//------------------------------// // Chunin // Story: Dressed to Steal // by Tatsurou //------------------------------// Whatever Mom and Dad talked about on the bridge, it seemed to work well. They were able to talk together normally and even laugh together when we were being family. On the other end of things, Mom was always there whenever we went after a big criminal mastermind, dogging us every step of the way, and Mom and Dad were enjoying the chases again. Things between them on the romantic side were a little awkward, but they were working through it and that was enough for me. This gave me two very happy birthdays. Of greater importance on my eighth birthday was the revelation that Dad thought I might be ready to have my own objectives on heists, meaning I'd no longer be relegated to either riding on his back or staying in the van except for when he was distracting Mom. ...for some reason, 'distracting' became some sort of joke to Uncle Murray and Uncle Bentley when Dad was explaining this all to me. It was apparently even funnier that I didn't get it. Still, much like when it was being determined if I could leave the van during heists, I had to take a sequence of tests to determine whether or not I was ready...to be a Chunin. The first was, surprisingly enough, a written exam... Sly sat back behind a 'teacher's desk' as Coco, Bentley, and Murray sat in chairs. "Here's how this test is going to go," he explained simply. "I will be giving you each a written test of ten questions. You will each start with ten points, lose one point for each incorrect answer, and two points for each cheat I catch you using. Whoever has the most points at the end of half an hour wins. Coco, for you to pass this segment, you must have the highest score." He flipped over an hourglass timed to half an hour. "Begin." Coco glanced down at the test as she flipped it over and blanched. None of the questions looked even remotely familiar, and she only vaguely recalled some of what they might be covering. She quickly glanced around the room to find a clue on what to do. Bentley had quickly begun filling out answers, hiding his sheet so no one could cheat off him. No help there. Scattered around the room were various textbooks covering the subjects the questions addressed. Murray had walked straight to a folder labeled 'Test Answers' and taken it back to his desk. "Eight out of ten sounds pretty good to me," he mumbled to himself as Sly put a hand to his forehead and chuckled. Coco frowned. Something about this whole situation felt achingly familiar... Realization clicked in her mind. With a wide grin, she pushed the test forward, not writing anything on it. At the end of the half hour, Sly collected the tests. "Murray, you got all the answers correct, but you didn't even bother to conceal your cheating, so you've got eight points." Murray rubbed the back of his head self-consciously. "Bentley, you got one answer wrong, so you have nine points." "Drat!" Bentley snapped. "I knew number seven was a trick question..." Sly glanced at Coco's test. "Coco...you didn't answer any of them." "No incorrect answers!" she pointed out in a sing-song tone. Sly chuckled and grinned. "And no cheating. Perfect score." Stepping forward, he ruffled her mane. ...and Mom said I'd never learn anything watching her anime collection. The next test was another obstacle course...this one designed with my abilities in mind. The challenge was to get through the door at the other side of the warehouse within the time limit. Of course, Dad and I both knew that none of the obstacles actually proved a challenge to me - there was only so much that could be done to test me when I could shoot flame jets from my hooves (a new application of Flame Fu I'd developed after Ms. Ruby's magic lessons) - so to prove a point I walked out the entry door, around to the exit door, and stepped back inside. The final test, however...was the last thing I ever expected. I was told that it would be a combat test, and I thought I was ready for anything, despite the opponent being a surprise... Coco stepped into the outdoor arena, glancing around to find her opponent. "I'm here!" she called out nervously. "I'm ready for-" Feeling an odd tingle in her spine, she rolled to the side just as a quarterstaff whiffed past her shoulder, smacking hard into the ground. That would have caught me in the head if I hadn't moved! Coco thought in surprise as she took in the figure of her assailant. He had a lithe, acrobatic figure, but his entire body was wrapped in a dark bodysuit. She couldn't even see the shape of ears or tail...or even if he had them. Even he was a guess, as she saw no mammaries. He lunged forward with the quarterstaff again, and Coco danced back out of the way as she unslung her cane. She traded blows of staff to cane for a while, trying to get a sense of her opponent. However, she rapidly found she was quite outmatched. Whoever was attacking her knew every move she was throwing at them, and had a counter for every one. Even when she tried to use her flame techniques, her assailant countered by breaking open a nearby fire hydrant and soaking her and the surrounding area. Dammit! Coco growled under her breath. Looks like I need to try out these new techniques if I'm going to have a chance...don't even know if I can get them to work... Her eyes widened as she saw the figure leaping upwards, only to land on a streetlamp and leave her temporarily blinded as she stared straight into it as it blinked on. Covering her eyes, she leapt to one side...as her shadow took shape as a duplicate of herself leaping to the other, managing to conceal which of them was the shadow and which was the original as each moved independently. Coco grinned as she saw the figure pull back in shock as her vision returned. It had taken some effort to figure out how to apply her magic to the Thief Replica technique, but once again Mom's anime had helped by giving her the idea to apply it to her shadow. This was the first successful test, so it wouldn't last long...but it didn't need to. Dashing forward, both of herselves kicked the lamppost near the base, causing it to tilt and drop the one riding it towards the water. Leaping off her copy, she dispelled it as her shadow returned and she leapt into the air. Focusing her magic into her hoof, she remembered how the technique had been described in both anime and manga, and what it had looked like in the game... A sphere of electricity took shape on her hoof, and as she thrust forward it lashed forward in a ray, striking the water and electrifying it. To her surprise, her foe leapt off the water before making contact with it, landing atop the fire hydrant. She quickly realized who she was facing and charged in, gathering the wind on her other hoof. She slammed the concentrated ball of wind and magic toward her foe, only to be redirected at the last moment into the hydrant by the quarterstaff. The explosion of water sent them both flying. Dad said I was a Chunin, ready to take my own objectives in the heists...just as soon as we both stopped sneezing. Unfortunately, it wasn't long after that when we learned something horrible. Mom sent a message that someone had gathered surviving parts of Clockwerk's metal body, and they were on display in a museum in Cairo. She went on to say that she was assigned as additional security, specifically on the off chance that we might go after the parts given our history with Clockwerk. We went in hoping things would be quick. Boy were we wrong...