Being raised primarily by a criminal Gang was certainly an experience. One of the first things I learned from Daddy was what it meant to be a Cooper: only steal from other criminals, with other thieves considered the cream of the crop as far as targets. After all, to steal from another Master Thief was the greatest challenge a Master Thief could ever face. This wasn't just about the challenge of it, however. It was also about an ethical and moral stance.
As Daddy put it, in terms of civilization thieves were predators. Civilians - those who lived their lives by the law and under its protection - were akin to domesticated animals, with the government being the domesticating force, and law enforcement the guard dogs. The Cooper bloodline, however, was a family of civilized predators, in those terms. Their prey was other predators, and in that way were oddly good for civilization. In addition to keeping the criminal element in line, it kept law enforcement on their toes trying to catch them.
Once I understood as much of what could be taught to me about the Family, Daddy started teaching me the skills I'd need to be part of the Gang. He kept things simple, but I soon discovered a unique talent for it...
"There are three basic skills as a thief," Sly explained to Coco as she watched him carefully, memorizing the words rather than taking notes (written records could be used against you, after all). "The agility to evade detection, pickpocketing, and safe cracking. All the skills of the Master Thief derive from these three. If you can do these three, you can accomplish anything with enough preparation and practice. Understand?"
Coco nodded eagerly. For her training, she was dressed in a miniature version of Sly's normal outfit. A blue long sleeved jacket, a blue beret, and a black eye mask. Sly did his best not to be swayed by how adorable that look made her when combined with her shining eyes and enthusiastic grin. "Got it, Daddy!"
Sly grinned as he looked down at her. "Now, pickpocketing requires a bit more agility than you currently have, and you're a bit young to get the full scale training for agility, so we'll start out with safe cracking. After all, quite a few skills derive from knowing how to handle a safe, and it should be the easiest for you to master. Are you ready?"
Coco nodded eagerly. "Yes Daddy, I am."
Sly stepped back, gesturing to two rooms they'd set up. "Behind the door on the left is the practice room. We've set it up so you can practice safe cracking until you're ready to try it for real. Inside each room, one safe and nine clue-bottles are scattered around."
"Clue-bottles?" Coco asked curiously.
Sly nodded. "Anytime there's a combination safe, there will be details scattered around the area that will allow one to determine the combination to the safe. Sometimes these will be documents, sometimes it will be clues embedded in various pieces of art or inscribed on the walls...but there will always be clues. It's in the nature of the mind to follow patterns, and if you can decode the patterns, the combination can be determined." He smirked pleasantly. "It's why Bentley's updated our personal security to bio-match scanners of his own design, concealed behind combination locks that don't actually do anything."
Bentley rubbed the back of his head nervously as Coco turned to look at him with wide-eyed awe. "Aw, Sly...do you have to make it out to be such a big deal?" he complained, flushed with embarrassment.
"Just giving credit where it's due," Sly pointed out easily. He then tapped the floor with the butt of his cane to get Coco's attention again. "The exact number of clues available varies frequently, but for this first attempt at both training and trial run, we've stuck to nine. Once you feel confident in the training room, give the trial room a try." He gestured to the other door. "There you will be timed on how quickly you find the nine clues, find the safe, and open it."
"And don't think you can just pop the safes, either!" Murray spoke up. "Not only do we change the combinations every time, but there's also always two false combinations. If you try to open the safe with a false combination, it'll spring a trap. That's an automatic fail."
Coco nodded in understanding. "Alright. I'll go practice." With that, she made her way to the practice room.
As she'd been told, a bit of an obstacle course was set up, though with no clear finish line. Instead, she had to explore the course, finding the nine clue-bottles and the safe. She took her time in exploring, making sure she didn't trip into the mud puddles or oil slicks, which were set up to make things more difficult to complete the challenge should she fall in. Thankfully, her small size and light weight played to her advantage. While she couldn't leap as high as Sly could, she could walk on surfaces that wouldn't support his weight.
Once she had all nine clues from the bottles, she laid them out in front of the safe. She saw the safe had three tumblers 0-9, and the nine clues were the nine squares of a piece of paper with the combination writ large across them once assembled properly. The combination was 4-0-8. Looking up, she saw that the tumblers were currently set to 5-5-5.
Leaning up, she grabbed the first tumbler. Due to her size, she had to press her ear to the safe to turn it, and accidentally turned it the wrong way, to 6. "That's not-" She stopped as she heard the tumbler turning, and heard a strange click inside that sounded...wrong, somehow. "Hmm..." Turning the dial again, she listened as the tumbler moved, but there was no click. Continuing to turn the dial, she heard another wrong sounding click at 9, and then a somehow satisfying click-thunk on 4. What was odd to her was just how quiet the sounds were, even with her ear practically pressed to the safe. "Interesting..."
She continued turning the dials and listening to the tumblers. As she did, she heard the off sounding clicks and the satisfying click-thunks. Once the right code was input, she pulled the lever, and the safe swung open, revealing a small chocolate. "Is...is this my prize?" she gasped out happily.
"That's right," Sly called out proudly. "Of course, you only get one prize per room each day of training, no matter how many times you go through the training room." He chuckled as he watched her devour the chocolate eagerly. "So, want to train again?"
Coco rubbed her chin thoughtfully. "Umm...could I try the trial?"
Murray chuckled at that. "Eager for her sweets, huh? Just like me."
"Alright, Coco," Sly responded. "We'll be watching from above. Good luck."
Nodding, Coco made her way into the other room. Much to her surprise, as soon as she stepped in, the safe was in plain sight, and a large timer began counting upward. She couldn't see any sign of any clue-bottles, and knew she'd have to search carefully...if she decided to look for them. Instead, she made her way straight to the safe, which currently had 3-3-3 input as a code.
Putting her ear to the safe, she started turning the first dial, listening to the ticks, the clicks, and eventually the click-thumps. After the third one, she pulled back and saw 6-0-9 input as the combination. Reaching up, she pulled the lever.
She heard a ding as the timer stopped, and the safe swung open. As she dove on the chocolate, Sly leapt down and came to her side. "So, was that a lucky guess, or something else?" he asked curiously.
Coco shrugged her shoulders. "I...listened," she explained around the chocolate in her mouth. She gestured to the safe in explanation. Sly sat back, rubbing his chin thoughtfully.
Uncle Bentley was able to figure out what happened there. Apparently, I heard things differently than everyone else did, logical because I was so different as a species. With my ear to the safe, I was able to hear how the tumblers moved as I input the combinations...and now I knew how to recognize both correct and incorrect combinations by doing so. As long as a combination lock was mechanical rather than electronic, I wouldn't need clues to crack it.
This made Daddy very, very proud. I got a milkshake for dinner!
Milkshake for DINNER!? Truly, a greater prize has never been known! Especially when I was at that age!
I want a chocolate milkshake now...
Dawww that was sweet.
HHHHHHHNNNNNNNNGGGGG!!!
Coco being able to hear tumblrs.... man, I can think of a ton of games where I wish my character had that skill instead of having to use a dagger and a pick to get past locks.
7576428
Like Rockstar's "Bully". Heck, I used to be able to do that back in High School myself. I have either lost the knack for it since then, or combination locks have gotten better over the years. It could go either way, really.
Tatsurou, constantly trying to kill his readers.
Man, A Cooper Clan Crossover... This shall not be topped by anything ever!
Wonder if she can do dial safes.
Awwwwhahahawwww... cutest thief ever!
Nicely done man!
7576516
Actually, a raccoon's best sense is their sense of touch.
7576493
Sometimes, pieces in museums are there on loan from private(read:criminals') collections, and, depending on relative security, could be the easiest point to liberate said item(s) from the previous owner(s).
Guess it's safe to say that she has excellent hearing.
Maybe the training will dial up to a higher difficulty from here on out.
Seems some things don't need to be bottle fed to Coco.
7576842 Papyrus: "WILL YOU CUT IT OUT SANS!!! YOUR PUNS ARE SO ANNOYING! "
But seriously, anyone know if you can change the font in these comment boxes? I see other sans everywhere and it would be more fitting to have the fonts match right.
7577072 Oh you can, it's just my older writing habits are still here from a spellchecker so challenging confusing for me but sure, I'll try.
7577197 not asking you to do it. Just wondering how I can change the font myself.
7576542 I more concerned with the fact that sly can basically skip the clues and get all of his upgrades without having to work for them....Tell me I'm not the only one who feels cheated especially after the flaming temple of flame level!
7577298
*Shrugs* Never experienced the games first hand, only walkthrough. Most of my interest here is to see how things will change and so on.
I'm sorry Tats but are you trying to have her steal our health with the unhealthy amount of adorable Coco is?
But Coco knowing a Cooper family tech of listening to the tumblers? Sounds about right, can't wait to see more, keep up the good work
oh i can see the evil cuteness now...this may even reach twilight levels of evil cuteness
7577226 you can only change the font for your own comments since that was your question, you can't change other people's fonts.
7577375 OK, but how do I do that?
Another enjoyable chapter. Good job.
7577349 Have you ever played Mass Effect 2 with the Stolen Memory DLC? If the answer is no, here's a quick summery of the relevant bits. You end up helping a Master Thief steal a neural implant containing highly sensitive information from a "white collar warlord" who had her boyfriend murdered to get his hands on said implant. Inside his vault are The David, Several ancient Egyptian relics and Lady Liberty's Head, alongside several likely equally culturally significant alien artifacts and art pieces. And since all of this stuff Isn't on display in the more public gallery area of the warlord's home above, it's likely that all of these pieces were illicitly obtained.
It's possible, given the implied level of crime to be found in the Sly Cooper setting (both in frequency and in the Scale of the crimes in question), that the artifacts and national treasures that can be found in the Cooper Vault were indeed stolen from thieves who stole them first, or "Private Collectors" who obtained them through the black market or back room channels, and that they simply haven't figured out how to return them to their rightful places and owners without bringing too much heat onto themselves from the legitimate law agencies.
7577349
7577974
My headcanon on the situation.
7577515 And Assassin's Creed 3 as well as the Thief 2015 game.
Interesting, being a completely unknown species apparently has advantages.
7577456 In the comment box there's all those symbols just above it. B is for bold, I is for italics, U is for underline. Just type out your comment, highlight which part (or all) that you want to change the font of then click one of the options above.
There's also the option to have your comments
strikedacross with the fourth option, make the font bigger or smaller with the fifth option and changing the text colour with the sixth option.Nice one, man.
And you too, Coco.
7578425 oh, those I know. I meant the font style, like how they had in the undertake games where sans spoke with comic sans font and papyrus with the papyrus font
7579016 Ahh, for that you have to ask someone who knows how to use the html coding. Unfortunately, I don't know anyone, try asking around, there should be someone.
7576409 I want a mint one.
Strawberry would do too..
7579226 cool. I'll try seeing if I could find the answer on-line. When I do, I'll send you a link showing how in case you wanted to start doing your posts in comic sans.
Next up, Bethesda style lockpicking I think.
7580960 I've noticed that the lockpicking in Skyrim is essentially the same minigame in Fallout.
7578329 The Fallout games have this as well.
Love the cover art.
Yes, finally! A fic that has coco pommel, and a decent storyline! This day can't get any better!
Stand back everypony! 'Cause I am about race into this story from the starting line to the finish line!! Watch out Tatsurou! You got yourself another fan of this story!
We've got a cover art. A very nice cover art too.
Sense she can open the vaults without the code, does that mean that she can open the vault in the Panda King's level that needs the player to fight Clockwork to open it?
I'm getting the feeling Daisuke Niwa's childhood training as a future Phantom Thief went something like this.
DNAngel was a great anime.
....A way to crack safes whitout having to search every singel nook and cranny for 4 hours for that last clue bottle..... I call hax
Hnnnnnnnnng, Coco
Clever girl...
7584455 I was on reading break. Try catching up to three stories, start a new one, and plan to catch up on a fourth while debating on a fifth light reading. Tatsorou is literally the most interesting writer in my reading list especially since everyone else isn't updating that much recently.
I know you might win this race- Wait, how can we calculate who is winning?
Let us assume I won in the effort department and you beat me in the Sly Cooper track.
7576493 Maybe they sometimes stole famous things and returned them just to prove how competent they are? It wouldn't be the first time in real life or fiction that a thief has done that.
I've never played any of the Sly Cooper games, but it seems like I would like them.
7702147 I've only played the first one so far, but I can confirm it's a lot of fun.
Finally a sly cooper crossover!
7763230 i've never played sly cooper, but i've seen ratchet & clank redux gameplay videos
7759746 They all are. I've played all four. Wonder what they're going to do for a fifth one.
8084869
Well now i'm curious. I've come across these before but passed them over at the time. I suspect it's due to the fact i was turning away from platformers and looking more at strategy and rpgs. The cooper games didn't seem any different from the slew of other typical platform/puzzle, Banjo Kazooie-esque type games from around that time.
Reading this I now feel like I might have missed out.