Sly Cooper: Family of Thieves

by Blackdrag-rose

Band: Moonlight Rendezvous

The instant Bentley informed them of what they needed to do, which was only two missions at the moment, Gilda decided to tackle handling the bugged painting that Bentley had pointed out while Derpy, on the other hand, would fly around the area and see if she couldn't find Dimitri anywhere. That gave Sly and Carmelita the chance to relax as they waited to see what happened next, though while Diz clearly felt left out, since everyone seemed to be doing something, Bentley was quick to assure him that he'd have a chance to do something soon enough. As such the sisters walked out of the safe house and took to the skies, though while Gilda quickly returned to the ground when she spotted the area that the bugged painting was in she noticed that Derpy was still flying around the nightclub, hunting for Dimitri. As Gilda landed on the street, and made absolutely sure that there weren't any guards around, she took a moment to stare at the painting that was supposed to be a 'Dimitri Original', though at the same time Bentley had quickly explained that it was definitely a forgery.

She glared at the painting for a few seconds, as she didn't understand why people would like the picture of the screaming person that had been painted onto the canvas, but she said nothing about that as she silently pulled out her binocucom and readied herself for the rest of Bentley's briefing on the mission.

"Gilda, while Sly and Carmelita were busy earlier I managed to outfit this forged painting with a bug." Bentley explained, revealing that he feared that they might need more information and had prepared himself ahead of time, which was paying off right now, "I need you to sneak into Dimitri's office and swap it with the original."

"And then we'll be able to listen in on his communications?" Gilda inquired, as she understood what the plan was supposed to be, but she figured that letting Bentley repeat himself sometimes would reveal any additional information about a mission and calm his nerves down more than they already were.

"Yes, I thought things might go more smoothly with an ear on the inside." Bentley said, though before Gilda made a move she heard something on the other end, but while she didn't catch what was said she stopped anyway, as she figured there might be even more for her to learn, "Sly also reminded me to tell you to be a little careful with the fine art, because if you can get it back here in one piece I might be able to sell it on Thief-Net and get some cash for the future."

Gilda nodded and carefully slipped her cane into the holder on her back, where she generally stored it when she was flying and wanted both of her hands free, before she gently lifted the painting from it's resting place and turned towards the street that was in front of her. Fortunately she had one advantage that Dimitri never compensated for, as she opened her wings and carefully flew over to the window that would allow her to enter the part of the nightclub that held Dimitri's office, and likely his vault as well. After opening the window, and climbing inside the building, she found that there were a number of janitor rats in front of the door that led to Dimitri's office, though since Bentley was sure that it was locked from the other side, and told her that when she entered the building, she could always use the indirect approach and make her way across the floor, up a railing, around the wall of the room, and then reach the vent so she could get into the office and place the painting. With the number of guards in the way she was sure that one of them could score a lucky hit on her and destroy the painting, as there was a few more than one person could take without using magic, and made would also cause damage to what she was carrying... so her best bet was to do what she always did when a situation like this presented itself to her, causing her to smile for a moment.

She opened her wings and carefully made her way over to the area that the vent was in, making as little noise as possible when she beat her wings, but fortunately the guards seemed to be more interested in their portable music players than to keep an eye out for intruders. That allowed her to slip into the vent without even being detected, to which she carefully made her way through the small vent and dropped into Dimitri's office, exactly where the vault was located, but before she looted the vault she switched her bugged painting for the real deal. With the bugged painting in place, and the real one now in her possession, Gilda stopped by the vault and input the code that Bentley told her, which happened to be 2-3-1, to which she discovered a piece of equipment that allowed someone, who was using a dive attack, to render a target unconscious. She wasn't sure if that was useful or not, but since it was in Dimitri's vault she seized it, replaced it with the calling card, and closed the door so Dimitri wouldn't know it was missing unless he checked the safe out for himself, before she carefully made her way back to the window she used to enter the building... though as she did so she marveled at how loud the janitor rats had their music, as there was no way they could have heard her with as loud as their music was, no doubt trying to combat the music of the nightclub itself.

Once she was back outside, and away from the building, the first thing she did was fly back to the safe house and offload the painting she had taken from Dimitri's office, before she flew out again and tracked down the three remaining 'treasure' items that she had seen earlier. A few minutes later she returned to the safe house with a crystal chalice, an ivory jewel box, and a jade vase, all of which Bentley could sell later on, to fund their future operations against the remaining members of the Klaww Gang. Once she returned the treasures to Bentley, however, the group heard some guards talking about a recent email that was sent to their boss, where Bentley quickly dug through the data he had and found the email. It revealed that Dimitri, after visiting the area that the Clockwerk Tail Feathers were located in, had moved to a boat and was waiting there for some time, to which Bentley told Gilda to find Derpy and inform her of where her target was located while he finished reading the email. As such Gilda headed outside the safe house and flew around the area, hunting for her sister, though she found Derpy sitting near the water tower, observing a few guards that happened to be talking to each other.

From what she could tell Derpy wasn't even interested in what the guards were talking about, making her wonder why she was staring at them, before she landed behind her and tapped her on the shoulder, pulling her away from where she was sitting and beckoned her to the only boat in the area.

"What's so special about that boat?" Derpy asked, as she was staring at it while she and Gilda approached it, while at the same time they were connected to Bentley and the others in the safe house, "I stared at it a few times while I was looking for Dimitri and determined that he wasn't in this area."

"Actually, he's aboard that boat at this very moment," Bentley replied, to which an annoyed look appeared on Derpy's face for a moment, which only Gilda could see since she was the only one out here, before he got to the interesting point he had found in the email, "He's ordered his guards to ring the boat's bell when the coast is clear. Whatever that's supposed to mean is unclear to me, but you should ring the bell and follow him... he might reveal something to us that we can use against him."

Gilda and Derpy looked at each other as they started beating their wings, though while Gilda took to the air Derpy swung her cane and struck the bell in question, before flying up to where her sister was waiting and turned to look down at the boat once more. Not even a few seconds later Dimitri, in all his glory, emerged from the boat and started to walk into the area around his nightclub, in a route that he must have created to confuse any pursuers that might have been following him on the ground level. Clearly he must not have been expecting there to be anyone that could fly when he created this route, as Gilda and Derpy stared down at him and made sure Dimitri couldn't see them at all, even though he stopped every now and then so he could look around the area for anything out of the ordinary. The guards that he passed by saluted him, where he didn't question which one of them rang the bell like a smart boss would have, before they continued with whatever task they were supposed to be doing.

As Dimitri moved down some stairs, and reached a door that neither of the sisters had seen before, he started inputting a code that caused Derpy to raise her binocucom so they could record what was going on, where the code she captured was sent to Bentley... though she made sure to note which was the successful one, as that was the one that unlocked the door and allowed Dimitri to enter what appeared to be the club's aquifer.

"This might be useful for the heist!" Bentley said, seeing exactly what the sisters were staring at, before he said something to someone that was near him for a few seconds, to which Gilda and Derpy remained by the door as they waited for him to finish speaking, "I'm sending Murray and Diz to take care of the aquifer."

Gilda and Derpy waited for a few minutes, making sure the area was secure for the moment, before Murray and Diz came running up to where they were standing, to which they moved out of the way as Diz entered the code that Bentley had given them and opened the door... allowing him and Murray to enter the aquifer while Gilda and Derpy retreated to the safe house to relax until they were needed again.

---

Diz and Murray followed the path that was in front of them until they were forced to stop, as there was a laser wall in front of them and it was currently blocking the way forward, even though Diz could see a power box of some kind on the other side of the wall. Since he knew that if he fired a magical charge at the laser wall, even if it struck his target, it would set off the alarm for a moment and, even if the charge was able to slip through the lasers without the alarm going off, Interpol would be able to figure out that he was here. His magic always left some sort of impact behind, which was one reason why he liked to team up with Murray since their attacks usually left an impact, but he was also a Cooper and they didn't leave traces behind, save for people like Murray. It was confusing for him, as he was trying to merge the two into a successful unit that gave him the best of both worlds, but for now he was stuck with seeing what they might be able to do... which involved them both raising their binocucoms so they could talk with Bentley.

"Murray, I need you and Diz to make your way back to the aqua pump room and sabotage it." Bentley stated, seeing the connection between him and their binocucoms, allowing him to brief them on their mission as he continued to sift through the information that was in front of him.

"Geez, I don't know." Murray said, staring at the laser wall that was in their way, as he knew that he couldn't punch his way through something like that and Diz had his reasons for not wanting to use his magic, "How am we supposed to get past these lasers?"

"Maybe you could pick something up and hurl it at that power box?" Diz offered, to which he lowered his binocucom and glanced at the ice dispenser that was resting to their left, which already had a block of ice waiting to be used in whatever manner someone had planned, "The force of the impact might be enough to damage it, maybe even destroy it, before the alarm goes off."

Murray looked at Diz for a moment, clearly thinking about what he said, before putting his binocucom away and walked over to the machine in question, where he lifted the ice block out of the dispenser, turned around so he could face his target, and hurled the block through the laser wall, where it slammed into the power box and shattered into pieces. For a moment Murray thought he had done nothing to the machine, that his efforts were pointless, before he noticed that the power box had several dents in it, indicating that his attack had worked. Once that happened Diz encouraged him to take another swing at it, to which he lifted a heavy chair, one that happened to be resting nearby, and hurled it at the power box, damaging it even further, before he hurled a barrel and it and smashed the power box to pieces. With that out of the way the laser wall powered off and they were free to move forward, to which Diz and Murray smiled at each other as they stopped at the next laser wall... which didn't last very long this time around, though that was because Murray was ready for the challenge and quickly smashed the power box with three more items, allowing them to advance again.

When they rounded the corner they found one of the warthog guards standing on a ledge, blocking the way forward, but Murray grabbed an ice block and hurled it at the guard, knocking him out in the process while at the same time allowing the two of them to jump up to the ledge he was on, bypass the moving lasers that were behind him, and enter a room that happened to have the very pump they were looking for. Diz studied the pump for a moment, looking for any weaknesses they might be able to exploit, while Murray knocked out the rat guard that hadn't been paying attention to the entrance they walked through, before he found what he was looking for. He accurately pinpointed the various areas of the pump that Murray needed to destroy, to which moved out of the way and let Murray go to town on the machine, smashing the various parts of the pump until they were no longer operational, though while he did that Diz used his cane to surprise and knock out any guards that tried to investigate what was going on in the area. Fortunately Murray was a fast worker and the pump was beat up until it was no longer operational, to which they retreated from the pump room while hearing Bentley comment about how the guards would be forced to pump water from the old water tower.

They both knew that the guards were going to be rather upset with the destruction of the water pump, and that Dimitri was likely going to be furious, but at least this was getting them one step closer to assembling a plan to take back what the forger had stolen.

---

A few minutes later, when Murray and Diz got back to the safe house and noticed that everyone was present, Bentley informed them that they were now ready to begin setting things up for the heist, where they would need to complete a few more jobs before they could walk away with the Tail Feathers. From what they were told someone was going to have to pick a few pockets in the theater so that they would have access to the spotlight control center, so that way they would be able to turn off all the security around the printing press. Murray's next job involved taking out all the exterior alarm horns that were in the area, as they didn't want anything to alert the guards when they decided to put the operation into effect later on. In addition to those two things they also needed to break into the discothèque to drop the mirror ball, where Bentley explained that it was all part of the plan and that, when all three of those tasks were completed, they would be ready for the heist.

While they were figuring out who would be taking which mission, however, Sly headed outside so he could see if there was anything else that could be done to improve their chances, as getting the key to the area that the mirror ball was in would be a huge help, and Carmelita followed after him... though when they were halfway there, taking the long way around, an unexpected arrival stopped them in their tracks.

"Hold it, Cooper!" a voice said, to which Sly and Carmelita stopped in their tracks as Neyla, with her whip at the ready, landed in front of them, though while she stood up she glared at Carmelita, where she didn't seem to recognize her, but Carmelita decided to take no chances and kept her mouth shut.

"Constable Neyla," Sly commented, knowing that if Neyla figured out that Carmelita was standing next to him bad things could happen, as Neyla struck him as the type of person that would use whatever advantage she had to tear others down and move through the ranks of Interpol, "another policewoman that happens to be hot on my tail."

Carmelita knew what Sly meant the instant he said those words, as they didn't have the usual flirtiness that he used when he found someone attractive, though that was mostly because she had responded well to his advances this time around and his edge around other ladies had gone away... meaning that this was him saying that there was another Interpol officer that happened to be following his every move.

"Please, I led you and your little gang here." Nelya said, her tone revealing that she found it funny that Sly though he knew everything, even though Carmelita knew that the two of them had given the Coopers everything they needed to come to this area in the first place, "When Carmelita and I were investigating the area the Clockwerk parts had been stored in I smelled you when you and one of your sisters entered through the opening in the window, and I only know you were there because of my predator senses, and they never lie. Besides, I see that you've found another orphan to add to your ever growing 'family' of thieves... one that instantly reminds me of Carmelita."

"Neyla, this is Kate Cooper." Sly said, to which he waved a hand towards Carmelita for a moment, knowing that he had to act fast before Neyla asked Carmelita to say something, which would ruin everything, before an idea came to her, "She's had problems speaking since she was a kid and she rarely says anything, though she's got talent to be a member of the Cooper Gang once she's done with her training."

"First you pick up two girls, who happened to be two of the rarest species in the world, to be your sisters, where one of them had messed up eyes until two years ago," Neyla commented, though her tone revealed that she couldn't believe what she was hearing, but the laughter that came from her, based on what she was saying, only annoyed Sly, which he hid since there had to be a reason she was bothering them, "then you take in one of Interpol's most troublesome pranksters, who has absolutely no idea who his parents are and doesn't care about responsibility, and now you've taken in a girl that not only can't speak, but also has the same last name as you and looks a lot like Carmelita? Sly Cooper, you are definitely one strange thief."

"Look, we don't have all day to talk about my gang," Sly stated, as right now he wasn't in the mood, as Neyla was ruining the operation with her mere presence, but he really didn't want her to figure out that Carmelita was standing beside him at the moment, "so let's get back to the point; why did you 'lead' us here?"

"I'm not as black-and-white as Carmelita." Neyla replied, once more glancing at Carmelita, who she was mentally labeling as 'Kate', before turning to look Sly in the eyes, indicating that she only cared for him and no one else at the moment, which annoyed Carmelita a little, "I know what a menace those Clockwerk parts are, and while I don't want the likes of the Klaww Gang putting them to use, for whatever schemes they've made up, I also don't trust Carmelita's faith that you can be trusted with them either. Personally, I think Interpol should have all the parts, but I'm not the superior officer at the moment, so I'll go with Carmelita's faith... for now. Besides, you and your gang can go places where we can't... not officially anyway."

"I'm sensing that you're challenging me to a race over the rooftops," Sly commented, as he wasn't as dumb as Neyla apparently thought he was, though her statements only made him wonder what she was trying to gain from making him, and by extension Carmerlita, angry.

"Do try to keep up." Neyla said, to which she started running over the rooftops and down into the streets around them, causing Sly and Carmelita to run after her, especially since the might have something they need for their own heist in the near future.

Sly and Carmelita followed Neyla as she ran a predetermined course through the area around Dimitri's nightclub, but along the way she had the habit of swinging her whip and striking at anything that was near her, breaking objects as they ran through an area or outright killing guards in the process. Sly made a mental note of each guard Neyla took down, so he and the others could remove them from the area and maybe even bury them, or send them home or do something so Interpol didn't find the dead bodies and assume the Cooper Gang was a bunch of killers now. Secretary Sen would be on their tails if he found out about that, no doubt to ask questions before either ripping the deal to pieces or just throw them in jail forever without any hope of getting out. That thought made Carmelita wonder if Neyla even knew that the Cooper Gang had such a powerful ally, one that could easily turn his gaze towards Neyla and ruin her career in an instant, but she said nothing as they moved around the nightclub... until they eventually reached the entrance to the area that the mirror ball was located in, where Neyla tossed Sly the key and left without a word.

As they headed back to the safe house, with the key in hand, Sly knew that something was fishy, as the majority of Neyla's moves were identical to the ones that were in the Thievius Raccoonus, but he couldn't shake the feeling that there was more to her than what they were seeing... and when they walked into the safe house, to hand Bentley the key Neyla had given them, he found that everyone was annoyed about something, indicating that they must have heard the conversation between them and Neyla.

"I don't trust her at all." Diz commented, though as he spoke he picked up a drink and handed it to Carmelita, who removed her mask and set down her miniature canes before taking a drink, "I know I've only met a few officers from Interpol, but I've never came across one that's all to ready to say she doesn't trust her superior officer or the decisions she's making on a matter."

"Her tone suggested that she doesn't trust us all that much," Gilda added, as when Neyla started mentioning the various members of their family, as that was what six of them were at the moment since Carmelita and Sly weren't actually dating yet, her anger towards Nelya grew a little, "and, based on what she said, Neyla seems to think that we're just a band of misfits that aren't worth her time... and yet she's assisting us for some reason."

"She's different than what she was at Interpol," Carmelita said, recalling how Neyla had acted before she left the building to how she had acted in front of Sly, while at the same time knowing that there was something wrong with her 'partner' at the moment, "We had better keep our eyes on Neyla, just in case we're right about her."

Sly didn't want to think that Neyla might actually have a plan for the gang, one that would put them in danger or something, but he agreed with Carmelita on the fact that they needed to keep an eye on her... and he knew that they would talk about this more, after they recovered the Clockwerk Tail Feathers and sent Dimitri to jail.

Comments

[badninja]

As we now meet Neyla I am not scared of Diz. I just get a feeling that he is not completely being above the board with them and has bad plans for the crew.