//------------------------------//
// The Frog Prince 
// Story: Dressed to Steal 
// by Tatsurou 
//------------------------------//

	With all the keys and pages they could gather from the grounds collected, the pair made their way to the high voltage tube, opening the gate and shutting off the generator.  With the electricity shut off, Sly was able to walk through the tube easily with Coco clinging to his back.  As they made their way through, Bentley called them on the Binoc-u-com.

"I've found a way up to Raleigh's hide-out, but..." he began slowly.

"But?" Coco coached cautiously.

"The only way to manage it is...well..."

"Shooting ourselves out of that cannon that's locked down?" Sly prompted, shifting to examine it.

"Yeah, pretty much," Bentley confirmed.  "You're going to need all seven of Raleigh's Treasure Keys to access it."

"That's two more to go," Coco spoke up happily.  "Good thing we grabbed everything we came across on our way in."

"That's the way of the Master Thief," Sly agreed.

"I'll mark the area where you can find the last two keys," Bentley concluded.  "Be careful, you two."

"Says the guy who suggested we shoot ourselves out of a cannon," Sly teased as they broke communications, making Coco giggle.





The first objective marked to collect a Treasure Key was actually inside a submersible at the edge of a dock.  Once inside, the sub carried the pair into the depths, where the Treasure Key floated in the center.

"Sly, Coco!" Bentley called out through the Binoc-u-com.  "You've found where Raleigh's crab soldiers keep his treasure...but you'll have to fight them off before you can take the Key.  The sub is armed, so use its guns to take them down."

"Let me, Daddy," Coco offered.  "I'm better at ranged combat than you are."

"Be my guest," Sly allowed as the crabs started to come out.  "You take the guns, I'll take the sub."

The division of tasks worked wonderfully as Sly piloted the sub to evade the crabs' assaults while Coco spun the turrets to fire on them.  In order to access the Treasure Key, they also needed to break open 40 chests and collect their contents without letting the crabs get any into a tube...which they did so flawlessly.

With Treasure Key acquired, they returned to the surface.





The last mission objective led through an entrance at the top of the main building, to a sea level area filled with crashed ships.  Based on what could be heard from Raleigh over the loudspeakers, they were quickly able to determine that this was where Raleigh's men dragged sunken ships so their cargo could be unloaded at their leisure.  It also revealed that Raleigh knew that someone was after the Treasure Keys, and wanted them stopped.

"Well it's about time," Sly chuckled in mild amusement as he heard that.  "We've only got one key left.  Wonder what tipped him off?"

"Probably shutting off the generator," Coco suggested.  "Even if alarms didn't go off, he works with machines.  He had to have noticed the drop in power."

"Good thing we waited on that until we'd grabbed everything we could on the other side, then," Sly agreed, making his way forward.

As the pair explored the enclosed area, they discovered it wasn't just boats that had been dragged in there.  Crashed planes hung from the rafters, their propellers idly spinning in every breeze.  Thankfully, the area was relatively small, and it was easy enough for the pair to make their way to the Treasure Key, which was positioned right in front of the safe.

Cracking it open, Coco discovered another page of the Thievius Raccoonus, this one covering Karin Coopergiwa's Coin Magnet Technique, which involved applying a special coat to the metal of the Cooper Hook - or any metal in a thief's possession - to draw the coins used as currency to the Master Thief, making it much easier to gather funds for more complex heists.  With the technique memorized, the calling card was left in the page's place, and the Treasure Key was acquired.





With all seven Keys gathered, Sly unlocked the cannon and aimed it straight at the blimp.  "Ready Coco?" he asked softly.

"Ready," Coco confirmed confidently.

Smiling, Sly hopped into the cannon, closing them both in just before it went off, propelling them both into the air and safely through the glass window wall of the blimp.  As they landed, they found themselves in a wide open chamber filled with machinery.  On the opposite side of the room, Raleigh the frog sat upon a red velvet throne, wearing a much patched pirate hat that was taller than his entire body.  "How delightful," he proclaimed warmly.  "We have a guest.  The only thing is..."  His voice changed to have a great deal of anger behind it.  "I hate unexpected guests!" he proclaimed angrily.

"Listen Raleigh," Sly countered coldly, "wipe out my family and take what's mine, and you'd better expect company."

"Oh, I'm ever so-" Raleigh began.

"Could we skip the pleasantries?" Coco asked hopefully.  "Even by Thief hours, it's getting close to my bedtime.  I'd like it if we could resolve this - one way or the other - before then.  I get really cranky when I miss my bedtime."

Sly couldn't stop himself from chuckling, both at Coco's words and at Raleigh's expression.  "Trust me, you wouldn't like her when she's cranky."

"You think I'm just a joke?" Raleigh demanded angrily.  "I will crush you both like the insignificant pests you are!"

"How are you going to do that?" Coco asked curiously.  "Do you have a mechanical apparatus hooked into the blimp connected to a wand to let you shoot us with lightning, blasts of wind, or frigid rain?  Or maybe you've built yourself a robo-exo-suit that's going to fold out of your throne there so you can crush us with hands of steel?  Or maybe your throne will drop out of the blimp before sealing the place off with us in it and exploding, letting you use the backup storm-blimp to continue your reign of terror across the tides?"

Raleigh blinked for a time.  "...actually, I was just going to bloat myself up to immense size and try to jump on you to squash you, but those sound much better, and I think I could manage the first one.  Do you think you could step into the next room for an hour or so and let me get that set up?"

"Unfortunately, Coco's bedtime is in half an hour," Sly teased somewhat playfully.  "So it looks like you're out of luck."

"You think I can't handle you with only my own strength?" Raleigh roared in fury.  "I can still bloat to massive size and flatten-"

An audible shing sound heralded Coco drawing some of her drugged needles.  "So, he doesn't have any body armor...how strong a knock-out dose for something his size, Daddy?  A 1, a 2, or a 3?"

"Probably a 1," Sly suggested.  "Even if he bloats up, that's mostly air.  A 2 would probably be lethal."

"1 it is," Coco agreed as she put the two longer needles away.  "And bloated up, he's almost too easy a target.  Bet I can get him right between the eyes without damaging either one, even if he moves."

"You're on!" Sly praised.  "Once he's out cold, I'll shut off the storm machine and rewire his communicators so Carmelita can find this place."

Even though he hadn't bloated himself up yet, Raleigh seemed to deflate on himself.  "...well that's not fair at all..." he whined.

Coco smiled as she took a proper stance to throw the needle.  "I'd give a better response to that, but I'm only six.  I'm not allowed to use those words."  Her needle flew true, embedding right between Raleigh's eyes and knocking him out instantly.

As Sly went to the communicators, Coco went to Raleigh's unconscious form, carefully extracting her needle so as to leave no evidence, while also searching his body.  She eventually found a key, allowing her to unlock Raleigh's safe.  "Daddy, look!"

Inside the safe, several pages of the Thievius Raccoonus resided, containing detailed instructions on performing Ryoichi Cooper's Spire Jump technique, along with documentation covering the business and base of Muggshot - another of the Fiendish Five - in Utah.  "Good find, Coco," Sly praised.  "One down, four to go."