to move in, but aren't loose. And try to get them in dark or neutral colors that'll blend in."

"Says the raccoon that robs museums in royal blue paraphernalia."

He gave me a mock glare, then pulled out a wallet and handed me a credit card. I gave him an incredulous look as I took it. "Don't get any ideas, that's just for stuff you need."

"Uh-huh, right." My name was on the card! How did he pull that one off?

"I'm going to go find some good gloves and boots. We'll meet at that café in an hour."

I gave him a thumbs up and we headed in separate directions.

If it would have been socially acceptable, I would have beaten my head against the wall repeatedly.

I never was much of a shopper. I was more of a 'go to Target, grab a few T-shirts, and order jeans that actually fit off the internet' type of person. The reason for this was mostly because of my weird proportions. Nothing that was an outfit fit me! Either the pants would fit me or the top would, there was no 'both, and'.

"What does this even mean?" I hissed to myself, staring at the tag on a pair of yoga pants. Let's just say the sizes in the States and the sizes in Europe did not correlate with one another.

I sighed and dropped my head into my hand. I could figure it out, but people were giving me weird looks. I knew I didn't belong in the fairly nice store, my Target T-shirt, cheap jeans, and tattered Vans were evidence of that. Not to mention racism against hybrids wasn't exactly unheard of. I just didn't want to have to flounder with people watching. Maybe I could order the clothes off of the internet anyway?

I slipped out of the store and made to head towards the café, but a heavy hand on my shoulder stopped me.

I reacted instinctively, twisting out of the hold and leaping back to put some distance between myself and whoever it was, landing with my feet braced and hands up.

Standing there, looking stunned, were a tall tiger and shorter Doberman. They were both wearing suits and would probably have looked severe if not for their surprised expressions.

The tiger recovered first, coughing awkwardly, then reaching inside his jacket, "It's alright, ma'am, we're agents of Interpol." He flashed his badge, "We just want to ask you a few questions."

The badge was legit. I bit the inside of my lip, hard, and shifted my weight into a less hostile pose. "What questions?"

They exchanged looks, and the Doberman spoke up, "What's your business in Paris, Ms. Jenks?"

I fought the urge to scowl and instead looked innocent, "Tourism, why?"

"We were not… notified you would be in the country."

This time I did scowl, "Notified? So far as I know, I'm not a person of interest, why would you be notified?" They exchanged glances. "Oh, so I am a person of interest. Awesome. In what, may I ask?"

The Doberman quickly hurried to do damage control, "You're not a person of interest, exactly, we've just been-"

"Assigned to keep an eye on me," I finished when he broke off, apparently wary of saying too much. "Listen, I know you all mean well, but I'm sure there's a much better use for your time. Just because my dad's a member of Interpol doesn't mean I take precedence. And I swear, if this is because you think I'm in league with the Cooper gang, I'm going to break something." They exchanged glances again, "Oh, so it is. Let me tell you something, I just want to forget all of that ever happened, that's why I'm here, alright? I want to go to the places I went with them and make good memories to overwrite the bad, savvy? Can I go now?"

"Uh… sure."

It was hilarious how off-balance those guys could get when someone else took control of the situation, especially a civilian. It was a tactic I'd learned when some of the agents at the FBI had started to try and 'talk to' (read: interrogate) me.

I hurried away from them as quickly as I could and still appear casual. I rounded a corner of shops and nearly ran smack into Sly.

"Whoa- where's the fire?"

I didn't answer, just seized him by the arm and dragged him into the nearest store. Ducking behind a shelf of glass figurines, I peeked out and saw that the two agents had indeed followed me.

"Who are they?" the thief hissed as they passed in front of the door.

"Interpol," I hissed back, "Dad must have found out I wasn't at home anymore. They can't really do anything to me because I'm eighteen, but they can tail me for a while on suspicion. We have to split up; it'd be way too convenient if they saw me hanging out with a raccoon. Sly? Sly, let go of my face, they are going to catch us if you don't get going."

But he didn't. He caught my eyes and held them. I'd only seen his expression like that once before, in Canada. Like he was trying to figure me out. I wanted to ask him what he was thinking, but we didn't have the time.

Just as I was about to point that out, he pulled back and pressed something into my hand. "Let us know every time you switch locations so we can keep track of you. We'll figure something out."

"Is this my old cell phone?!"

He pushed me in the direction of the door, "You go first. See you soon."

I took a few steps, then paused and turned, "You are really bipolar sometimes, you know that?"

He just smiled.

I was so bored.

I couldn't shop (I was worried about the credit card being tied back to the gang), I was hungry, I was thirsty, and it was getting hot outside.

And the two agents from before were still following me.

I sighed, shaking my head, and made my way toward the river. Last time I'd been anywhere near the place, I'd just crash landed and broken my arm, but in this case I was hoping only for the cool breeze that it boasted. I fired off an update text to the guys and went looking.

I found a tiny little garden on the edge of the river and leaned against the low stone wall that separated the two.

I propped my chin in my hands and blew some errant bangs out of my face. This was ridiculous. I didn't care if it wouldn't fit perfectly; I was going to order my stuff off of ThiefNet.

I heard the sound of soft footsteps on grass a few feet behind me and was mid-turn when I heard a half-familiar voice ask, "Enjoying the view?"

I stared. Like a freaking idiot. And then I shrieked in happiness and lunged, locking my arms around the neck of the obscenely tall vulpine in front of me.

"AHANU!"

He laughed and somehow managed not to be knocked backwards, making me feel as though I'd leapt into a concrete pillar. He dropped his voice to just above a whisper to say, "We heard you could use a little back up."

"'We'?" Then I caught sight of the scrap of black behind the fox I'd latched onto, "Ritsuka!"

"Ahanu, please make her stop touching me."

"Eeeee, you learned to speak English!" My death grip on the cat tightened. There may have been nuzzling.

"Seriously, I think she's rabid."

"You know, you are very rude, Ritsuka."

Ahanu laughed, "Alright, you two, play nice. Though, I must apologize, Kaia. I had him first," He bent down, grabbed the freakishly thin cat's belt, and tossed him lightly over his shoulder, "And I don't share."

"HEY! Come on, that's not fair!" I said, chasing Ahanu as he started to stride down the street, past the two Interpol agents, each of whom looked like they'd just been tazed, "SHARING IS CARING!"

"Put me down, you ginger!" Ritsuka shrieked in embarrassment, ears a fluorescent red, and pounded on a supremely unaffected Ahanu's back.

Seeing this wasn't working, the cat switched to Czech for all of ten seconds before Ahanu winced and shrugged him off of his shoulder, not putting him down, but holding him so he could look him in the eye instead, "Now, that's just foul."

The nurse responded by kicking him solidly in the ribs.

Once Ahanu had caught his breath, the three of us headed off to get some lunch (finally).

The fact that they'd been called in by Bentley (more likely than not), was not mentioned other than the fox's initial statement, just in case the agents who were still following us managed to listen in. Which was fine, because we had a blast and I figured that Sly would show up once my tails disappeared and not a second sooner.

After lunch, I was dragged into several stores at high speeds by Ahanu who looked me over once and started pulling stuff off the racks and shelves.

"He likes to buy stuff," Ritsuka explained, flipping through a magazine he'd pulled from some unseen dimension. The subject of our discussion was having a conversation with a saleswoman that I couldn't make out, but, from the intensity of their expressions, I figured they'd soon either resort to blows or run away together, "Don't ask me where he gets all his money from because I do not know."

It did not escape me that all the stuff Ahanu was grabbing was what Sly had told me to get for myself. Unfortunately, I was not able to sneak away before he grabbed me by the back of my shirt, dragged me to a dressing room, locked me in, and started throwing stuff over the door.

This went on until we found an outfit that, to quote Ritsuka 'made me look like I was going to steal something'. We bought that outfit and four more in varying colors, 'for any situation' according to Ahanu.

Unfortunately, we weren't done.

After picking up shoes, boots, and gloves, I actually latched onto a traffic pole and refused to do anymore shopping. Ritsuka tried to convince Ahanu to leave me there, but the fox was more stubborn than either of us had previously believed.

Eventually, we reached the compromise of just getting dinner and going back to the hotel where the two of them were staying to relax for a little while and attempt to talk Ahanu out of doing more shopping later that night.

"Why are you two even in France anyway?" I asked as we sat cross-legged on the floor of their hotel room and fought over the variety of sandwiches and chips that we'd bought.

"Ritsuka lost his job at the hospital in the aftermath of your escape," Ahanu explained, "Interpol didn't think he was important when they saw him on the cameras, but the security guards recognized him and told the hospital authorities. So, since I was getting bored of Prague anyway, I decided to take up a job offer in Scandinavia and dragged him along against his will. We're doing a lap of Europe first, though."

I winced and turned to Ritsuka, "Sorry."

He had a mouthful of a tuna sandwich, so he just said "Worth it," and continued to eat.

I was about to say something else when I was interrupted by Ahanu standing up suddenly after looking at his phone and taking three long strides over to the window. He slid it open, reached through the frame, grabbed something, and pulled.

I choked on my drink when Sly climbed through the window with the fox's help. Ritsuka thumped me on the back, wearing a sadistic little grin.

"Good to see you guys again," Sly said, briefly tightening his grip on Ahanu's wrist.

"You too," The translator said, before adding, "And tell Bentley that it's creepy that he knew we were in town."

Giving a shameless grin, the thief shrugged off the backpack he had on, saying, "Hey, Bentley likes to keep tabs on everyone. Oh, and he also says congratulations."

Ahanu grinned like a madman which prompted Ritsuka to throw a juice bottle at the back of his head.

"Am I missing something?"

"Yes, Jinx. Yes you are." Sly threw the backpack at me. I caught it and raised an eyebrow at him before unzipping it and peering inside.

I groaned, "You have got to be kidding me."

"Ah, but I'm not."

"I'm not going to put this on."

"Hey, it's your fault for being an albino."

"I am not an albino! Why does everyone say that? Do my eyes look red to you?"

"You do realize how stupid a question that is when I know for a fact that you didn't sleep last night, right? Okay, okay," He amended when I lifted the pack above my head and prepared to chuck it at him, "We can stand here and argue about this all night or I can show you The Safehouse."

"But… I've already seen The Safehouse."

"No, you saw the house-house. The Safehouse is located somewhere else entirely."

"… You led me to believe it was The Safehouse on purpose."

"Bentley's idea. He's gotten devious recently."

"As entertaining as this is," Ahanu broke in, "Having an internationally wanted criminal and a person of interest discovered in our hotel room would put a serious damper on this vacation."

"Right. Jinx, go change."

I looked back and forth between Sly and the bag several times, "… fine. But you owe me a new computer! I had to leave mine at home."

"Yes, fine, whatever, now get!"

"I've always hated this stuff," I grimaced, emerging from the bathroom with a newly blackened coat of fur, "It's just creepy to look so different in the mirror."

"You complain, but it's going to keep the Interpol agents outside from recognizing you."

"…" I took a long, hard look at Sly and blinked slowly. "When did you change? I wasn't in the bathroom that long."

I'd seen Sly in disguise before. Several times. But the person standing in front of me was on a whole other level.

He looked like a European university student. And I mean the stereotype; complete with sweater vest, slacks, and those rectangular wire-rimmed glasses that some girls apparently go nuts for. The hair I'd seen spiked into a punk look just a few days ago was now combed into one of those completely average cuts that no one can really remember.

And somehow, all I could think to say to his smug grin was, "How come you don't have to change colors?"

"Because I want those two agents to realize how hard they failed when they review the security footage." He produced a file from seemingly thin air and handed it to me. It contained information on 'The Doberman' and 'The Tiger', as I'd personally taken to calling them in my head. He gave me the synopsis as I skimmed it. "They just recently partnered up and, until now, have been going after fairly low-level guys. They've never really faced someone of the caliber of our gang yet. They have no idea what they're in for."

Ignoring the butterflies I got when he said 'our gang', I returned the file to him, ignoring Ahanu's "Isn't it illegal to have that?" in favor of asking, "Now what? I'm not rappelling out the window. And what's with this outfit?" It wasn't that I didn't like it; it was just that it was something I wouldn't normally wear. Low-riding jeans, a white tank-top with a black vest over it, some kind of sandals with way too many straps, and a strange hat made of denim that looked suspiciously like some kind of organ were a far cry from my usual, jeans, T-shirt, and worn-out sneakers combo.

Sly's grin never wavered as he quickly packed the clothes from my shopping spree into the backpack, swung it up on one shoulder, and grabbed my hand. "We're going out the front door."

"If I'm ever on good terms with law enforcement again, I'm telling them to fire those two." I climbed out of the car, the soles of my sandals echoing loudly through the otherwise completely empty parking garage.

"Eh, they're just rookies. They'll be given desk work for a few weeks, this sent back into the world to try again." Sly answered, leading the way to the only visible door and opening it.

"Yeah, I know. They must really be hurting for help if they didn't have enough senior officers to keep an eye on them- … whoa."

What looked like a very normal, if small, office building on the outside was anything but on the inside. It was very open, allowing me to see into several different rooms from the landing on which Sly and I stood. The rooms I saw were a mix of living areas and what looked like a physical therapy room for Bentley. The whole place certainly felt a lot more lived in than the actual house did.

"Sounds like you like it." Bentley observed in amusement, wheeling in from what looked like a game room.

"It's awesome!" I said, trying to get a better look at the kitchen.

"Good." He pointed up one flight of stairs from where I stood on the landing, "Your room is up there."

"I get my own room?!"

Sly could not resist the urge to laugh as Kaia took the stairs two at a time and disappeared into the door at the top.

She'd hardly been in the room five seconds before a high pitched squeal could be heard.

"I bet it's the computer." Bentley ventured.

"I bet it's the paint job." Sly countered.

"How many gigs of RAM does this thing have?"

Bentley smirked while Sly pouted and called up, "More than enough. Get back down here; we have a briefing to start."

She poked her head out, her eyes nearly luminescent against the newly-black fur. "We have a job to pull?"

"Something like that," Bentley conceded vaguely.

"Awesome!" She started to pad down and scowled as Sly vaulted over the railing, landing on the floor below, "Show off."

"Hey, if you think that's showing off, we need to get you in the Hazard Room and do some serious training."

"… Hazard Room?"

"You two can flirt later," Bentley cut them off, wheeling into the next room and ignoring Kaia when she stuck her tongue out at his back, "I need to get you up to speed."

Hope you enjoyed! Check out the blog for more fanart and character bios, the link is on my profile page. Hope to hear from you!