Sly Cooper: Family of Thieves

by Blackdrag-rose

Band: Into the Jungle

Once the gang was done relaxing in Bollywood, and were ready to track down Rajan, the real detective work began for them as they attempted to figure out where in the jungle their target had fled to and where he might have hidden the second Clockwerk part he had taken, the ever beating pump that was the ancient owl's Heart. Such a thing in the hands of Rajan, who seemed to only be interested in his reputation, which was now shattered due to the events at the palace, and the spice that he grew all the time, was a bad thing for the rest of the world. As Bentley said the pump, if his calculations were correct, and even going so far to remind them that he always did his math right, would increase the spice production tenfold, which revealed how he was getting all the spice for the various shipments that Jean Bison made. None of them were happy with that particular thought, especially when they had no idea why the spice was so important to the Klaww Gang, which only made them double their efforts to figure out where Rajan had wandered off to.

It was Carmelita, of all people, that found the information that Rajan had spoken of some ruins deep in the jungle, oddly enough near the palace that he had bought to serve as his 'ancestral' home, which seemed to be the perfect place for the tiger to hide out in until the heat was off him.

With that information in hand, and they made sure that Secretary Sen was aware of the fact that they were heading after Rajan, the gang gathered their gear, purchased a few things from the various stores around where they were handing out, and headed towards the jungle. Carmelita, of course, had received instant permission from the Secretary to assist the Cooper Gang in the same manner she had done back in Paris, which was why she had brought along her Cooper attire as well, because she had the feeling she was going to play the thief more this time around. Sly still found it strange that she was so willing to live this dual life, where sometimes she was a cop and other times she was a thief that was pretty good, despite the fact that she had no real training in their field. Her mimicry of the Cooper techniques he had shown off, when she was nearby, was astonishing, but that only made him proud, because since she appeared to be a quick study he was sure that, if she chose to fully adapt to being a Cooper thief and left being an Interpol cop behind, Carmelita would learn the other techniques she didn't know in a short period of time.

It took them some time to reach Rajan's palace, taking a side road so they didn't get spotted by the officials that were still there, before they started to drive into the jungle that was in front of them, though after an hour or two Murray stated that they wouldn't be able to go forward in the van, since the jungle was too thick to drive through. As such the gang got out of the van and gathered all the gear that they needed for the next operation, though Carmelita was the last one to emerge from the vehicle, as she had chosen to change into her thief attire and had packed her cop attire into her pack, along with her pistol, so she'd have her other clothing on hand in case she needed to change. They had to use the machetes they had purchased in the city to cut their way through some of the thicker parts of their path, which was the sole reason Bentley had gotten them, and they made sure to ration their water as well, as there were few opportunities for them to drink some water... but eventually the gang reached the ruins that Rajan had built the heart of his operations in, while also locating a proper base camp for them to use.

The area they picked for their hideout happened to be a large stone, which had been crafted into the shape of a skull for some sort of creature, that also happened to have a wooden door with hinges and some drapes over the holes in the structure, indicating that someone must have used this place before Rajan moved into the area, but for now it proved to be the best place for their hideout. Once everyone had put their things in an area where they wouldn't be affected by any rain, in case a storm came through while they were here, Bentley laid out the basics of his plan. Sly and Carmelita, since they had done so well in gathering the information they needed on Dimitri's operation, were tasked with making their way to an area where they could infiltrate Rajan's operation and get some pictures of what was in there. At the same time he was asking Gilda, Derpy, and Diz to stretch their wings and find the clue bottles that were scattered throughout the area, as he was sure that Rajan had another vault somewhere in the ruins and potentially had another item they could add to their growing arsenal... and, as an added bonus, they could take the treasures that were scattered throughout the ruins and whatever the guards were carrying, to add some cash to their account.

As such Sly and Carmelita walked out of the hideout and descended towards the ruins that were below them, before jumping down to the ground level, though as they did that they spotted an elephant that was apparently moving in a complete circle over and over again, powering what appeared to be a satellite array of some kind. The duo shared a glance before Carmelita snagged a photo of it, since she was sure that Bentley was going to want them to do something with it in the near future, before they headed over to the truck that resting near a path. Neither one of them were going to question how Rajan had managed to get some vehicles to this area, especially since he had spent some time setting this entire place up for his operations, before they approached the mission beacon and raised their binocucoms.

"Sly, Carmelita, I need the two of you to sneak into the temple and take some recon photos so I can assess the situation." Bentley informed them, though the nervousness of him ordering Carmelita around, since he had found it odd that he could order a cop around, was gone now and a new confidence had taken it's place, "Just be careful, if you either of you get hurt the nearest hospital is one hundred and six miles from here. According to my map of the area, there should be a hidden passage into the temple behind that waterfall."

"That's some great detective work Bentley," Carmelita replied, as she was impressed by the fact that Bentley was able to figure out where a hidden passage was within a few days or hours of looking at a map of a certain area that he and the gang would be heading to, "and besides, right now I kind of prefer a side entrance to the front door."

Sly chuckled as he heard that, as he had been right in his thinking that Carmelita would fit in as a thief if she decided to change professions, but instead of saying anything the two of them lowered their binocucoms and headed toward the path that was right in front of them. There just so happened to be one guard patrolling the area in front of the hidden passage that Bentley had shown them, which was actually a terrible thing to do if you were trying to keep something a secret, but neither of them were complaining as they approached the baboon guard. Carmelita was the first to reach him and knocked the guard out, allowing Sly to jump the small gap in front of them first and pull on the lever that was attached to the 'hidden' passage, to which the grate opened. A few seconds later Carmelita joined him and the two of them crawled into the pipe that would allow them to see what Rajan was hiding, where they eventually walked out of the pipe and entered the spice growing facility... where Sly spotted an access tube that might allowed them to reach the top of the room, which Bentley claimed was where all the expensive stuff was located.

Once they knew their next destination the two of them headed to their left and carefully walked across the wooden planks that were connecting their walkway to the one in front of them, where they discovered that they had to knock out four baboon guards before they could progress forward. Fortunately Carmelita, having mimicked how a Cooper thief knocked out the various guards that were in their way, which Sly guessed came from a combination of studying him and her practicing on dummies, knew exactly what to do and they were able to knock the guards out quickly. From there they walked around a curved wooden walkway and spotted a rhino guard patrolling the area in front of them, who received the same treatment as his friends did, before Sly jumped onto one of the barrels that Rajan was using to water the plants and rode it to the level above them. Carmelita smiled as she saw that, as she followed his movements and caught up with him a few seconds later, before the two of them started to walk down the wooden walkway that was in front of them... until they came to a stop in front of a vine, which was when Sly determined that he might have reached an obstacle that Carmelita might not know how to get around.

"Carmelita, this vine is going to be slippery, which is great for us," Sly said, to which he noticed that Carmelita was looking at him, as she was interested in what he was talking about, especially since he hadn't actually taught her the moves that she already knew, "I'm referring to a pair of techniques developed by Tennessee Kid Cooper, one of my ancestors, back in the Old West; the Rail Walk and the Rail Slide. Since we're pressed for time I'll just show you how to pull off the move and see where you need help... and then, when we have more time after taking out the Klaww Gang, I'll take some time off from thieving to properly teach you our techniques. If you want to learn them anyway."

Carmelita raised an eyebrow as Sly jumped into the air, with a small jump that wasn't like some of the larger jumps she had seen earlier, and landed on the vine that was in front of them, to which she stared at his posture as he started to ride on the vine and headed towards the broken pillar it stopped at. She had to admit that she didn't recall having seen this particular technique in the past, since the days of Sly and the others taking on the Fiendish Five two years ago, but she knew that she could figure this out for herself. What she did was focus on how Sly had been standing when he landed on the vine and jumped onto it herself, where she positioned her legs like Sly did and quickly found herself riding down the vine as she headed towards Sly's position. Sly, of course, was surprised by her being able to mimic the Cooper techniques like this, even if Carmelita needed a few pointers to perfect the Rail Walk and Rail Slide techniques, but at the same time he smiled as she came to a stop in front of him... to which the two of them took turns on the much shorter vine that was behind Sly, which brought them to the access tube that had a ladder at the end of it.

When they reached the top of the ladder, however, they found the part of the operations that Bentley wanted them to take some pictures of, complete with Rajan actually patrolling the area at the moment, to which they decided to stay inside their hidden area and use their binocucoms to see what else they could take some pictures of. The first thing they took a picture of was the Clockwerk Heart that was hanging above the spice, in the middle of the room, though both of them noticed that the Heart had been separated into two halves. After that Sly snapped a picture of Rajan, where both he and Carmelita noted that the tiger was now carrying the second half of the Heart on the top of his staff, why they had no idea, and he looked pissed off, which was understandable since the gang ruined his party earlier. Once those two pictures had been taken the duo took a picture of the crane controls that one half of the Heart was connected to, which would be the key to lowering the part down to the floor, before snapping a picture of the entrance that Rajan had clearly used to reach this area... where Bentley commented that he had no idea where on the exterior it was supposed to be.

With those pictures taken, and Bentley informed them that he'd have to think about this, the two of them retreated back down the ladder and made their way back towards the hidden passage that allowed them to get into this area, before heading back to the hideout.

---

When Sly and Carmelita returned to the hideout they discovered that Gilda, Derpy, and Diz had acquired all the clue bottles that were in this area and had taken Rajan's treasures, meaning that any of them could open the vault whenever they found where Rajan had hidden it. Bentley, of course, spent a few minutes going over the pictures of the operation that they had taken, the map of the overall area, and a few other notes that he had made from the information that the trio had brought to him while they were exploring the ruins. In the end Bentley came up with the same plan as when they were tackling Dimitri, he needed a bit more information before they did anything else, to which he revealed a slide of a very special bug that someone would use to bug Rajan's office, which he knew the location of, while he went out into the field and took the spice operation blueprints from the tiger when he made his rounds around the ruins. However, before they did any of that, there was another thing that Bentley said they needed to take care of first, destroying the elephant-driven satellite array that was right outside their hideout.

Gilda and Derpy, deciding to take to the field for one of the missions, headed out immediately and descended into the area where the satellite array was located, though they landed on a nearby building and stared at their target, while also knocking out the nearby guard before he could bother them.

"Rajan is able to monitor all of our communications out here with that elephant-driven satellite array." Bentley stated, to which the sisters stared at the array as he talked, though at the same time they were already thinking of a plan to take care of it on their own.

"You got to admit, Rajan's smarter than what we thought he was," Derpy commented, though at the same time she flexed her fingers and felt the lightning flicker between them, as she was eager to show Rajan who he was dealing with, especially since a storm was coming, "I take it you already have a plan for shutting it down?"

"Of course I have a plan," Bentley replied, to which their binocucoms changed direction and locked onto a large tree that was nearby, one that had some spice plants growing at the top of it, "Now, the local spice plants are illegal for a very good reason. Eat too many of them and you'll go into a fit of uncontrolled rage."

"We should keep that stuff away from Murray, but I see that you mean." Gilda said, as she had pieced Bentley's plan together rather easily, as she could figure out exactly what would happen if they followed his plan, "We gather some of the spice plants and put them inside the elephant's feed bag, so when he takes a break, and gets something to eat, he'll go crazy and finish the job for us."

"That's an accurate interpretation of my plan." Bentley stated, though instead of closing the binocucom he knew that one of them was going to have a question for him, especially since they were the ones that channeled elemental energies all the time.

"Why don't we just blast it to pieces with some lightning?" Derpy asked, to which she noticed that Gilda was looking at her and she was sure that everyone in the hideout was likely doing the same thing, though at the moment she focused on what she was talking about, "Bentley, I don't know if you noticed the change in the weather since Sly and Carmelita came back, but it's started to rain and there's the possibility it might evolve into a storm... why don't we use that to our advantage and just send all the lightning into the satellite array? We can blow the thing to pieces and free the elephant at the same time, and in a much faster manner."

"If you think you can do something like that, then be my guest," Bentley said, his tone indicating that while he believed in the powers that she, Gilda, and Diz possessed, as he had seen them in action beforehand, he also knew that their training with Mz. Ruby wasn't complete and thought that she might be overstating herself, "regardless of the outcome, this should be interesting to observe."

Gilda chuckled as she moved to a high place and watched Derpy as she started to channel her power into the storm that was above their heads, where she noticed that lightning was already starting to jump from one cloud to another one, indicating that her sister had been right about the storm. While this happened she noticed that the others had left the hideout and were standing in front of the door, where they watched Derpy manipulate the clouds above the ruins and drew the power of the storm out from where it was resting. The other good part about this was that she was drawing all of the power that she could muster at the moment, indicating that she was trying to prevent a storm from happening when Bentley decided to go after the Heart, before she rose into the air and let the lightning course around her body for a few seconds as she locked onto her target. What really surprised the gang was that none of the guards in the nearby area were concerned by the fact that lightning was gathering in the sky above their base of operations, as if they didn't even know it was happening, but the gang remained silent as Derpy worked her magic.

A few seconds later Derpy snapped her eye open, raised her hand towards the sky, and the clouds flashed for a second, indicating that her attack was ready, before she swung down her hand and made sure it was level with the satellite array, where a large bolt of lightning burst out of the sky and barreled into her target. That was followed by the array being blown to pieces and scattering fragments of wood and metal everywhere, while at the same time surprising the elephant and caused it to pull itself from the completely ruined structure that it was attached to, allowing it to rampage as it fled from the ruins. Gilda and the others smiled, because even if the guards and Rajan calmed the elephant down, and bothered to attach him back to the array's post, they wouldn't be able to restore the satellite array anytime soon, not when the entire thing had been blown to pieces. Gilda then flew down to where Derpy was standing and helped her back up to where the hideout was located, as using that much power for such a simple thing had to be tiring, but it was well worth the effort... especially since this made it impossible for Rajan to intercept any of their future communications and figure out what they were doing.

She was sure that Bentley liked that news, if the look on his face was any indication, and she knew that it was only a matter of time until the gang found a way to smash the spice production facility that Rajan had set up, defeat the tiger in battle, and then claim the Clockwerk Heart... and then they could focus their efforts on finding and taking out the next member of the Klaww Gang.

Comments

[Midnight Moon]

Elemental powers OP, plz empower further.