It took Sly a few days to figure out where Dimitri was operating, and he had to call in a few favors that he wasn't willing to tell the rest of the gang about, but in the end he was able to determine that it was time well spent, because at the end of the day he had found where Dimitri's nightclub was located; the westside of Paris. He was also able to get some new information on their first target, who happened to be some sort of underworld celebrity that was equally at home in high-class art circles as he was in shady back-alley crimes. According to the information Sly was given they were able to figure out that Dimitri was once a passionate young art student, one that had worked hard to develop his own visionary style, but the art world wasn't quite ready for his 'Kinetic Aesthetic'. After a particular performance he started giving them what they wanted and started by forging old masterpieces, which was apparently his way of punishing those with bad taste, before eventually reaching the point that he was at now; operating a nightclub that had thumping music, colorful light shows, and a hint of danger that was meant to lure in chic young patrons from far and wide.
It was there, somewhere in his base of operations, that the Clockwerk Tail Feathers were located, as one of Sly's favors had actually revealed what Dimitri had taken from the ancient bird and what Rajan, their next target, had walked away with, but they put that in a file and placed it to the side, so they could focus on Dimitri.
Bentley, now armed with the information on Dimitri's whereabouts, was able to find an abandoned building that was literally right across the street from the entrance of the nightclub, one that had enough room for all of them and had a garage for Murray to park the van in. Sure, the garage was large enough for a few more vehicles, but since they only had the one they decided to let Murray have the rest of the space so he could work on the van or do whatever he wanted when he wasn't off doing his tasks to help them take out Dimitri. While he and Bentley were moving the van, and most of the gear, into position, Sly, Gilda, Derpy, and Diz used the rooftops to explore the part of Paris that they were in a little, to understand the sized of the nightclub itself, before they headed back to the building that they were taking over for the duration of this operation. When they arrived they found that a large table had been set up, with some chairs and some other essentials resting around the room, but for the most part it was all stuff that could be packed away in a hurry if they needed to flee quickly, which would happen once they had the Tail Feathers.
Upon their return Bentley had an interesting and completely unexpected surprise waiting for them, as the moment Sly opened the door he found Carmelita standing near Bentley, discussing what she knew about Dimitri and the nightclub with him... but instead of her usual attire, which Sly was used to seeing, she was wearing what appeared to be the attire of a Cooper thief, complete with the same coloration of his own clothing, while also showing off her stomach like her usual clothing. Resting off to the side was a mask, the same that Gilda and Derpy wore when they were on the job, and a pair of canes that looked like his, only they were half the size and had smaller hooks on the top. Carmelita, for whatever reason, was dressed up as a thief from Sly's gang, confusing Sly at the moment, since this hadn't been mentioned to him and he had no idea how to take it without questioning everything.
"Carmelita?" Sly asked, deciding that they could spend a few minutes talking so he could figure out what was going on, though at the same time Bentley and Carmelita stopped discussing whatever they were talking about and turned towards the door as Sly's group entered the building, "What's going on?"
"Well, Bentley informed me that you guys were going after the Clockwerk parts and I told Secretary Sen the news," Carmelita replied, though at the same time she took a seat and stared out the window, where Sly realized she was staring at the nightclub and was likely thinking about it's owner, "he also told me when you guys were planning on arriving here and when, in his estimates, you might be making your move on Dimitri. Secretary Sen told me that it would take a few hours for our forces to be ready for any sort of action on the nightclub, giving us plenty of time to pull off whatever plan you guys come up with. And, since being a cop would draw too much attention and the Secretary gave me permission, I decided to change my attire for this part of the operation... I figured that, with Diz being a new addition to the team, no one would think twice if the Cooper Gang suddenly had another member added to their ranks."
"Let me get this straight," Derpy said, as while she understood what was going on she was having a hard time believing that Carmelita, who was a cop, would willing switch sides like that, even though she understood the reasoning behind the decision, "Are you telling us that this is an Interpol operation? And that Secretary Sen is allowing you to take such an active role in hunting down the Clockwerk parts?"
"Yes, because Secretary Sen had a thought about the Clockwerk parts," Carmelita answered, to which she turned her attention back towards Sly, as when she heard this piece of information she wondered if she should have called the Secretary insane, but had decided not to, especially since she knew a fair number of magic users, "He's worried that the Klaww Gang might accidentally put Clockwerk's body back together, one way or another, and resurrect the ancient owl, since he's sure that Clockwerk's soul is still attached to his body."
"The possible resurrection of Clockwerk... that's not a nice thought to have." Sly said, to which he sighed as the rest of his group took a seat around the table, before he smiled and looked at the assembled gang that rested in front of him, as he felt it was fair to add Carmelita to that count, "Okay, then we had best get to work. Now, since there's seven of us, that means we'll have to split up into teams to tackle every mission that we take on before we figure out how to get at the Clockwerk Tail Feathers."
"Speaking of missions, I already have one ready to go," Bentley commented, causing the group to turn towards him for a moment, as he was the brains of the operation and had a good idea of what they needed to do before they could create any real plans, "I've installed a special antenna on the top of this building, one that will allow us to hack into Dimitri's satellite array... and I've already loaded the coordinates to the mission start point into your binocucom. Once you're there I'll tell you the rest of my plan, and then you can do what you do best."
"Well then, let's get the party started." Sly said, to which he turned to head towards the door, though before he even took a step he made sure to stop when he was facing Carmelita, who looked up at him for a moment, "Carmelita, would you like to join me on your first official Cooper Gang mission?"
"Sly, of course I would like to join you." Carmelita replied, though before she slipped on the mask, and truly took on the new persona she and Secretary Sen had created for such an occasion, she kissed Sly on the cheek for a moment, before she donned the mask, picked up her miniature canes, and walked through the door.
Sly stood there for a moment, thinking about how thankful he was that something had brought him and Carmelita together in such a manner, before swinging his cane as he headed out the door as well, to which the two of them climbed the pipe that was next to the door and climbed up to the roof of the building. The short climb up to the roof gave Sly the chance to see that Carmelita's movements mimicked his own, which made sense considering that she had been chasing him and his gang over the years, but then he decided to test her out a little bit. As such he jumped over the gap between the building they had taken and the one near them, as well as walking over a rope to a third building, Carmelita surprised him by showing that she could follow his movements. Sure, he was surprised by the fact that Carmelita was moving like a Cooper could, one that was still training anyway, but at the same time he didn't mind her abilities, as he had considered teaching her some of them at some point, just so she could make the chases they did after every heist even funner for the two of them... but instead of focusing on that he turned his mind to the task at hand, as there would be time to applaud her skills later.
It didn't take the two of them long to reach the area that Bentley had marked as the area where he would tell them the rest of the mission that he wanted them to undertake, though as Sly pulled out his binocucom he noticed that Carmelita had one, no doubt created by Bentley, that she pulled out as well... though they stood in an area where Dimitri's guards wouldn't see them until they had moved from the area.
"Sly, I need you and Carmelita to hack into Dimitri's communication array so that we'll have access to his database." Bentley said, though part of his voice revealed that he found it odd to be telling a cop, even one that was technically undercover at the moment, to break the law, while Sly found that Carmelita didn't even show any annoyance towards the task they were being told to do.
"And how are we supposed to do that?" Carmelita asked, surprising Sly by the fact that she was the one to ask the question on what they needed to do, but he said nothing as Bentley started to reply to the question.
"To start, you'll need to get to the top of that tower." Bentley replied, to which their binocucoms zeroed in on the water tower that was near their current location, one where a rat guard was occasionally seen walking around the base of the structure, "Then reposition the satellite dish to point at my safe house antenna. Once you have done that I'll send you two the positions of the remaining two satellites, and then we'll have access to his entire database."
"We'll get to work right away." Sly said, though even as he put his binocucom down, and glanced around for Carmelita, he found that she was already heading over to the water tower and slipped in behind the rat guard the moment he passed by the pipe that would let them climb up to the top of the structure, "...she's faster than I remember..."
Carmelita put her miniature canes away and latched onto the pipe that was attached to the water tower, where she climbed up to the top of the structure and walked over to the satellite dish that happened to be up there, to which she tapped a few of the controls and watched as the dish turned until it was pointing at the safe house... though once that was done she jumped down to the street and walked back over to where Sly was standing.
"So, how'd I do?" Carmelita asked, though at the same time she smiled, as she could tell that Sly was shocked by the fact that she had taken part of their mission head on and completed it the way a Cooper would, once more proving Neyla right that she knew the Cooper Gang better than anyone else did.
"You doing well, for this being your first time in the field with us." Sly replied, to which he thought back to the times where he wasn't at the warehouse, and the rest of his gang was, and wondered if his sisters had a hand in helping Carmelita get to this point, "Maybe by the time we've gathered all the Clockwerk parts, and figured out what we're going to do with them, you'll choose to go by Carmelita 'Cooper', instead of Carmelita Fox."
"Don't push it Sly." Carmelita said, though where one would assume that she would have been annoyed by that statement, since she was a cop first most days, she didn't show any signs of annoyance, rather she actually seemed to like the idea of being part of his family, "This is only temporary... and besides, we still have two more satellites to reposition so Bentley can figure out what the gang needs to do next."
Sly nodded and the two of them headed up to the roof of the building that they had used to reach this part of the city, where they carefully followed the path that they had taken to reach the water tower and headed back towards the safe house, before they ran off to the building behind the safe house. The reason behind that decision was because of the satellite that was near it, to which Sly tapped the controls this time around and soon enough the dish was pointed at Bentley's antenna. With that done the two of them continued towards the third beacon that they was near them, though as they walked across the roofs, and enjoyed being alone for a few moments, Sly briefly noticed that there were some clue bottles scattered all over the place. This time around he paid them no mind, as there really was no reason for them to gather the clues, but at the same time he reflected to tell his sisters about it, because he was sure that they were going to get bored of waiting around and doing nothing... though a few moments later he and Carmelita approached the third satellite and made sure that the dish was pointed at the antenna.
With their task complete Sly and Carmelita stood there for a few seconds, as they knew that Bentley was working on seeing what Dimitri had for them to use against him, or at the very least where the gang might be able to strike so they could open a way to wherever the Tail Feathers were located.
"Nice work you two." Bentley said, though this time his tone revealed that he was pleased with their progress, where both Sly and Carmelita could hear him tapping on some keys while he stared at his computer, "I'm downloading from Dimitri's mainframe as we speak!"
"All in a night's work." Sly replied, though as he spoke he noticed that Carmelita was standing close to him, where he smiled and stood close to her as well, just in case they had nothing to do and could spend a few moments together on the roof, even though his instincts told him otherwise, "So, where do we go from here?"
"Your next job is to break into the nightclub and take some reconnaissance photos of the Clockwerk Tail Feathers." Bentley informed them, as he already knew that they were eager to spend a few more minutes with each other and see what it would have been like if they were on the same time of the law for a change, "To get inside, you'll have to sneak in through an old wine cellar beneath town."
"Okay, we're heading over to the location of the wine cellar." Carmelita said, once more surprising Sly, as he was expecting her to have a problem or two with breaking into the nightclub in such a way, but it seemed that since this was an Interpol operation, and she had been given permission by a Secretary to do what needed to be done to stop Clockwerk from coming back to life, she was able to look passed the laws she was breaking.
Fortunately the entrance of the wine cellar was near the building that they were standing on, to which the two of them jumped down to the street level once more, crossed the street itself, and opened the door to the wine cellar, though as they did that they found that Murray was standing nearby... meaning that Bentley had known this was coming and sent him as backup for part of this mission, even if they didn't need any assistance.
"Sly, Carmelita, it's good to see that you two are alright." Murray said, his tone saying that he half expected them to be fighting with each other over something or have been hurt by one of the guards, but he smiled as she glanced at the path that was in front of them, "I guess the way through the wine cellar is guarded by those rats. Bentley thought you two might like some help clearing them out."
"That's thoughtful of him," Carmelita replied, though this time around she readied her miniature canes, indicating that she was ready for a fight and surprised Murray for a moment, who ended up chuckling as the three of them walked forward and ambushed the guards.
The rat guards, despite their numbers, clearly weren't expecting anyone to come down here and try anything, as the first few went down without even offering a fight, though the ones that followed them, now alert to the presence of the trio, were ready for some action. While Sly swung his cane, and knocked out his targets with some precise attacks, he noticed that Carmelita used her miniature canes in the same manner, hitting her opponents where Sly did and knocked them out as well. It was impressive, he had to admit that, but it also meant that she had really been learning how he and his family moved through the various areas and how they fought those that they came across, save for specific people like the members of the Fiendish Five or Dimitri. Murray, of course, slammed his fists into his opponents, hitting them with enough force to knock them out, until eventually all of the guards had been dealt with, to which he ran over to the barred wall that the guards had been protecting and grabbed a nearby lever... one that, when he pulled it up, created an opening that Sly could easily jump through with the double jump skill he had, which Carmelita did as well.
Once the two of them were on the other side of the gate, and Murray said he'd be back at the safe house, they carefully continued along the tunnel that was in front of them, as they had to avoid the moving laser walls that lined the tunnel and even crawled under some tables to move forward. The tables not only gave them the ability to move through the laser walls, but it also gave them the ability to stealthy move pass by the warthog guards that stood guard over the second half of the tunnel, who were also carrying flashlights. Despite the fact that Sly knew he and Carmelita could take them, if such a thing were to happen, he also knew that the sound of a fight would draw the attention of the guards further down the hallway and they'd be caught. As such they carefully moved around the warthog guards as they made their way down the remainder of the hallway, where they eventually reached a vent that the two of them climbed through, until they came out in a dressing room that was part of the nightclub... and, at the entrance of this room, was another warthog guard standing in front of a stable laser wall, one that Sly recognized immediately.
"What are we supposed to do now?" Carmelita quietly asked, as this wasn't something she had come across when she was chasing Sly and the rest of the gang, but at the same time she knew the look in Sly's eyes well enough to know that he must have an idea on how to move forward.
"We knock him out." Sly quietly replied, to which he gestured to the warthog's hands for a moment, where Carmelita saw that the guard was holding a flashlight in one hand and a device that seemed to be linked to the laser wall, "If we knock him out we can use the device he's holding to take out the laser wall, where he'll report it as him falling asleep on the job and accidentally pressing the button, or making up some lie to protect himself."
Carmelita was surprised to hear that the method in question was the same thing that the Cooper Gang did to the majority of the guards they came across, which made sense when she thought about it, to which she nodded and the two of them silently approached the warthog. The guard barely had a second to register what was going on as both Sly and Carmelita struck him at the same time, knocking him out cold in the process, to which Sly tapped the button with the guard's finger, leaving behind no evidence that he was even here, before they entered the actual nightclub. Fortunately the part of the nightclub they were in appeared to be closed for the night, meaning they might have a clear shot at the area that the Tail Feathers were stored in, though to move forward they had to take out a second warthog in the same manner as the first one. From there they found a foyer area with two rat guards carefully patrolling the area, to which the two of them smiled for a moment as they separated from each other and knocked out the guards that were in their way, before approaching the stage and crawled into the vent that was by the piano.
Luck was definitely on their side this time around, because that vent in question happened to drown them down into a metallic observation area that allowed them to stare at the heart of Dimitri's operation, where they could see the iguana walking around the upper walkway as they located the Tail Feathers... which were being used as printing plates, based on the machinery that was around them.
"I must say, that's some smart thinking," Carmelita commented, her voice loud enough for Sly to hear her while also being soft enough so that it didn't tell Dimitri that someone had found out his dirty secret, though at the same time she pulled out her binocucom and started taking some pictures of their target, the Clockwerk part he took, and the generator that rested in the middle of the room, "From what the experts can tell Clockwerk's body is made out of some sort of rare alloy, one they can't even begin to figure out what it's made out of, so using the Tail Feathers like this means that they'll never wear out... and Dimitri will have unlimited forged money for as long as they're in his possession."
"I say it's time we put a quick end to his plans." Sly said, to which Carmelita nodded her agreement, as this was the sort of thing she was trying to stop from her side of the law, before she finished taking all the pictures that Bentley needed for his studies.
The instant Carmelita took the last picture she put her binocucom away and the two of them started to retrace their steps back to the wine cellar they had come from, allowing them to slip out of the nightclub and make their way back to the safe house without Dimitri knowing they were even there.
Despite the fact that their first pair of missions for this operation, which happened to be Carmelita's first pair of missions as a member of the Cooper Gang, all Bentley was able to come up with, from the photos and what he had learned when Gilda and Derpy flew around town to collect the thirty clue bottles that Dimitri had scattered around the place, was that a direct assault was impossible. He concluded that they needed additional information so they could understand Dimitri's operation better, which would then allow them to properly plan a real operation to get at the Tail Feathers and escape before Interpol showed up. His current plan was for one group to take a bugged painting and switch it with the one that was inside Dimitri's office, meaning they would be able to listen in on some of his conversations and figure out where to hit next, though a secondary objective was for someone to tail the iguana if anyone saw him, as that might reveal another weakness for them to exploit.
Bentley and the others also congratulated Carmelita on a job well done, meaning that, if she ever decided that being a cop was no longer to her liking, they would be more than happy to let her permanently join the gang, though while she blushed at that comment she focused on the task at hand... figuring out the weaknesses of the operation so they could bust Dimitri and steal the Tail Feathers from him.