Sly Cooper Remake: Hearts of the Raccoon and the Tigress

by NEBSparky86

Here is my personal take on a remake of the Sly Cooper series. Sly Cooper and his friends have escaped from the orphanage they met at after performing their very first heist of stealing cookies. The trio are then taken in by the Klaww Gang, where Sly meets a violet furred tigress who would become his lover. Will the two of them be able to succeed and carry on the Cooper legacy?

5. Episode 4: Fire in the Sky

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters and story elements of the Sly Cooper franchise. All credit goes to Sucker Punch and Sanzaru Games. This story is for purely entertainment purposes.

Sly Cooper Remake: Hearts of the Raccoon and Tigress

Fire in the Sky (The Setup)

From the Notes of Sly Cooper: "The road trip gave me the time I needed to study up on the Panda King. Born penniless, he was fascinated by the fireworks rich noblemen set off every New Years. He spent a decade learning the art, but when he tried to offer his fireworks to the noblemen, they couldn't see past his shabby clothes and chased him away. Humiliated, the Panda King took revenge on those who shunned him by using the very tools of his art for crime. The Fiendish Five recruited him as their demolitions expert, and from then on, his explosive touch became feared worldwide. He's rumored to be perfecting some new firework technique high in the unstable Kunlun Mountains of western China."

oooooooooooooo

As per her schedule, after giving Carmelita the slip while on route to China, Neyla managed to paraglide from the plane towards the fortress of the notorious Panda King. The young Constable/spy was really getting tired of her more "famous" partner meddling in her attempts to infiltrate the Fiendish Five's strongholds. She had, in fact, considered covertly informing the ruthlessly brutish demolitionist of Inspector Fox's presence, but ultimately ruled it out, considering Carmelita was aware of Muggshot being tipped off at the time.

"I'm sure that the plane will have to make an emergency landing over in Xi'an," Neyla said to herself in mid-glide before adding with a shrug, "Well, it should give me the proper amount of time in finding the necessary blueprints." Letting out a soft chuckle, she then said, "Still, I imagine that Ol' Ironsides isn't going to happy with me escaping her wary glare again."

Upon making her way to the mountain where the Panda King was based at, the she-tiger stuck to ignoring the clue bottles for Sly to pick up when he arrived. For Neyla herself, though, it seemed as if she was once again in luck with security as the guards then were on break. Putting aside whatever cosmic sense of fortune was favoring her then, Neyla approached the security gate, and noticed that a gorilla guard, who held a treasure key in his possession, was heading towards a nearby forested cliff. With the guard momentarily distracted, Neyla proceeded to enter the stronghold and began her search through the adjacent areas.

As she went through the entrance, Neyla's cellphone rang as Arpeggio was expecting a report upon her entry. The violet-furred tigress really didn't like having to immediately do so, yet knew the frightening consequences for refusing. The last thing Neyla needed was the crooked Contessa messing with her mind and taking everything she had from her.

"Yes, Arpeggio, I'm here at the Panda King's," Neyla irritably said to the phone once she answered it. Receiving Arpeggio's questions about her current objective and for when the Cooper Gang would arrive, she responded respectively, "I'm looking for the blueprints as of now, and they're due to arrive here in a few hours."

Before Neyla could continue, something caught her eye and she happened to notice Inspector Fox, who Neyla was hoping was still in Xi'an after escaping from their plane. Gritting her teeth in anger at the overly zealous vixen doing her own infiltration into the place, Neyla knew that she'd have to be careful and not let Carmelita spot her as she looked for the Panda King's blueprints.

Returning back to her phone call with Arpeggio, Neyla said, "I know you expect no delays with Cooper's mission to defeat Clockwerk, The blueprints I find and place in the vaults at each of the Five's doorsteps helps to ensure that your mission for Sly and his friends is sped up."

Upon Arpeggio voicing a somewhat reasonable concern, Neyla answered, "I highly doubt that Clockwerk is going to be THAT stupid and have his own vaults storing whatever pages from the Cooper family's thieving instruction manual strewn." Keeping an eye on Carmelita, who was most likely looking for her as much as Sly, Neyla then, "At any rate, Inspector Fox is here and might cause problems for the both of us."

oooooooooooooo

With the Cooper Gang arriving at the starting point that Bentley dubbed as "A Perilous Ascent," the van turned around after a short hop, the back doors opened and Sly flew out the door. Having intended on using his Raccoon Roll technique, Sly instead decided to scan the area for clue bottles.

The raccoon thief quickly found a small safe that held two such bottles and could make out a couple more that were mostly obscured large pots and behind a purple furred mandrill guard that spotted Sly and began to approach him with menace. Sadly for the guard, that action would be short-lived as Sly took him out before acquiring the two hidden clue bottles and three more that he turned and saw.

After Sly reached the first checkpoint, Bentley came on the binocucom as a rocket was being launched from a giant panda statue. "Would you look at that," Bentley commented in awe at the sight, adding, "A fireworks show!"

Bentley's jubilation was short-lived, however, when he and Sly saw the rocket explode near the mountain and trigger a frosty avalanche on a nearby village.

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

Sly Cooper narrowed his eyes as he said in calm fury, "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 and fast before that lunatic squashes another town."

Putting his binocucom away, Sly then crossed a crevasse with falling icicles and made it halfway, where another checkpoint awaited him. The raccoon thief then heard someone calling out to him in a familiar Cockney-accented voice.

"Psst! Ringtail! Over here, love!"

Sly then turned to see Neyla, which brought recent memories of their three-week vacation in the Dominican Republic after defeating the alligator voodoo priestess. Though being forced to learn how to swim wasn't his most enjoyable memory of the vacation, the time that he had with her was always a pleasure. Plus, Sly thought to himself with a mischievous smile on his face, there was the added bonus of seeing his girlfriend in the swimwear that she wore for him and him alone.

"Hey there, gorgeous," Sly said to Neyla as she revealed herself and immediately tapped her left ear.

"Right, sorry," Sly added before he pulled out his earpiece and turned it off before approaching the tigress and brushed his forehead with her forehead.

"Good to see you, my handsome raccoon," Neyla returned the earlier greeting as the pair pulled away.

"I had a feeling you've been tailing us the whole time," Sly commented with a knowing smirk.

"Someone's gotta make sure you're staying on point," Neyla replied with a slight chuckle. "I figured it might as well be me."

"I'm glad it's you and none of Arpeggio's flunkies," Sly said in good humor before he noticed the ruby circlet on the tiger's forehead. "I see you found yourself some new jewelry."

Neyla smiled, replying, "Found it when Interpol was investigating Mz. Ruby's place. But enough about me," she dismissed a roll of her eyes. "After the Panda King, you'll have Clockwerk to take down, and then we're going to have fun!"

Sly shared her good cheer on that last part. "And I'm looking forward to it."

"You better get back on track, love," Neyla promptly informed Sly as she tapped her left ear. "Don't want the ol' Bentley to worry about you. You can tell him I was just checking up on you chaps."

Sly gave his girlfriend a nod as he turned his earpiece back on and reinserted it in his left ear as Neyla left. The raccoon thief then continued his ascent up the mountain, where he encountered resistance from the guards with one managing to cause Sly to lose a lucky charm. After making his way to the third checkpoint, Sly observed the challenge in front of him. To his left, he had a building with gorilla guards making sure that no one tried to sneak into the building they surveyed, and to his right, was a forested canyon, where he could faintly make out the silhouette of a couple clue bottles.

Upon approaching the locked exit of the area, Bentley came on the binocucom and promptly informed Sly, "You can't get through the security gate without one of the Panda King's treasure keys. There's one over there," Bentley added as Sly looked to see the key he needed, "but it's heavily guarded."

Sly smiled as he replied with, "One key, coming up!"

"So how do you plan to get past all those guards?" Bentley asked Sly.

"Simple," answered Sly, "I'll apply the same technique I used back in Mesa City and Haiti. Place a hat mine in their path, back away, wait until the first idiot reaches the mine and pow! He's down for the count."

"Well, alright Sly," Bentley eventually conceded with a slight nod. "Just don't forget about that new invisibility move you acquired from Mz. Ruby's Thievius Raccoonus section. And before you even say it, no. You don't need to 'press the circle button.'"

Sly could hear Murray laughing hysterically in the background. It was always great to splice in a bit of comedy every now and then while they were out in the field, especially since Bentley needed to loosen up a bit. Putting those thoughts aside, the raccoon thief put his plan into action and proceeded to take down the guards. Two of them got curious when they noticed a hat mine that had gotten lodged in a snow covered tree branch before both had been blown off the ledge of the forested canyon, and the rest of the guards were mostly knocked unconscious by the explosions.

Once all guards were indisposed of, Sly proceeded to collect the remaining clue bottles and even collected the treasure key that he needed to enter the Panda King's stronghold. Before unlocking the door that led into the crooked panda's stronghold, Sly used his Raccoon Roll to head back to the nearby vault. Before opening it, Bentley came on the binocucom and said, "I got a real headache figuring this one out. Input 5-7-8."

Sly inputted the code and successfully opened the vault to reveal its contents, which were a big help as his tech genius of a friend noted via earpiece. "You found the blueprints for the Panda King's lair," Bentley said in a pleased tone of voice. "I'll upload the data straight into your binocucom."

The raccoon thief then placed his calling card in the empty vault before proceeding to remove the tigress head symbol that Neyla left on the vault door. With everything acquired, Sly then Raccoon Rolled to the locked door, which he then unlocked, before proceeding further.

oooooooooooooo

Watching Sly getting in the Panda King's fortress, Neyla sighed as she grabbed her cellphone and then did her least liked part of the job. She only hoped that the report would not take too much time.

"Arpeggio, it's Neyla calling," the she-tiger said to the head of the Klaww Gang. "Sly has just entered the fortress. And yes, I made sure he knows the layout of that demented panda's home, including all the vaults."

As Arpeggio kept on probing, Neyla felt her patience wearing thin. "No, Sly will not have to backtrack like he did in Mesa City. The vaults are very close to where the treasure keys are located," Neyla ultimately added with hesitance, "with one small exception. Still, I expect Fox will lie in wait for my raccoon deeper within there. I'll appraise you when he's defeated the oversized stuffed teddy bear."

oooooooooooooo

Making his way inside the stronghold, Sly then contacted Bentley through binocucom. As the raccoon was contacting his brilliant tech support, Sly scanned his surroundings for holographic markers. Once he found them all, Bentley came on and said, "Nice job breaking into the Panda King's compound. I think I've figured out a way to get to the top of that giant statue, but unfortunately, it's obstructed by this reinforced ceiling hatch."

Sly then noticed a cluster of fireworks and smiled as he replied with, "No problem. They seem to have plenty of firepower around here. I'll just have to find a few more treasure keys to get at it."

Before hanging up, Bentley then inquired, "By the way Sly, was there any problems with your earpiece earlier? You know, for those few minutes?"

"Nah," answered Sly with a shake of his head. "Neyla was just checking up on us and seeing how we were doing."

"Neyla's here too," asked Bentley as he raised an eyebrow in puzzlement. "Like she was in Mesa City?"

"Relax, buddy," Sly calmly said to his nervous friend. "You know she'd never rat us out to Carmelita. Besides, she's been tailing us on all of our jobs against the Five."

"Well, I guess you're right," replied Bentley, as he shrugged his shoulders. "Still, with how she answers to Arpeggio, who, and I quote, is a bigger, controlling neat freak than I am, it probably is something to be concerned about in the long run."

Before Sly could proceed to his first objective, the Panda King came on the fortress wide intercom and announced, "Attention, valued employee. Sadly, Hinkau village elected not to pay for avalanche protection service, and so I am forced to bury alive under many tons of snow. Please be on guard for any surviving villager that comes looking for revenge. Thank you, that is all."

"And we'll make sure that you pay for burying that village," Sly said in an acid tone as he made his way to the first holographic marker that was projected right behind him on his seven o'clock position.

oooooooooooooo

Entering the area that Murray asked Bentley to dub "The King of the Hill," Sly saw another blasting station, like the one he saw in Mesa City. The raccoon thief rolled his eyes and sighed as he knew where this was going. Even so, Sly had to appreciate his childhood buddy being very brave by going out in the field and taking some of the load off his shoulders. Bringing up his binocucom, Sly then contacted Bentley.

Bentley then chimed in with, "Murray's all fired up to make the run for the key. And he's got a lucky charm too."

Sly gave a slight nod and answered, "Right on, I'll keep him covered."

"Time to move, Sly," Murray said to Sly before he began running up the first hill right there next to a guardhouse.

The first two guards were dealt with as they came out of the building to stop Murray from advancing. The pink hippo then proceeded across the bridge towards a small structure where another guard, a chimpanzee to be precise, came at him swinging nunchucks. Sly then fired at another structure to create a makeshift bridge for Murray to cross. Once across the makeshift bridge, another chimpanzee guard tried to ambush Murray from behind, but was fortunately intercepted.

Going towards another structure, three more chimpanzees came out to attack Murray, but were swiftly dealt with, all the while Murray still had possession of the golden lucky charm.

"I made it halfway," Murray noted as he ascended on the firework elevators, adding with emphasis, "and I'm feelin' very lucky."

"Glad you feel that way, big guy," replied Sly after blasting away a duo of guards. "Keep it up."

Murray managed to make his way to the key, before the alarms went off. Gritting his teeth at the hated sound occurring then, the raccoon thief had to remind himself that everything wasn't supposed to be easy. Scanning the area, he saw the first of many guards that would try to attack the van. Worse for Murray, the gold glow given off by the field emanating from the lucky charm made him an easy target to spot. With fury, Sly beat the waves of enemies that came at him and Murray back before the alarm was finally silenced by Bentley's hacking.

With that taken care of, Murray, who still possessed the lucky charm much to his good comfort, grabbed the second key, pleased with the work he did. Sly felt the same as he said to Murray, "Great work there, big guy."

"Thanks, Sly," replied Murray. "Although, if I'm gonna keep up with you, I should hit the strength training 'real' hard when we meet up with the Klaww Gang again."

Sly chuckled as he replied with, "I'm sure Bison would be proud that you wanna get better in your own way."

oooooooooooooo

After Sly exited the area, he sprinted across the stronghold and removed a gorilla guard in front of the next glowing green holographic marker, which led to what Bentley was calling "Flaming Temple of Flame." Upon entering the area, Sly picked up some coins and knocked out a mandrill guard in an instant. The raccoon thief then brought up his binocucom and scanned the area for the clue bottles that he figured were strewn all over the place.

Sadly, Sly wasn't able to make out where the clue bottles were as his binocucom had shown him they were all clustered and difficult to discern their individual locations. He then put his binocucom up for the time being and began climbing the pole close to him.

Bentley then reported, "Despite its temple-like facade, this place is really some sort of training ground. Stay on your toes."

Sly said nothing as he slid down to the temple below. After getting off the rope that he slid down on, the thieving raccoon used his recently acquired invisibility technique. Fortunately for him, the purple furred mandrill guard didn't see Sly and kept his constant vigil even as he dug out a CD player and turned on some music out of boredom. Sly then took advantage of the temporary distraction and latched on to a hook before launching himself over the laser secured icy floor and took out the alarms.

"Stayin' alive! Stayin' alive!" the mandrill guard was singing as he listened to a certain famous song. "Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! Stayin' ALIVEEEE!"

"Someone seems to have strong tastes in disco music," Bentley said to Sly as the raccoon collected the first three clue bottles with his Raccoon Roll.

"Can't say I blame him," replied Sly, as he launched himself upwards and knocked out a nearby gorilla guard. "If anything, it saved that mandrill from getting knocked unconscious."

Sly journeyed further inward and found his way to the interior of the temple and was very astounded by the number of monkeys patrolling the place. Sly kept his cane at the ready in case they were alerted to his presence. Bentley came on the binocucom and stoically said, "Don't bother keeping your cane up. Those guys are busy with their training. I highly doubt they even saw or care that you entered."

"Huh," Sly commented as a mischievous grin arose on his face. "I wanna put that theory to the test." Sly then shouted to the monkeys surrounding him, "Hey, you guy! I just stole your treasure key!"

Sly got no response, however, as they continued to practice. Feeling overconfident, he added, "You know your boss really sucks, right?"

After trying a few more insults, Sly concluded he had nothing to worry about from the training monkeys, and then proceeded to collect all of the clue bottles and coins before ascending up higher. Before exiting, though, Sly made one last attempt to get their attention, whacking his staff on a gong as he shouted, "Dinner's ready! Burgers and fries for you!" For the last time, he got no verbal response from the guards, but did catch the sound of a few rumbling tummies.

"Seriously, Sly?" Bentley asked Sly in an incredibly unimpressed tone. "You thought that you could heckle those weirdos as a pastime?"

"Ah, come on, Bentley," Sly replied as he rail slid across the rope, after collecting the eighteenth clue bottle. "There's nothing wrong with having a little bit of fun."

Sly encountered some mild resistance from the other guards, but it was nothing that the grey-furred raccoon couldn't handle. He was able to deal with them all in a short order fashion and kept collecting the remaining clue bottles. After making his way across a chasm and getting rid of a couple more guards, at the cost of a lucky charm, he made his way to the next vault, where Bentley contacted him.

"Lucky for you, I'm versed in chaos theory," Bentley informed Sly, "otherwise, this code would have been unsolvable. Input 9-3-2."

Sly input said code and recovered another set of pages from the Thievius Raccoonus. Bentley informed Sly that would now be able to defy gravity and it wasn't going to cost him a lucky charm any more. Once Sly placed his calling card in the vault, he then smashed the pedestal with the next key that he needed.

oooooooooooooo

After exiting the area, Sly went across the stronghold again towards the final area of the front portion of the entire fortress. In his way was a gorilla guard that was slipping in and out of sleep. Sly waited until the gorilla fell asleep before advancing. Having to use his Invisibility technique before the guard woke up again just one time until he dozed back to sleep.

"Mama, please let me ride the pony," the sleepy simian said to himself in his sleep. "I promise I'll be safe."

"Maybe you should let the guy get some shut eye," Bentley said to Sly in a whisper.

Sly shrugged his shoulders and tiptoed around the sleeping guard to reach the area that Bentley called, "The Unseen Foe." As Sly entered the area, he saw a set of three pagodas that he would have to traverse and search for the Panda King's fourth treasure key and the next set of pages from the Thievius Raccoonus. Before pressing forward, Sly brought up his binocucom to look for any clue bottles in the area.

Two were spotted over at the entrance to the first pagoda that he was about to enter, along with another two clues that were located in a breakable safe on the same bottom level. Other clue bottles were also marked, but their locations would have to be pinned down as Sly advanced through the pagoda itself. After collecting the first two clue bottles Bentley came on the binocucom and said to Sly, "This looks like a good place to try out your Invisibility move some more. While invisible nothing can see you — not lasers, not searchlights, not guards. Oh, and if the guards already see you, then the invisibility trick won't work on them."

'That part, I already know,' Sly thought to himself as he got on the conveyor belt and became invisible in front of the gorilla flashlight guard.

Once Sly got past that guard, he crept up from behind and knocked him out before going for the third and fourth clue bottles. Once they were collected, Sly brought up his binocucom to search again for more. Another two were in front of him, under the watchful eye of another flashlight gorilla guard and yet another one was located in a guard post. After locating the rest of the clue bottles, the grey furred raccoon thief pushed on through the rest of the complex. The security was definitely tight for Sly to get through with lasers, spotlights, and guards throughout the place.

Upon his arrival at the pagoda's entrance, where he quickly removed a female chimpanzee guard, Bentley came on the binocucom and reported, "Sly! This pagoda is some kind of huge gunpowder production plant. Judging by the scale, the Panda King must be making tons of explosives."

"Not going for the treasure key yet, Bent," Sly informed Bentley. "Right now, I'm after the vault and the last clue bottle."

"Both of them are on the roof of the pagoda," replied Bentley. "By the way, you're doing really good, time-wise."

"Yeah, gotta make sure we don't get another lecture about keeping to a schedule that a certain stuffy parrot sets up for us," Sly retorted.

After collecting the final clue on the top of the pagoda, Sly made his way to the vault. Before opening the vault, Bentley chimed in with, "It was a challenge, but this vault's combination has got to be 6-6-7." Sly inputted the combination and had a chill run down his spine before it opened and Neyla's head symbol was found on the inside of the vault door.

"Guess this is where the Panda King kept the blueprints to his stronghold," Sly said to himself as Bentley informed him that the pages he got were an extension of the invisibility move he got from Mz. Ruby's section of the Thievius Raccoonus. The new page was from Huckleberry Cooper, an ancestor of Sly's who lived in the Southeastern United States. Once he placed his calling card in the empty vault, Sly descended down the pagoda to collect the fourth treasure key that he needed.

oooooooooooooo

With the fourth treasure key in hand, Sly went over to the locked cluster of rockets and unlocked them. As the rockets were unlocked, the fuses were lit and sent the rockets upward for brief second before they turned around and targeted the heavy security door. With it blown open, Sly collected the fallen coins and then proceeded to enter the back half of the Panda King's stronghold. Surveying his surroundings for the four remaining green holographic markers, Sly was successful in locating three of them before he also noticed a set of big rockets in front of him.

"I've calculated the trajectory of these rockets and," Bentley hesitated briefly before finishing his statement, "I'm ninety-nine percent sure you'll be able to ride them all the way to the top of that statue before they explode."

Sly Cooper frowned for a moment before asking, "Hmm, what about the other one percent?"

"Well, in that case, Sly," began Bentley, "you will be blown to bits,"his tone of dismay then shifted to one of intrigue as he added,"but the experience will no doubt be spectacular."

"Nice," Sly responded.

"Now, to unlock these rockets," added Bentley, "you're going to need all 7 of the Panda King's treasure keys."

"Right on," Sly said with a smirk, "I'll steal 'em in no time."

oooooooooooooo

Entering the next area that Bentley called "A Desperate Race," Sly pulled up his binocucom and saw the team van in a position for a race, which gave him bad memories of the pretty cutthroat experience in Mesa City.

"Murray," exclaimed Sly as soon as he made contact with his friend. "What are you doing down there?"

"Well," began Murray, "I'm minding my post when I notice this snow-cone stand, and I think to myself, 'Hey, Murray, you've got to keep your energy up.' So I hurry over here and then all of a sudden, monkeys are everywhere, bugging me to race them three times around this track for a key."

"We could use the key," responded Sly. "Think you can take 'em?"

"Come on, Sly," answered a confident Murray. "They're a pack of monkeys! How can I lose?"

"Alright, Murray," Sly allowed. "Use any nitro boosts you collect and keep clear of those icy patches."

"Thanks for the advice, Sly," said a still confident Murray, "but trust me. I've got this under control."

Once the race started, like in Mesa City, Murray had started the race in last place and was going to have to work his way up. Murray did quite a bit of bashing to the opposition to get up to first place. As Murray was racing, Neyla had come on binocucom to speak with Sly herself.

"Love, can you spare a few minutes," she asked in a concerned tone.

"Sure, gorgeous," Sly spoke with a smirk on his face. "I've got plenty of time to chat with you."

"That's good to hear," replied Neyla. "How are you doing?"

Sly's face soured in confusion by his girlfriend's question. He honestly expected more of an "Are you excited for what happens after you defeat Clockwerk?" or "Are you thinking about me?" Sly kept a close eye on Murray's race as he was halfway through the first circuit around the track and the pink hippo was in fourth place.

"Man, these monkeys are better than I expected them to be," chimed in Murray, as he was in his "Dale Eaglehart mode," but kept his confidence boost as he said, "But they're not gonna beat me."

"Why are you asking me that," Sly asked Neyla quizzically. "I feel great."

"You know what I mean, Sly," Neyla answered as she was calm yet firm in her tone. "After you took down Mz. Ruby you weren't exactly all there while we rested from the mission."

"I promise, Neyla," retorted Sly as he kept calm, "I'm fine. And I don't wanna go through another head shrinking session with the Contessa. The last one we had kept me up for weeks."

"Sly, you know can tell me anything," Neyla said calmly. "I may not be a psychology expert like her, but I do know that 'Miss Voodoo' really rattled you back in Haiti."

"That's right you dumb monkeys," Murray shouted on loud speaker as he was entering the final stretch of the race, in first place no less. "You can eat my dust! Just not my snow cones!"

Neyla chuckled in amusement as she commented, "Seems that Murray is 'aving the time of his life right now."

Murray crossed the finish line right as the monkeys racing him were reaching the third to last turn. Upon the race concluding, Neyla then said to Sly, "We'll talk later, Cooper. Your boys need you."

"Sure thing, babe," Sly replied with a slight nod before looking to the team van. "Nice driving, Murray! Now go get that key!"

oooooooooooooo

After exiting the racetrack area, Sly made his way up to an area that Bentley called "Rapid Fire Assault." Before entering, Sly saw a vehicle that he recognized from Mz. Ruby's lair. As Sly got on it, he noticed that his path was blocked by a heavy door. The raccoon thief blasted the door down to reveal the green holographic marker he needed to proceed through.

As Sly was ready to begin his assault through the fireworks factory, Bentley came on the binocucom and chimed in with, "That vehicle is proof enough that someone with some serious high-tech skills must be providing the Fiendish Five with the hardware to match."

"Probably that Clockwerk guy's doing," Sly suspected before adding, "Still, we can worry about him after dealing with the King."

Gaining entrance to the factory was a small challenge for Sly, as he had to blast through rubble barricades and dispose of any monkey guards that blocked his path. As the raccoon thief was charging through the outer defenses and finally penetrated into the facility itself, the Panda King came on the intercom and said, "Attention, valued employee. It has come to my attention that a thief is loose somewhere inside the firework production facility. Please do your part to pitch in by killing this intruder on sight. Thank you, that is all."

"Yeah, and this thief is gonna make your 'valued employees' look like chumps," Sly said as he blew through the second layer of simian guards that threw themselves at him.

The grey-furred raccoon had then collected enough coins to replace the lucky charm that he lost while spire jumping off a stand that shot off light fireworks on his way to the area. Armed with a golden lucky charm now, Sly continued to blast his way through the facility and back outside towards a shrine that contained the sixth treasure key that he needed. Even once Sly was outside, though, he had a fight on his hands as he had to blast through the remaining guards and rubble that stood in his way.

The only real problem that the raccoon faced was mostly having to blow down the barricades that were made of rock, snow, and ice. Just trying to get through was a challenge and having a swarm of jerks throwing snowballs at him didn't make the push any easier. However, he was able to blast through the remaining obstacles in his path and made it to the shrine.

Before he could start blasting away at the stone structure, on which the treasure key was sitting on, his precious Neyla sent him a text message to warn him about Carmelita's presence in the stronghold with an added apology for not warning him about the vixen's presence beforehand. Sly texted back that she didn't have to worry before resuming with getting the treasure key before any reinforcements were sent to defend the factory. With the stone pedestal destroyed, Sly was warped back to the stronghold.

oooooooooooooo

Arriving at the last area, Sly expected a literal "Duel by the Dragon," as he went for the final treasure key and the last pages of the Thievius Raccoonus that the Panda King possessed. Once the raccoon collected what he could in the area, he intended to go after that extortionist himself.

Remembering Neyla's warning of Carmelita's presence, Sly couldn't help but be amused. "Gotta admit, she's like a heat seeking missile," he said to himself as he collected the first two clue bottles. "Won't stop until she makes contact and ends with a capture."

On the binocucom, Bentley muttered, "Uh," before informing his lifelong friend, "not exactly sure that's the best analogy of a heat seeking missile, Sly."

"Not the point, 'Mr. Literal,'" Sly retorted.

After making his way up three makeshift firework powered elevators, Sly came into contact with Inspector Carmelita Fox once again. Sly just smirked and thought to himself about how much fun it was going to be to mess around with her, unaware that Neyla was observing them both from a safe distance.

"Freeze, raccoon," Carmelita snarled at Sly with narrowed eyes and the intent to finally arrest him.

Sly could only smile as he turned on his family charm and asked, "How can I freeze when my heart warms at the very sight of lovely women?"

oooooooooooooo

Neyla groaned to herself at Sly's response as she heard Carmelita angrily fire back with, "Shut up, ringtail! I don't know what you're doing here in China, but I'm sure it can't be good for whoever owns this place."

"You must only have eyes for me if you're too blind to see what's going on around here," Sly said in a reasoning way that also sounded too match like a pickup line.

"What are you doing, Sly?" Neyla asked herself quietly unamused.

Carmelita snarled back with, "All I see is a pathetic thief who's escaped justice for far too long."

Neyla scoffed in derision while recording the confrontation, saying, "If he's pathetic, why has he been able to evade your attempts to arrest him?"

Neyla then looked to Sly as he said in response, "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 illegal explosives factory."

Neyla sighed to herself at their exchange, before saying, "You gotta love that raccoon."

oooooooooooooo

"Don't try to confuse the issue," Carmelita snapped at Sly's justifying. "You criminals are all the same and none of you can escape justice."

Sly shook his head disappointed before he used his cane to latch onto a zip line and slid down as Carmelita opened fire on him like back in Mesa City. As he landed, Sly only had a brief moment to find where the clue bottles were hidden. Sadly, Sly was only able to see where the next eight or so were as Carmelita constantly fired off rounds from her shock pistol. Making his way towards those clue bottles and collecting them, Sly brought up his binocucom again from a relative place of safety.

"Alrighty then," Sly said to himself as he found where the rest of the clue bottles were hiding. "Found 'em, memorized their locations and now I can go get 'em while Carmelita keeps chasing me."

With everything settled, Sly went back to work after taking a moment to catch his breath. As he was being chased by the hot tempered vixen, he heard her shout out, "I'm gonna catch you! One way or another, you'll face justice for your crimes and the world will be much better without you or your thieving reign of terror."

"Seriously, Carmelita," a baffled Sly asked upon hearing Carmelita's assertion about him. "I terrorize people with thievery?"

"I highly doubt that any research into your family background will change her tune, Sly," Bentley chimed in as Sly collected the 35th clue bottle. "Knowing Inspector Fox, she'd use that research to say you and any future Coopers yet to be born are just genetically predisposed to a life of crime."

"Better get used to it," Neyla added. "I doubt any future children or grandchildren we'd have will be arrested for your crimes, but I wouldn't want them treated harshly just because they were born to us." She then added more sternly, "But seriously, my love, forget about trying to convince Ol' Ironsides that you're not a menace to society. Even if the world may not realize it, it's better off with you in it."

After crossing the chasm, Sly went past the final vault as he needed to get rid of Carmelita first before he could open it. The raccoon then used all of the fireworks to destroy the dragon statue as Carmelita was standing on top of its head. Each firework hit their mark as the dragon head began to collapse down the mountainside. As it did so, Carmelita called out to Sly, "Watch your back, Cooper! When you least expect it, I'll be there!"

oooooooooooooo

Watching from afar, the violet-furred tigress watched the climax of the chase unfold. With Carmelita's final words spoken, Neyla let out a stern tiger growl as she snarled at the sinking vixen. "Would Sly frown at me if I said I hoped she didn't survive that?"

Putting thoughts of Carmelita aside, Neyla saw Sly returning to the vault that he bypassed in order to deal with the inspector. Checking her watch and seeing that he had plenty of time to backtrack there, the tigress was able to listen in on Bentley's communication with Sly.

"Multiple blood vessels burst in my brain while figuring this out," Neyla heard Bentley inform her thief lover. "Guess I should thank Arpeggio for his help in translating this owlish dialect. The code had better be 2-3-1."

Neyla was quite intrigued by the final page from the Thievius Raccoonus that Sly had acquired as Bentley described the technique as one that could stun guards within the vicinity of the stronghold. She knew that some of the various skills that the Coopers made up had some appeal to her, and this technique would be the most useful by far. Assuming Sly would let her read from the book itself with him, Neyla reminded herself. The she-tiger then saw Sly heading back up to collect the final treasure key that would unlock the fireworks that he needed to launch him up to the Panda King's center of operations that stretched from China, the Korean Peninsula, Southeast Asia, and even into Japan.

"Oh, you're almost there, sexy," Neyla said to herself filling up with excitement.

oooooooooooooo

With all seven treasure keys in hand, Sly made his way to the fireworks that were locked up by the seven padlocks. After unlocking them, said fireworks were primed and ready for launch. Bentley then came on the binocucom and said to Sly, "See that ring on the bundle of fireworks? Hook onto it with your cane to hitch a ride." The raccoon thief did just that, launching himself towards the panda statue and his next nemesis to face. The ride up only took him but a couple minutes before he had to get off to avoid being blown to bits.

Once Sly had landed in the sanctum itself, the American grey-furred raccoon eyed the man who helped bloodied and bruised his father before he was put out of his misery. The memory of that night boiled Sly's blood with rage.

The Panda King looked to Sly with indifference as he then said while moving his feet, "I see you carry cane of notorious Cooper thief clan. Have you come here for revenge? To steal back the Thievius Raccoonus?"

Sly never let up his angry gaze at the giant panda as he then answered back with, "That was my plan at first, but now I'm more interested in putting an end to your avalanche extortion racket."

"Why should you care if I bury a few worthless village in snow?" The Panda King asked Sly. "You are a thief, just like me."

The raccoon thief couldn't believe what he was hearing. The Panda King had the nerve to call himself a thief, and yet refer to his victims as worthless when he started out small himself. Sly shook his head before he decided to set the record straight. "No, that's only half right. I am a thief, from a long line of master thieves. While you," he gestured to the panda in a mix of disgust and pity, "you're just a frustrated firework artist turned homicidal pyromaniac."

This time, it was the Panda King's turn to be insulted. The large panda had been in the world of crime much longer than Sly, and he didn't take kindly to having his experience challenged by a naïve rookie. He had accomplished so much in his time within the underworld and masterminded a few known heists that helped to establish his imposing fortress. The Panda King narrowed his eyes at the disrespectful youth as he snarled, "Insolent child! You shall pay dearly for your disrespect." He then restrained his temper enough to make a respectful bow as he said, "Still, to honor your Cooper ancestry, I will send you to your doom with the beauty of my new firework technique... Flame-Fu!"

"Oh, crap," Sly said under his breath as the crime boss began throwing balls of fire at him.

As Sly dodged the attacks, he saw that trying to directly charge at the Panda King was not the best approach to make. He wanted to make sure that he still had his golden lucky charm intact before making a run on the final member of the Fiendish Five. So, Sly decided to become a hard target for the oversized panda to hit. His only solution was to run in circles as he made his way up to the center ring.

As the aspiring thief made his way up to the Panda King, a trail of destruction followed him as many statues and pots were destroyed on his way up to the big guy himself, who began calling out the first of his moves. "Fiery Wheel!" The Panda King repeatedly called out in his attempts to trip up or blast Sly back from him.

The repeated Fiery Wheel attacks did nothing to deter Sly from attacking. After noticing a pattern in his attacks, Sly began attacking in between the Panda King's fire before being flung back to the edge of the sanctum. With himself being sent back to his starting point, Sly made his approach to the Panda King once again, but more directly instead of bobbing and weaving like he did before. This time, the direct approach worked as he moved side to side to avoid the flaming projectiles flung at him by his opponent.

As Sly approached the Panda King, the latter decided to add a new attack into the mix and try to throw off his initial attack pattern, calling out, "Palms of Thunder," as he thunderously slammed his hands down with a literal boom of thunder. This attack did not stop Sly from attacking him repeatedly any more than the Fiery Wheel did. However, the Panda King then began to used both attacks in conjunction. Thankfully, Sly timed his attacks to avoid any damage and the loss of one of his two lucky charms that he would need when they would move against Clockwerk.

After he had taken enough damage of his own, the Panda King sent Sly flying back to his starting point once again. The raccoon had to slowly make his way up to the big brute while dodging the fireballs being flung at him, even though, one of them came close to hitting his golden barrier had he not been guided by the sparkling blue auras to duck.

Once Sly made it back up to the Panda King, the giant panda then added one last attack as he shouted out, "Booming Chop!" For Sly, all he had to do was sidestep the firework enhanced karate chop as it was coming down. The Panda King then mixed all of his attacks in an attempt take out Sly once and for all, but with inborn determination on his side, the raccoon kept up the pressure with his attacks and well-timed dodging.

After all his energy was drained, the panda crime boss was left dazed and on the ground as he plunged to unconsciousness. As Sly was about to search for more pages from his family's book, the Panda King had enough strength to remark, "Your skill with that cane is unparalleled. I have no doubt that you have made your Cooper ancestors proud. Aaahhh!"

"Wow, such high praise coming from him," Neyla chimed in on the binocucom as the panda fell unconscious, having been watching the fight from a safe distance.

"Indeed," Arpeggio agreed, surprising Sly as he hadn't expected the Klaww Gang head to be on their frequency then. "You are well on your way to becoming the greatest thief of all time, Sly Cooper. And I am proud to have played a part in it."

Bentley then spoke on the binocucom himself, saying, "Sorry for barging in on the conversation, Mr. Arpeggio, but 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 Krakarov Volcano in Russia. That's got to be where Clockwerk is based at. Sly, get what you came for and let's get out of here!"

"Well done, Bentley," Arpeggio said, pleased with the results he was getting from the Cooper Gang. "And I assume, Mr. Cooper, you have succeeded in obtaining all of the pages from your family's illustrious book, correct?"

"I've got one more set of pages to get," Sly answered his parrot boss. "My guess is Clockwerk's got them with him personally and not in a safe somewhere in his own fortress."

"I see," Arpeggio noted. "For now, you and your crew can take some time to relax and rest until the time is right. I can't have my best protégés attacking Clockwerk himself running on fumes of all things."

"And we'll be rendezvousing in Istanbul afterwards, right, Neyla?" Sly asked his girlfriend as he nabbed the pages that the Panda King had in his possession.

"Of course, Love," Neyla answered just as energetic. "Still, you might want to hurry," she quickly added. "Old Ironsides is starting to climb back up the mountain after you sent her plummeting down."

oooooooooooooo

From the notes of Sly Cooper: The Panda King on Ice

Sly Cooper: "Retrieving the Panda King's section of the Thievius Raccoonus gave me a chance to learn about my technically-minded ancestor Otto van Cooper. Not known for his physical dexterity, Otto relied on vehicles to aid him in his criminal endeavors. Armed with his designs, I was sure Murray would be able to make some cool modifications to the team van. I think Arpeggio would like them, too, and maybe willing to pay for it.

"A frustrated Inspector Fox, having missed me coming down the mountain, threw the Panda King in jail, thus putting an end to his avalanche protection services and ensuring the safety of mountain villages throughout China. My gang and I took a little time off and did some shopping in Hong Kong. Thoroughly relaxed, we headed home to plan our next move."

Author's note: And that's a wrap for this chapter. Next one will take some time getting up as I do have some things to take care of so it'll probably be around mid-September to mid-October when the next chapter gets posted. I will work as fast as I can to get the final chapter in the Sly 1 arc finished. Until then, enjoy your summer time and stay safe out there! I also want to thank Awareness Bringer for their continued help with writing this fic.