Sly Cooper: Family of Thieves

by Blackdrag-rose

Thievius: Muggshot's Turf

"Okay, so how are we going to do this?" Derpy asked, as she, Gilda, and Sly could see three areas that they could take on and search for Treasure Keys, as well as any pages of the Thievius Raccoonus that they might have, and she was interested in what her siblings were thinking about.

"Well, considering that Muggshot's guard are using actual guns instead of throwing stars," Sly said, to which he gestured to the gangster dog that was walking on the other side of the small bridge that they needed to cross, as well as the other one that was patrolling near the convertible he had spotted, "we might be better served to split into two teams, even if that means that someone has to tackle an area alone. As such I would suggest that you and I take on the Boneyard Casino, which is actually lined up with where we're standing, while Gilda takes on one of the other areas at the same time."

"That sounds fair," Gilda commented, though after what they had done in Raleigh's base, and she had been in three different areas and collected three different safes, along with the items they contained, she guessed that taking one area, and potentially even a second one, was enough at the moment, "Well, while you take the casino on, I'll see what's at the marker to our right... and then maybe the other one, if I have time before you two return."

As Sly and Derpy nodded, as they were all in agreement about what they were going to do next, Gilda flew over to the backside of the gangster dog that was in front of them and knocked him out, letting the duo walk forward and approach the entrance of the casino... only to stop when the intercom came on and Muggshot started speaking, which they listened to since he might reveal something to them.

Yo, yo, yo! It's the boss! Muggshot said, causing the siblings to wonder why he was speaking in such a manner, as they were sure that gangsters didn't do that, but since none of them had seen the movie that gave Muggshot the desire for this lifestyle they really couldn't judge him too harshly for he had said, You know, I've been forced to admit that maybe driving everyone out of town, while necessary to set up shop, might have taken a hit out of their business. So now, I hope you mugs would be a pleasure to admit any visitors that come here to lose their money in my casino. But, I got a reliable tip that a cop might be snooping around the operation. So from now on, greet any visitors you see with a hail of lead! Capiche?

"Okay, so Muggshot is definitely the less intelligent member of the Fiendish Five," Gilda said, while at the same time she moaned as she considered what their foe had said, as she was sure that her siblings had thought the same thing, "So he tells his guards to admit people so they can lose their money, only to turn around and tell them to greet said visitors with a hail of bullets because a cop might be in the area. He basically told his guards to shoot anyone that shows up, regardless of why they came to Mesa City in the first place... I'm glad we're going to be knocking this guy down a peg."

"His current crimes might not be as bad as Raleigh's crimes, but his past crime is the same," Sly stated, referring to the reason they were here in the first place, to which his sisters nodded their heads for a moment, before sighing and turning towards the area he and Derpy had been heading towards, "and, since she's been following us since Paris, I'm fairly certain that this 'cop' that Muggshot heard about is Carmelita, which means we need to move fast before she catches us and stops us from completing our mission."

"Then let's get started." Derpy commented, to which she ran over to the entrance of the Boneyard Casino and headed inside, leaving Sly and Gilda to chuckle for a few seconds before splitting up and heading to the areas that they had picked out a few minutes ago.

When Sly caught up with Derpy he found that she was standing in front of the true casino entrance, as the one outside was just the sign pointing to where people would go to lose their money, though he noticed that a car had been driven into the area and was now parked near the door. The entrance itself was made of glass and appeared to be locked at the moment, though the reason Derpy hadn't smashed through it was because the sound of the glass breaking would alert the nearby guards as to the fact that someone was there. Fortunately there happened to be a switch nearby that opened the door for them and turned off the lights that were around them, allowing them to enter the casino under the cover of darkness, or in the shadows at least. As they walked out into the open area they discovered a gangster dog guarding the path in front of them, as well as two more of them patrolling the slot machines behind it, meaning that they were going to have to be careful in this area.

Of course that had been Sly's plan when he noticed what was arrayed against them, though Derpy simply opened her wings and flew over the first gangster dog, knocking him out before he had a chance to even know that someone was there, before slipping behind the other two and repeating the process. Sly had to admit that sometimes it was a good thing that Derpy and Gilda had wings, as it allowed them to overcome certain obstacles that he had to face on the ground, though at the same time they always returned to the ground so they didn't alert the guards to their presence. Besides, having the gangster dogs taken out for the moment was a blessing, as he was sure that they could have come running if one of their friends set off an alarm, something that Bentley would likely agree with, so he said nothing as he and Derpy explored the area that they were in.

They found two clue bottles along the route that the patrolling gangster dogs had been following, though as Sly collected them they spotted another guard waiting ahead of them, to which Derpy knocked him out as well before the two of them moved towards a pair of slot machines.

"I'll never understand why people like playing these machines and losing money on them all the time," Derpy said, though as she said that she noticed that the machine she approached happened to have a few loose coins resting on the floor in front of it, to which she picked them up and shrugged as she slipped a few of them into the slots, just to see what it was like to play one of the machines.

"Everyone has their own interests, and gambling is one of them," Sly replied, though he watched as Derpy pulled the lever and stared at the tumblers for a few seconds, to which they were both amazed when they came to a stop and coins started spilling out because she got the jackpot prize, while noticing that the sound on the machine was busted, "and you just put a lot of gamblers to shame by scoring a jackpot on your first attempt."

"Oops?" Derpy offered, as she had no idea if that was a good thing or a bad thing, especially since she didn't care about this at all, though she took a few of the coins and tried the next machine out, just for kicks, only to sigh as she scored yet another jackpot, "Okay, I'm so not doing this anymore. Once was fine, because I didn't care, but two jackpots in a row is creepy, especially when I like being a thief and don't want to become the ultimate gambler that always wins."

Sly chuckled as he and Derpy collected the coins, all of which possessing Muggshot's likeness of them, as he intended to hand them over to Bentley the first chance he got, as he was sure that they could make some money off of the lot, which they could add to what Derpy earned them from the treasure she took from Raleigh. If he didn't know better he would have sworn on the Thievius Raccoonus that Derpy was a member of the Cooper Clan with how she acted towards thieving, as it was almost like it was in her blood before he found her and Gilda at the orphanage. Sure, he had seen their original talent when the three of them, along with Murray and Bentley, stole the cookies from the headmistress of the orphanage, the reasoning behind why that was their first heist was sort of lost at this point in time, but it had spurred him to teach the girls the finer points that his father had taught him before his tragic end... and they took to it like they had been born just to be thieves, quickly earning the right to be called Coopers, in his opinion anyway.

He was also sure that his father, and the rest of their ancestors, were more than happy to have three young and successful heirs to the Cooper legacy, especially when they were in the process of restoring the family's most precious treasure and heirloom... before he pushed the thoughts back where they belonged and followed after Derpy as they delved deeper into what the casino had to offer.

The first thing they came across was another section of the new floor beams, though since there appeared to be three strips of it instead of two, like the last time they encountered this obstacle, they were able to run down the sides that didn't have any beams and switched to the middle one when it was time. It didn't take them long to reach the end of that obstacle and reach the end of where they rested, to which the duo collected the two clue bottles in front of them and bypassed the searchlights that were in the hallway. A few seconds later Sly and Derpy stopped near the alarm and switched it off, disabling both the floor beams and the searchlights, before they climbed up on top of a walkway that would allow them to sneak above a pair of gangster dogs. Derpy, of course, took a few moments to study how the guards were standing and noticed that there was enough room between them and the walkway that she could drop down behind them and surprise them, to which she did just that and knocked the two guards out... before she collected the three bottles they had been guarding while Sly did the same with the two that had been at the end of his walkway.

From there the duo started climbing up the rope that was in front of them, where Derpy grabbed the bottle at the bottom of it and smashed all of the ones she had collected so Bentley could have a large pool of clues to work from, before she followed after them... to which they crossed over the cash sign shaped chandeliers, grabbed another bottle, and knocked out the guard that was directly below them in the new area they had found.

Instead of moving forward immediately, like anyone else would do, the duo carefully explored the area around them and found seven more bottles in the area, where a few had been hidden up where some plants were located and needed a few seconds for them to find them. Once they had all the bottles in the area, and Derpy ignored the trio of slot machines that were on their right, the duo headed down the laser infested floor and made sure to jump when the lights were changing so they didn't set off the alarm. When they reached the end of the area, where Derpy took out the gangster dog before he could spot Sly, they took a few seconds to silence the alarm before they doubled back to collect the four hanging bottles that they had ignored in favor of turning off the systems. With those in hand they returned to the path in front of them and walked under a wooden effigy of Muggshot, complete with swinging legs for some reason, though as they moved forward they had to take out a card throwing dog while his back was turned.

They also collected the two bottles that were leading up to him, also ignored in favor of knocking him out first, before they walked down the ramp he had been guarding and found that a good part of the casino was flooded, meaning that Muggshot either didn't know about this or he didn't care about the place he forcefully acquired from it's original owners.

Fortunately it appeared that there were some gambling tables that were large enough for them to walk on without having to wade through the water, to which the duo carefully moved over the tables, to avoid making them sink, and collected a pair of bottles that were in front of them. After that they had to jump on three spinning tables and wait till they were near the next one in line before they could move forward, though their patience was rewarded with two more bottles once they jumped off the third spinning table. They then climbed up the nearby stairs and removed the pair of bottles that were in the safe they discovered, before they jumped up onto the next table in front of them and moved along the path it provided them, along with yet another pair of bottles. As they jumped across another trio of spinning tables Derpy realized that they had to be getting close to the end, as this many bottles in a row meant they had to be close to where the vault was located, and that was generally in the same area that the Treasure Key was resting in.

When they reached the end of the line, however, they turned off the alarm and jumped down onto a pair of tables below them, where they walked along the tables that rested in front of them and climbed up to a set of cash sign shaped chandeliers, before they came to a stop at the last one... where Derpy flew down and knocked out the gangster dog that was blocking the path, allowing Sly to claim the clue bottle before they moved on.

The next obstacle happened to be another trio of spinning tables, this time going in the reverse direction of what they were used to, and they also had another set of laser beams that would go off if they simply touched them, to which both Sly and Derpy carefully waited for the time to jump and did so when it showed up. From there it was a simple matter for them to reach the other table that the spinning ones were bringing them to, as well as disabling the alarm in the process, before collecting two more bottles and had to contend with yet another trio of spinning tables that had everything the last one had. The only difference was this new set of spinning tables was moving slower than the third set they came across, though that worked to their advantage as they were able to use a few smaller jumps to access the next table before they reached the end of the line. Sure enough three bottles, as well as the alarm to the beams, rested in front of them, as well as the vault they had been searching for, but since they didn't have all the clues they couldn't open it... where Sly and Derpy smiled as they climbed up on the chandeliers above them, as the last clue was up there, waiting for someone to claim it.

With all forty clue bottles claimed, and their contents shipped off to Bentley, the duo stood beside the vault and waited for the combination to be given to them, though when Bentley finally contacted them, and informed them that the code was 3-3-8. It was then that they recovered a page from the Thievius Raccoonus, or more accurately B.F. Cooper's technique on how to speed up the clock, which Bentley commented would be good for long stakeouts and other events that were similar to that. With the calling card in position the duo climbed up the rope again and dropped down onto the large spinning roulette wheel that was below them, where they had to jump in the opposite direction of how it was spinning and land on the green sections three times... before claiming the Treasure Key that had been stored in this area.

"Hey Sly," Derpy said, though at the same time she grabbed onto her bother and started flying towards the entrance, since it would be hard for him to make it all the way out on his own, "How do you think Gilda's doing on her own?"

"She's fine." Sly replied, as he had absolute faith in Gilda's abilities as a thief, just like he had faith in Derpy's skills, though at the same time he wondered what she was facing on her end, "Don't worry, I'm sure she's got one of the other two Treasure Keys by this point."

Derpy nodded her head and flew towards the entrance of the casino, because she was interested in hearing what her sister had gone through and what sort of challenges she needed to overcome before she could claim the Treasure Key that she had gone after.

---

Gilda had, once Sly and Derpy headed into the casino, flown around the area just to see where the other guards were located, which she knocked out immediately so she could have free reign of the entire area, before she landed in front of a tunnel that forced her to climb down a passage for a few moments. When she finally came to a stop, however, she landed beside what appeared to be a gun that someone could operate, though as she looked out at the area in front of her, and noticed that it was further away than what she would have expected, she found Murray standing near a locked gate. Since she had no idea what was going on at the moment, and had no idea why Murray was here, she pulled out her binocucom and connected it to Bentley, as she was sure that he had the answers to her questions.

"Bentley, what am I looking at?" Gilda asked, though she was slightly concerned for Murray's safety, especially since he's actually never been out in the field in a manner like this, save for being the driver for all of their various adventures that they had been on over the years.

"I scanned the area for more of Muggshot's Treasure Keys and Murray volunteered to get this one," Bentley replied, to which Gilda zeroed in on where Murray was standing, who turned and waved in the direction of the gun, which happened to be where she was standing, "He's in position to make a run for this key. What he needs is for someone to provide cover fire for him while he's doing that, and that's where you come in."

"I should be able to do this easily," Gilda said, as she studied the controls for a moment and found out that they were oddly simple, so she put away her binocucom, accessed the blasting station, and fired a test shot at the gate, opening it so Murray could get started.

The moment Murray started moving through the section of town that he was going to be running through, and Gilda followed after him while focusing on the area around him, he immediately stopped when one of the garage doors opened and a plank wielding guard emerged from the building. Before Murray even had a chance to cower in fear Gilda fired upon the guard and let him continue moving, to which she carefully watched for more plank wielding guards, especially since they appeared to be in control of this area. As Murray moved Gilda spotted some barrels, with what appeared to be the radioactive symbol on the side, that exploded when she fired at one of them, so when she cleared the next group of guards she quickly diverged from the path and blew the barrels, that would be blocking her path in the future, apart and got back to Murray in time to take out another guard.

It wasn't long before Murray made his way through the wrecked train that was along his path and safely reached the other side, though while he ran through the town Gilda made sure to fire at the guards that were showing up and held her fire when some barrels were revealed near Murray. From there Murray used a crane to reach the top of the buildings that would allow him to grab the Treasure Key, though that was when the opponents turned to gangster dogs, which were faster than the plank wielding dogs. Gilda, however, was still faster than those dogs and shot them the moment they made their appearance and let Murray move on once more, though as he did so Gilda noticed that he seemed slightly braver than he had been when he started this venture. A few moments later Murray reached the Treasure Key and grabbed it, to which Gilda made sure that he made a clean getaway with their prize before climbing off the blasting station and told Murray to hold onto the key so he could hand it to her when she arrived at the van.

Bentley, however, told her that there was another key that only Murray could get, to which Gilda sighed and headed back to the main area in front of the building, though since neither of her siblings were back yet she flew over to the third and final marker before finding herself on an overlook that allowed her to stare down at a race track.

As it turned out Murray had come here earlier for a snack and had been challenged to a race by some gangster dogs, who were actually willing to wait for a few minutes so he could prepare for this, which in reality was just his way of wanting someone to watch his back and cheer him on. Since Gilda was reduced to having a supporting role this time around, not that she was annoyed with such a thing, she cheered Murray on as he rode the van, which Bentley was still sitting in, onto the track and lined up behind the four dogs he would be racing against. Gilda knew that Murray liked to work on his van and what not, but when the race started he bumped into the racers that were trying to do the same to him and slowly made his way from fifth place to fourth place, using the nitro boosts that were along the track to his advantage. If Bentley was inside the van he made no noise as Murray raced to his hearts content, surprising Gilda with the fact that he didn't flip over in the process.

Gilda smiled and cheered Murray on the entire time, watching him make his way all the way up to the first place position and then got ahead of the dog that had been hogging that position the entire time, until he finished the third and final lap, claiming a second Treasure Key for Gilda and her siblings.

"Did I do good Gilda?" Murray asked, though while he claimed the second Treasure Key he also claimed the snack that he had been denied when he came out here the first time, something that he was going to eat after Gilda and the keys were gone and he was on his way back to where the van was supposed to be resting.

"You did excellent Murray." Gilda replied, and she meant it, because while Murray might not have any field experience, like her and her siblings, he had the makings of overcoming his fears and becoming something greater, "Go ahead and relax, you've definitely earned it this time around."

Murray smiled as he climbed back into the van, with his snack in hand, and drove off back to the entrance of Muggshot's territory, leaving Gilda with the two Treasure Keys that he had collected, who opened her wings and flew back to the entrance of the building, where she found her siblings waiting for her.

"Gilda!" Derpy said, throwing her arms around her sister when she landed, though at the same time Sly smiled and approached his sisters, holding the page of the Thievius Raccoonus that he and Derpy had acquired, "What did you do while we were inside the casino?"

"Oh, I helped Murray make a run for a Treasure Key," Gilda replied, though as she got out from her sister's hold she handed the keys over to Sly, who knew exactly what they were going to do with it, "and then I watched him race some gangster dogs, where he claimed the second Treasure Key."

"Wow, he's been a busy friend." Sly said, though at the same time he used three of the four keys they possessed to unlock the locks on the convertible, to which they stood back as he pulled the lever and let the car slam into the wooden barrier that was blocking their way.

Once that was removed the siblings walked inside the building, because now they were officially one step closer to taking on Muggshot and recovering what he had taken from them, though they knew that they would need to acquire a few more Treasure Keys before they could do that... which they were more than happy to collect, especially since they were bound to have more pages of the Thievius Raccoonus near them.

Comments

[Dark95191]

Derpy is a god at Slots? I Believe it!