//------------------------------// // I - All Hell Breaks Loose // Story: My Little Sly Cooper: Thievery is Magic // by Deyeaz //------------------------------// My Little Sly Cooper: Thievery is Magic I - All Hell Breaks Loose "Sly! Come in! SLYYY! Do you read me?!?!" Bently's voice boomed through the Binoc-U-Com's earpiece. "Yeah, I read you, Bentley," Sly grimaced, twisting his pinkie in his ear from the sheer volume of his reptilian friend's outcry. He had nearly fallen off of his lookout post on a water tower near the Paris Police Station. "Loud and... Well, really loud." "Sorry about that, Sly. This operation has me a little bit on edge... We are breaking into Dimitri's lair, after all." "Suck it up, Bentley. You're safe in the getaway van! I'm the thief here; I have to steal the Crimson Diamond from Dmitri's hideout before he uses it for something terrible!" The Crimson Diamond was a powerful gem that was capable of destroying anything that stood in the user's path, amplified by only the user's touch. "Alright, Sly...." Bentley groaned. "Just remember to always stick to the shadows when you infiltrate Dmitri's hideout. Those lizard guards sure do look violent tonight." "Gotcha." "And don't forget that I'm at the wheel, Sly!" Murray interjected. It was always good to hear the cheery purple hippopotamus. "All you gotta do is nab that Diamond, and we'll take care of the rest!" "Nice. Keep that engine running, Murray. I'll be down in no time!" With that, Sly turned off the Binoc-U-Com and placed it in his backpack. He scanned his surroundings with sharp brown eyes, looking for something that could help him progress. He spotted a possible path: a horizontal flagpole some five meters away from him with a tall telephone post about a meter past it. Sly took a few careful steps back on the water tower before dashing towards his target, making his jump at the very edge of the tower's roof. He stuck out his family's cane and hooked it onto the flagpole, swung on it a couple of times to gather some momentum, then unhooked his cane and arced through the air, landing agilely upon the narrow telephone post. From his new perch, Sly noticed three telephone cables running from pole to pole one of which veered off to an abandoned warehouse near the docks. The warehouse had boarded-up windows, guards patrolling the entrances... and a sunroof that was left wide open. It was Dmitri's hideout, alright. Sly leapt off of the pole and twisted in the air, the head of his cane leaving behind a golden trail as it spun with him. He came in contact with the wire and began running along it with the dexterity of a tightrope walker, keeping low to avoid a guard's spotlight, which whipped around to see a telephone wire wobble and a gray-and-black striped tail whizz by. "Ssstay alert," the guard hissed towards his companions. "There could a be sssneaky little prowler on the premisssesss ...." "Never goes EXACTLY according to plan..." mused Sly, fixing his navy blue beret securely upon his head. At last he had reached the open sunroof of the warehouse. He crept inside the warehouse and landed softly upon a large blood red Persian rug. Standing not two feet away from Sly was a glass case, cradling the Crimson Diamond within it's silicate walls. "Nice," said the thief, relishing the lack of security for the Diamond itself. He swung his cane viciously at the glass case, shattering it with ease. *ERRRRR!... ERRRRR!... ERRRRR!* "Dang it!" Sly exclaimed as he swiftly snatched the Crimson Diamond, threw it into his backpack, and left the Cooper Family Symbol - a masked raccoon - where the Diamond previously sat, "How could I forget about the alarm?!" Sly knelt down into a squatting position before springing up to the sunroof, stretching his cane-arm as far as he could, and managed to hook onto the ledge. He scrambled up and booked it towards the getaway van, which was idling about fifty meters from him. He leapt onto the telephone cables again and bolted as fast as he could while maintaining his balance. He was halfway there... just a little more- *BAAAAAANG* *BZZZ-ZZZZ-ZZZZT* Something had happened to Sly; Suddenly, he was plummeting into reservoir below, his body suddenly seizing up as agonizing jolts of electricity coursed through him. He could have sworn he saw a smokin'-hot vixen in a police uniform holding a large red pistol watching with a mischievous smirk as he went down. Only one thing was on his mind: he couldn't swim "Another job taken care of," mumbled Carmelita Fox, holstering the Shock Pistol and clapping her hands free of nonexistent dust as she walked towards the scene of the crime. "Kick, Sly, kick!" the raccoon larcenist thought furiously as he lashed at the water. Alas, it was in vain. His body began to feel like lead from the strain of resisting the water's pull. The murky water began pulling him under, entering his mouth and filling his lungs. His struggles slowly came to a halt until, finally, he was still. All was quiet. All became black. "Sly?" Bentley hollered into the Binoc-u-Com. "Sly?! Come in, Sly!" "Bentley, what happened?!" asked Murray, chewing his fingernails anxiously. "It's Sly! He's not picking up his Binoc-u-Com! You don't think he's-" "No! Don't say that! Sly isn't dead!" "Murray..." "There's no way! Sly can't die!" "MURRAY!" Once ensured silence, Bentley pushed his glasses up his nose and wheeled over to Murray, who sat down in a nearby chair, shaking his head in worry. "You have to accept it. It's not easy, but... you gotta." Murray pulled Bentley into a crippling hug, tears threatening to blast forth from the fuchsia hippo's eyes.