The clock chimed late into the hour of the third day. Bentley's holo-screen lit the room.
A series of images turned one upon the other in a roulette of criminal activity. Sly and Murray had called on their experience on the open water to remove the toxin from the river. The turtle continued operations on Grimjaw's precious water wheels hacking into their systems. Shots of all their jobs appeared scattered on the rendered map of the complex, green checks by their corners. Updated from Sly's reconnaissance, they told the tale of a villain's stronghold on its last knees.
Tonight was the night.
"Alright, we've set up the pieces. Now its time to bring them all together and wash this money-grubbing sneak out. Gentleman, be ready for Operation: Hot Water!" Bentley proclaimed.
"Where does he come up with these names?" Murray asked to the raccoon.
"Hint, check his spy movie collection."
Bentley cleared his throat. "Experience doesn't give you leeway for lack of focus. Now, Murray will start things off by heading down into the pipe room to access the valves. You'll need your muscle to divert the flow of water throughout all of Grimjaw's stores."
"You came to the right muscle-man for muscle, chum!"
"I appreciate your enthusiasm as always, Murray, but time will be of the essence here. You'll need to wait for my signal. I've set a remote access point so I can control the water wheels from the Safe House. I'll hack into the pressure and temperature controls so we'll be able to set up a chain reaction and flood Grimjaw's business into the muck!"
"Your plans always end with us wrecking stuff, Bentley! I love it!"
Bentley nodded pulling up the final screenshot on his tab. "Sly, that will be your cue. This diversion should scatter security long enough for you to make the run to Grimjaw's HQ. By then Murray should have made his way over with the van. Load the last of Grimjaw's cargo and his profits in, and we're out of here."
The raccoon took the stage tapping his cane. "Uh, and what will-"
"Before you ask, our new 'teammate," Bentley drawled with a glob of sarcasm, "will be right here. Where I can keep him in my sights."
"Like he's been since we got here?"
"We are not arguing about this now, Sly! We have an operation to pull, and I'm not about to let it short-circuit thanks to some rebel raven running off in total insubordination."
Blake was back in his seat in the corner. For all the world, he looked relaxed reclining in his chair, but a tapping foot said otherwise. When he'd come back from his self-appointed mission, Bentley looked ready to strangle him with chains to keep him put. At least the kid had the sense not to caw back and return to his place. He puffed air out of his beak. "Even a good song gets annoying on repeat, you know."
Save for now.
This time the grin was off. They'd been having this discussion for three days straight. "Those kids he rescued didn't seem to mind. Guess a little insubordination was what they needed."
"I'm rather glad you brought that up," Bentley was furiously typing on his pad. The screen showed the grizzly aftermath of that night, unmoving bodies in deep red puddles. "Because I'd like to hear your opinion of your protégé's tactics in this particular situation."
Blake winced in the background. "What's that-"
"They're dead, Sly. Not comatose, not concussed, dead." There was no tone, no smug anger, just finality in the turtle's call. "What is Interpol going to say when they see this? We're already begged as thieves, we don't need to be seen as murderers on top of that."
"That's-"
"Sly, this is exactly what I was concerned about from the start. We can't afford this kind of trouble bringing in someone new."
"Look, I hear what you're saying Bentley, but I promised the kid. He helps us out and I get him and his kids across the border. I can't just back out of that now."
The next moment was a rare one. Sly had his cap off and Bentley removed his glasses. Key components to their characters removed and doors were flung open. Bentley just let out a tired sigh squinting over his glasses in his lap. "Is this how it's going to keep going? Are you going to keep sticking up for this kid as more and more happens?"
"I said I'd give him a chance."
Sly was casting a shining halo on someone who clearly was nit fit to wear it. Throwing him a bone was a better term for the scenario. But Blake was still on the side, arm slung over his chair, looking away at a spare board on the wall. One minute he let his eyes stay, the next he shut them entirely while chiming in.
"Call it stir-crazed street justice, my usual flavor. I wasn't trying to contribute to your whole Double-O-Nuts dynamic, I just did what I felt was necessary." Blake propped his feet on the shelf knocking items off in the process. "Whatever makes your mastermind friend there feel like he's been smart enough for the day to sleep at night."
In any other case, Sly would have enjoyed a good mouth off from the kid. But he was not helping his position right now.
The thief had hoped to avoid the subject of his new teammate walking with a gaggle of children in blood-stained hand. When Blake had come back Sly had wanted a few choice words with the kid himself. Blake, however, only gave the same look he gave now, a smile carved out of a glacier and sending a blizzard through the room keeping it just as cold. The worst of his enemies tried to send that look and Sly would only mock them further. Why did it work coming from a kid?
Who was Blake behind that icy mask anyway? Was he just a sharp-witted punk with authority issues? Every teen in the world had issues – Sly could remember how he was at that age, giving Happy Camper Orphanage the chance to earn its title. Blake's had to run deeper than that.
Bentley cut off his inspection opening the door. "No more time to waste. Let's get things started. Murray?"
The hippo followed along with a nonchalant whistle on his lips. Sly stood at the door watching them fixing his cap back in place. A knock of metal on metal lured him to Blake standing back at the van.
"If you're so insistent on me pulling my weight, I'll help load stuff on," he joked. "Your friend can't possibly complain about that but I guess we'll see."
Sly smirked back. It was the best he could do for now.
Sly smiled with eyes shut hearing the old van's tires screeching. Their trusty getaway car swerved along tight corners, even running a guard or two over. Murray would never forsake the thrill of driving like a madman.
He stood on point as the van reached the gates of Grimjaw's compound. His hippo friend had already set the pipes and moved the water flow as Bentley instructed. Through his Binocucom, the turtle came into focus camouflaged behind the shrubs. His gravelly voice counted to the climax.
"Three… two… one… bath time!"
In a symphony of watery chaos, geysers bust from every roof. They came by twos, crashing through cloth and tile, flooding the streets and sending guards in circles. Heat rose and sweat poured turning the air moist, a breath from the master thief dampening his fur through his wet turtleneck. The fountains rose and fell, casting the area into a bog of steam as thick as the surrounding trees. Sly donned his goggles and somersaulted into the fray.
"Everybody better hold it in for this one," quipped the raccoon on the com.
"Doh! Why'd you have to say that!?" Murray's voice was hilariously strained.
Dashing past the guards, Sly leaped atop the roof of the van. He tapped the hull of the roof and led it like a chariot into battle. It crashed through the gates and the raccoon landed with grace. A classic Sly/Murray combination.
Grimjaw's compound had a courtyard that looked outright robbed from some royal villa. At least, it used to. There might have been something regal in the gardens filled with exotic plants or the cobblestones that glimmered like true gemstones. The golden statures of Grimjaw in some kingly pose, glimmering with sharp gleams in the moonlight and casting condescending shadows might have passed for majestic. But now, with those statues broken and spurting, the gardens wilted and everyone foot-deep in water, not so much.
Disoriented, the guards must have managed to spot them in between the spots. They came clear with their shotguns raised, some bullets already flying. Sly dodged one inches away. A resounding ram from the Cooper Van cut off any more.
"Path is clear!" Murray yelled from the wheel.
"Is it always like this?" Blake quipped.
"More or less!"
Sly yelled back sprinting through the doors. He dashed through the hallways with blurs of gold and gem-like sheens at his sides. Up flights of stairs, he slammed through one final door. The room before him was littered with coins, gems, and treasures, the perfect kind of mess. It was about to get a lot cleaner, though.
He threw the windows open, catching Murray waving from below. The tip of his cane hooked onto a sack of coins. "Get ready for the payload!"
Bags came down, landing in Murray's waiting arms. From there they went to Blake, hanging in the van's back. At least the kid was making efforts to be a team player tossing them to the back.
The rush of air came from behind. He flicked his cane's tip to guard, the hook blocking the dart that rolled to the floor.
"Ah, the deft hand of a Cooper. Such skill can never be purchased."
Like the unveil of a tapestry, the billionaire gharial stepped from the shadows. Dressed in a spotless robe of red velvet, he gripped a cane of his own with golden rings on each finger. The tip of his cane was open revealing a pronged launcher where the dart had no doubt been shot. He brushed and folded the shaft over slowly, almost caressing the polished steel. He gave a sigh. "Perhaps I should have noticed that hand at the first sign of disruptions. Whenever misfortune falls upon hard-working businessmen, you always seem to be involved."
"You make me sound like a bully." Sly shrugged. "I only pick on the ones who dabble in shady deals and don't play nice with others."
"I don't need to tell you the world of business is rather cutthroat."
"So you decided to take that to a whole new level. Just goes to show the line between hard work and honesty."
"Remove those rose-colored glasses, rube!" Grimjaw's calm façade broke with a small show of teeth. "What is honesty and hard work when a single stroke of misfortune can end it all? Virtue never once played a part in our obtaining wealth. Such is reality for those who seek to gain power, fortune, and rise above others to stand at the pinnacle!"
"Guess this is just history repeating itself, then. What's the point of wealth when innocent people suffer?"
"We of the Adams lineage have been acquainted with the black market for eons, since the beginning of its inception. The destiny of an Adams is to stand at the summit, even should we climb a staircase of bodies along the way. After all, it's either that or fall into the depths of debt. And yet, our lineage faced a different misfortune."
"Misfortune for you had to be pretty good for everyone else."
Grimjaw gripped his cane. "You think so? Blood was spilt, endlessly. Heads of security, executives, company CEOs, one by one their heads rolled. Every other board meeting was an invitation to their doom."
That stopped Sly cold. "They were killed?"
"But I will not fall, I will bring the Adams name back to its rightful glory. And this time I will not be stopped!"
It was a classic villain monologue, though it drew Sly in, unexpectedly. The shadow of death or just the hidden angle that he could tell Grimjaw was leaving out. Breathing, he spun his cane. "Alright, let's just skip to the part where you give the death threat or possibly the alternative to said death threat."
"As it so happens, I do have an alternative for you."
"Of course you do."
"Do not let it be said I am not magnanimous; I am willing to offer you a portion of my profit. Whatever you might be able to fit in that broken abomination on wheels down there." He held his head high. "All I request in return is your… discretion. Not a problem for a thief, correct?"
"A few bags of cash for keeping my loose lips in check. Of course."
Sly pounced towards the gharial, their canes clashing. The raccoon landed and swung to another parry. "Sorry, but I'm a 'go big or go to jail' kind of thief."
"So be it."
His enemy remained mild-mannered until like the flip of a coin, he went into an aggressive thrust. Sly dodged with a shift of the head. The gharial's attacks kept coming, hard thrusts jabbing with precision. Sly almost moved like a performer, twirling his cane blocking backhanded and behind. Grimjaw's strikes had finesse, but they still hit hard. Sly felt the jam into the wood of his cane's shaft – petrified wood couldn't take that big of a punch.
"Come now, does your Cooper lineage come with restrictions? Conditions?" Grimjaw taunted with a series of thrusts. "No technique, no style, no gall!" He swung his cane down on Sly's, pinning him.
"Hey, I make my own style."
Grimjaw swung his leg from beneath, ready to trip the raccoon. Sly foresaw the trick and backflipped behind the desk in the room. He raised his head just in time to catch Grimjaw's swing for his head. He ducked with the tip of the swing in his view. The gharial bounced back aiming his cane for another dart shot. Sly leapt and crashed into him with a kick. Grimjaw's snout bent as he flew back, his cane flung from his hand.
As the gharial recovered, Sly's cane pointed in front of his crumpled snout. "Figured a rich man could put his money where his mouth is."
"Rest assured, my money still has its advantages. Guards!"
Sly looked away, and in the time it took to blink, an army of rhino guards surrounded them. They had rifles raised to his neck, heart, any vital place. Unlike the normal variety, they had a look that wasn't about to lose focus soon.
"A little unfair, don't you think?"
"I'm surprised how the simple fact the world is unfair escaped your notice, Mr. Cooper. You can make your styles, but those with money make the rules."
Their rifles cocked. The guards drew closer, covering Sly's frame in a swarm of dots.
"Ookay, time to wrap this up."
The room was lit with a hot flash, followed by a cloud of smoke. Everything was lost in plumes of smog as the guards swung their rifles wildly. Grimjaw recovered and crawled to the nearest guard in a total loss of his calm. The rhino came down like a giant oak after a smack above. The rest of the guards went down in the same way, one after another. Grimjaw shook his head in the smog, his arm scanning the ground just as frantic.
He finally reached for a gun dropped by the side of a fallen guard. His unsteady hand pointed towards the first silhouette in the smoke. It faded as the smoke cleared, leaving a gaping gharial amongst unmoving bodies.
A golden hook snagged the gun away. A blue-booted foot came in his place. Sly toted his cane by his shoulder. "Game over."
Grimjaw struggled almost foaming at the mouth. His movement stopped with eyes wide as sirens blared louder in the distance. They soon multiplied and came from all directions. "There's Interpol with the final buzzer."
The door slammed open with a boot sticking out, belonging to a certain Interpol agent. Carmelita Fox broke in, her shock pistol quickly pointed with the barrel was inches away from Grimjaw's snout. The gharial had the sense to stay still catching the fox's glare. Her main target, Grimjaw had noticed, had vanished from the room, along with the remains of his goods..
Almost out from her shadow came a tall Doberman, a cigar in one hand and the otherin the pocket of his trenchcoat. There was a near shade in his eyes as his pupils slowly shifted towards Grimjaw like a predator's. His other hand fished out a wallet with a badge. "Inspectors Fox and Hound, Interpol. Grimjaw Adams, you are under arrest."
"Excuse me!?" Grimjaw screeched. "On what grounds?"
"For starters, almost every white collar criminal charge in the book! Bribery, fraud, conspiracy with the black market!" Carmelita jammed her barrel crumpling his snout. "What's more, resisting officers of the law!"
"You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you. Blah, blah, blah…" Hound drawled.
It was the wrap-up to any mission as Sly would see it. Where there were once shady-looking guards, the streets were now covered with Interpol agents and choppers. Said guards were now being hauled away like muck being wiped from the walls. Grimjaw's headquarters were no different as the two officers hefted the corrupt gharial over to their helicopter. His suit was now in tatters as he struggled against their grips.
"The less you resist the easier you make this on yourself." Carmelita threw him into the seat almost single-handedly.
"Interpol desk-jockeys! I'll buy out your whole department and tear it down for a shoe store!"
"Save it for your inmates, Adams!" She marched away with Hound behind her.
Grimjaw went unhinged at that moment, eyes red as he flailed. "You will not haul me away like that petty thief! Release me NOW! This cannot be how it ends! I must-I must continue my family's work! Darktalon will not bring about the end of our legacy!"
He was cut off with the door slamming in his face by another Interpol officer. The Cooper Gang stood at the ledge watching the aftermath. At that point, the police cars and agents made way for the trucks for local news stations. Reporters were already lining the walkways while camera crews were rushing out with equipment. A few were at the ready with microphones in hand.
"Reporting in. Grimjaw Adams, powerful CEO and business magnate was arrested tonight by Interpol. Grimjaw Adams's company, once believed to be a legitimate business, has been revealed after a thorough investigation as well as anonymous sources to be involved in numerous crimes. Further investigation revealed that Adams is in fact connected with 'Z', the crime syndicate composed of the world's most notorious criminals."
"Say what!?" Murray shouted.
"This is bad…" Bentley mused.
Sly looked down at Carmelita talking with her agents, then back to Grimjaw writhing in the helicopter. "We should go."
His friends complied as they walked back to the van. Blake stopped mid-step, looking back to Carmelita. A deep scowl was burned on his face watching the fox shout orders to her officers. Finally he turned away.
The Adams legacy had fallen, and Grimjaw went with it, off the deep end. The guy tried to gnaw his arms off to get away from Interpol. Apparently that reaction came with the news his assets were frozen. What some people do for their funds.
It was our first mission with our new teammate, and though we could check it up as a success, it was one of our messiest. Dynamics were all over the place, tensions ran a little high, and frankly, we were left with more questions then rewards. Why was Grimjaw connected to an organization like Z? Who was this 'Darktalon' that supposedly took out his family's business? And who was that shady new partner of Carmelita's?
We didn't get any more answers when Blake showed us the gold piece after the near hour of badgering he got from Bentley. After we dropped off the kids he rescued at a local orphanage, we took it in for a better look. A gold piece in the shape of Africa, that's all we got – no dates, no records, nothing.
But the biggest mystery of all came when, inside the loot we got from Grimjaw's place, was an old tape recorder. I got that old itching feeling when we hear the message on it.
"Greater riches than mere gold await you, Sly Cooper. Two paths intertwined by time and space, the time has come for their mystery to be solved."
Well, this took forever. I think I'm about a week over my initial deadline for releasing this. Sorry for the late post but I was going through a bit of mixed feelings over some bad news I found. Nothing serious.
Anyway, that wraps up this Grimjaw episode. I will try to keep encounters with villains down to three chapters so as not to make the story drag out too long. I don't want to go overboard with chapter numbers, especially since I have yet to actually complete a story I write. But on that note I will be going back to my Skylanders story since I want to get through that. Hope you all enjoyed this chapter.
This was a bit of a hasty post, so I will probably go back and edit it in the future. Especially the latter half. I really don't like putting out sloppy prose.
Not much to say here besides that. Thanks for reading. As always, review, favorite, follow! Until next time.