A/N: For those of you who are curious, this story is going to be how I feel Sly 4 should have went, because I was very unhappy with the game as a whole. Anyways, I hope you enjoy it!

Sly Cooper 4: Legacy of Thieves

Prologue

The sky was dark, and rain thundered down on Paris from pitch black clouds, not a star catching the eye. The streets were mostly emptied from vehicles. An ominous shadow loomed inside the safe house. The only positive appearance was that Bentley had clearly done some work to his home, it looked like an expensive house, not on the outside but on the inside. The walls were painted a bright shade or red, pictures hung in every room, new carpet on the floor that had clearly just been vacuumed, and some of the nicest furniture you'll ever see. Bentley was in his bedroom, sitting in his wheel chair, tinkering with some device. His face looked sad. He struggled to put on a smile, seemingly finished with whatever he was working on as Penelope walked into the room. Penelope had grown long, flowing, blond hair since the time she first ran with the Cooper Gang, and her glasses were slightly larger.

"You done?" Penelope asked, her voice cheerful, probably in an attempt to get rid of Bentley's sorrowful mood.

"Yes, I think so." Bentley replied in a nastily voice.

He rolled over to a large desk and sat the device on it. It looked like a clock, except larger than normal, with roman numerals rather than numbers, and had a slight bit of electricity surging through the inside, concealed behind a circular piece of glass.

Bentley continued. "I just wish Sly were here to experience this."

"I know dear." Penelope consoled him. "It's sad that he gave up being a thief, but at least he's happy and alive. I think that's the best we could hope for."

"True." Bentley agreed. "Anyhow, let's get some sleep. Tomorrow we'll have to hunt down Murray and see if he wants to come along."

Penelope quickly got undressed and slipped into a thin night gown. She then grabbed Bentley under the arm pits and lifted him up, laying him on his stomach on their bed. She folded up his wheel chair, put it in the closet adjacent from the bed, and climbed in the bed herself, covering both of them up. Bentley slid into his shell, peaking his head out briefly so they could kiss each other on the lips, after which Penelope clapped her hands twice, the lights in the room flickering off, and the two prepared for dreamland, excited for their adventures that would begin the next day, unaware of the horror that was about to occur.

The sun shined high in the sky, beaming down on the world. The rain had stopped, but the ground still had puddles due to the down poor that had previously occurred. Murray, the fat, pink, hippopotamus, was watching the demolition derby. The arena was littered with broken down cars, vans, and trucks, and pieces of broken down cars, vans, and trucks, and driving over everything was the vehicles about to be broken down, ramming into each other at breakneck speeds. The audience was situated far back from the action so they don't get struck by any debris, and there was an announcer who was commenting on everything that went on. Murray wasn't in the audience, but was instead in the balcony, preparing for his own time in the spotlight. Hew as wearing a helmet fashioned with red flames and seemed to have lost a tiny bit of weight, although he was still obese. An unknown person called him from another room, and he shook his head and headed straight down to the garage. Once there he saw three animals, a red fox, a gray raccoon, and a purple hippo, working on his van, which had the Cooper symbol removed. Finished with their repairs, the three rose to their feet and turned to Murray, who looked very happy.

"Thanks for the help guys, I really appreciate it." Murray exclaimed.

"No problem." The hippo responded in a gruff voice. The three removed the van from the machinery that was keeping it extended in the air as they continued to talk.

"Knock'em dead out there." The raccoon said, his voice sounding rather young for his looks.

The fox spoke next. "Remember to focus, and go fast. This is the last race, you're so close to winning the prize money for our team."

"I always go fast." Murray exclaimed with confidence.

Murray got in his van, started it up, let it run for a few seconds, and then, as soon as the announcer called for the next batch, sped out onto the arena with all of the other vehicles. It didn't take long for one to target Murray's van. Seeing an opportunity, Murray slammed on the gas, the wheels spinning and screeching like crazy, a cloud of dust forming behind him, and he completely totaled the oncoming red truck. The entire front side and both doors were torn clean off, and all of the windows were completely shattered, not to mention every other part of the truck was dented beyond belief. Murray spun the wheel around all the way and made a sudden turn of the van 180 degrees, after which targeting another vehicle, this time an old blue van about the same size as Murray's van. This one was better than the previous because it was nearly as damaged. It only got dents all over it, the front windshield shattered, and the other windows just cracked, but it was still unable to continue so Murray won that round. This trend continued for an hour until time ran out, Murray getting a score of thirty eight, dominating his previous score of thirty. With his van still somehow functional, Murray pulled it back into the garage to be repaired, shut it down, stepped out, slamming the door behind him, and throwing off his helmet in excitement.

"OH, YEAH! NOBODY CAN TOPPLE THE MURRAY!" he boasted.

Before he could continue soaking up his victory, he caught a familiar face out of the corner of his eye. Penelope. He ran over to her and gave her a big hug. He was squeezing her so hard she could barely breath, but thankfully Murray noticed this and let her go. Being knocked off her feet, she scrambled back up and dusted herself off-the warehouse was unbelievably filthy-and then greeted him with another hug, this one much more gentle.

"It's been awhile, Murray." She said. "You still doing okay for yourself?"

"Hell yeah." He exclaimed. "I miss the good 'ol days with the Gang, but this is definitely the next best thing. I love the demolition derby." Penelope attempted to speak, but he cut her off. "I haven't been able to say this for years, so I will now. Thanks for sending these mechanics. Who knew that you had contacts with other thief Gangs."

"We have contacts everywhere." Penelope confirmed. "What did they help you with?"

"Let me show you!" Murray and Penelope walked over to the front of the van while the three mechanics worked to repair it. "See this?" Murray placed his hand on the front bumper, which was dented, but that was still just a minor repair for his genius mechanics. He whispered as other unrelated people walked by distantly. "This is an enhanced version of the Battery Ram we put on the van after recovering Otto van Cooper's section of the Thieveus Raccoonus. It pushes forward just enough to triple the strength of my van, but not far enough so onlookers will notice it."

"That's pretty impressive." Penelope said. "Look Murray, I need to talk to you. Mind stepping outside for a bit?"

"Sure, that was my last competition for the day, let's go." He agreed.

The two of them walked side by side through the facility until they reached the outside. They snuck behind the building so nobody would hear them chat, and then Penelope pulled out one of the Cooper Gang's trademark calling cards, shocking her hippo friend.

"Man, that brings back memories." He said. "What has it been, five years since I've seen that?"

"Yeah." Penelope replied. "You've been in demolition derby, and Sly faked amnesia so he could become a cop, but me and Bentley have still been committing crimes together. "She explained. "But let me cut to the chase. We want you back on the team, Murray."

"That's a hard sell." Murray responded. "I know I said before that I miss the Gang, and this is only the next best thing, but I do genuinely love it here. Plus, as much fun as I had being a thief, it is kind of nice not always being on the run, ya know? I'll have to give it some thought."

"What if we were able to get Sly back? Would you rejoin then?" Penelope proposed.

"Hm? Sly?" Murray said, confused. "You said he was a cop now. He was finally able to get within the woman he loved. You sure you'll be able to convince him?"

"Oh, I've got an idea." Penelope said with a chuckle. "See, me and Bentley invented a time machine, and we were hoping to go back and visit Sly's ancestors."

"Really?" Murray was even more confused now. "I don't really understand science and whatnot, but I get the jist. That might work. I'll tell you what", he finally said, reluctantly, "if you can get him back on the team, then contact me and I'll gladly help out."

"That's great to hear!" Penelope, satisfied, gave Murray one more hug and then left, hurriedly driving away in her rustic-looking 1950's car.

Night was falling in Paris, France, and Carmelita, the feisty orange fox woman, was taking yt another late night in her office, filling out papers, cleaning her favorite shock pistol, and stepping outside to take occasional patrols. Like usual she was one of the only Interpol agents that was staying that late, weather it was because she was a workaholic or everyone else was lazy, she was unsure. The work was finally starting to get to her, and she started to doze off in her chair, only to be shook awake by Sly Cooper, unusually adorned in standard Interpol garb, a blue shock pistol attached to his waist. Carmelita was so tired she had tears in her eyes, which Sly wiped away with one finger. The wind began to pick up outside, and blew into the room due to Carmelita leaving the windows open; Sly quickly walked over to the windows and shut them both, after which picking up the papers and that had been blown everywhere and setting them neatly on Carmelita's desk.

"Sly." Carmelita said in a slightly woozy voice. "Thanks for waking me up. I must be more out of it than I thought."

"Clearly." Sly said jokingly in his normal, cocky tone. "You didn't even notice me walk in this time, even though you're only a few feet from the door." He knelt down and peered straight into her eyes. "Listen, go home. I can finish things here, you just need to rest.

"No, I'll be f…" before she could finish her statement, she attempted to stand up, but fell over in exhaustion. Sly caught her in his arms.

Sly set out some blankets which Carmelita had in a close-it was normal for her to sleep in her office-and laid them out, afterwards setting her aside to allow her to sleep, resigning to the idea that it isn't; a very good idea for her to go home in the state she's in. He no more than sat down in her chair, prepared to finish her work, when he heard a noise on the roof. Grabbing his shock pistol from the holster and resting his finger on the trigger he went out the window to the balcony, gently shutting them behind him, and made his way up the fire escape to the top of the building, making sure to make as little noise as possible. He peaked over the ledge, and saw a thief doing something, but it was too dark for him to make out who it was, only that they were extremely short. Creeping to the roof, he snuck around the water tower and then spring out, pointing his shock pistol at the culprit and shouting to freeze, only to be stunned to realize that it was in fact his old best friend, Bentley, sneaking around for some reason.

"Sly?" Bentley exclaimed after raising his hands up in the air. "Thank goodness it's just you."

Sly lowered his shock pistol, but still looked flabbergasted. "Bentley? What're you doing here?"

"Is that what you ask after being five years apart, buddy?" He retorted jokingly.

"Sly didn't seem as amused. "Look, it's good to see you again, but you need to get out of here. I don't want to arrest you, but I will if other cops show up and see us together, especially Carmelita."

"Yes yes, I know, I'll leave in a little bit. But for right now, we need to talk, Sly." Bentley stated.

"Alright, talk then, but it quick." Sly allowed.

After Bentley explained the situation, Sly, still puzzled, holstered his shock pistol and sat down in one of the chairs on the roof to think. After a few seconds, Sly looked at Bentley and sighed.

"Sorry pal, but I can't rejoin." He explained. "It's not that I don't miss you guys. I do. But I've really made life for myself here. I've become a Captain at Interpol alongside Carmelita, which pays well. I've finally got married to the woman I've loved for a long time. And what's more, she recently brought up to me the idea of having kids. There';s nothing more that I could've ever wanted."

"But Sly." Bentley responded, disappointed. "Don't you think your father would be ashamed that you gave up the Cooper Clan Legacy and just let it die?"

"No." Sly said, slightly irritated. "If he loved me, and I know he did, all he would want is for me to be happy. And I am happy. Thanks for the offer, but I have to decline."

"Even if it means not being able to meet your ancestors?" Sly didn't respond, but the look in his eyes told Bentley everything he needed to know. "Alright then, I tried. Still, it was nice to see you again, pal."

"Yeah, same here." Sly bent over and gave Bentley a hug.

Bentley radioed in to Penelope, who hovered her white RC Chopper overhead, after which lowering several cables which attached to his wheel chair and lifted him up in the air. As this occurred, they both head Carmelita approached the roof. The two gazed in each other's eyes and instantly knew what the other was thinking. Bentley told Penelope to hurry, and so she did. Sly then hollered out to Bentley to freeze and began firing shock pistols, deliberately missing; this noise caused Carmelita to get to the roof faster, after which she joined him. While Carmelita wasn't trying to intentionally miss, Sly was able to knock a lot of her shock pistol shots out of the air while making it look like an accident. After Bentley was out of sight, the two lowered their shock pistols. Carmelita looked at Sly, realizing that the criminal they were shooting at was one of Sly's old friends, bu the looked just as angry as her so she didn't catch on.

"Who was that?" Sly asked.

Carmelita remained silent for a moment, and then responded. "A pretty famous thief. He's on Interpol's most wanted list, bu has been mostly dormant for five years, which is probably why you haven't heard of him. He calls himself Bentley.

Sly had to struggle to keep a grin of his face. They both left the roof and returned to Carmelita's office. Sly saw that Carmelita had put the blankets that he covered her up with away, and suggested that they leave for the night, which she reluctantly agreed to do; it was 3:00 in the morning, 5 hours after everyone else left. The two left the office, shutting the lights off, and heading out to the parking lot, which only contained three vehicles, two unknown cars, and their black car. Sly drove and Carmelita rested in the passenger's side as they rode home. It didn't take very long because they lived quite close to Interpol headquarters. Before too long Sly gazed over to his sleeping love and gave a large sigh. He smirked, stroking the orange fur that was above her temples. He pulled into the parking lot, wake up Carmelita, and they got out; Sly had to help Carmelita regain her bearings for a few seconds. The two slowly walked to their house, opened up the door, and walked inside. Their house was blue and extremely large, it must have been three stories. While all this was happening Sly was having fun teasing Carmelita about how exhausted she was-apparently, this was an unusual occurrence-until he turned the lights on in the house.

Their house was trashed. Several windows and mirrors were shattered, their video game and movie shelves were all knocked over-there must have been several dozen of those-the carpet, which looked expensive, had burn marks in several locations, the walls had holes in them, the back door was left wide open, and the refrigerator and all the cubbards had been raided, some of the cubbard doors even broken off their hinges. Both of them, in disbelief, took a recon through the entire house, and found there was almost no room left intact. After regrouping in the living room, they both sat down on the couch, which was one of the few things still worth wile, and turned on the TV, which continued to play, relatively quietly, as they joke.

"Look at this. " Carmelita said, handing a calling card to Sly.

He took it from her hand and stared at it for a good minute, analyzing it thoroughly. "How's our bedroom?" He then said suddenly.

"Um, it's fine. Why?" She asked in confusion.

"Then get some rest." He demanded. "You need it more than me. I'm gonna head back to the station and attempt to figure out what this is." Sly stood up and started walking for the door as Carmelita made for the hallway that leads to their bedroom. "I'm also gonna call up Winthrop. He probably won't be too happy about being called in at this hour, but he's Interpol's best analyst."

"Good idea." Carmelita agreed. "You take care of yourself. Whoever did this, they could attack you while you're driving."

"Yeah, I know. Don't worry though, I can take care of myself."

Carmelita disappeared into the hallway, and Sly left the house, slamming the door behind him. He got in the car, started it up, pulled out of the parking lot, and drove away, traveling five miles above the speed limit so he doesn't waste any time. Sly pressed a few buttons on the front of his car, which began to ring. Interpol cop cars are specifically designed to have phones built into them just encase they need to make a call and don't want to break the law. After three rings and exhausted sounding Winthrop picks up on the other end. His speech was very slow, and his voice had a slightly high pitch.

"Who is this?"

"This is Captain Cooper." Sly replied. "I know what time it is, but I need you to get to Interpol headquarters immediately, it's an emergency."

"Uh, sure, but mind elaborating?" Winthrop inquired.

"I'll explain later, just hurry." Sly finished, pressing a button on the car's dashboard to end the call. It was only a few seconds later when he arrived back at Interpol.

Sly made his way to his office, which was just right to Carmelita's office, just a moment before Winthrop arrived. Winthrop was a purple weasel, slightly shorter than Sly, with a small patch of brown hair on his head, a gigantic red bow tie by his neck, green suspenders, brown s hoes, and glasses, and had a decently large tail. He has two shock pistols holstered, one on each side of his wait. They both entered the office, turned on the lights, and Sly handed Winthrop the evidence which was safely sealed inside of a small zip lock bag. Sly explained the situation to Winthrop, who all of a sudden started looking more serious once he realized how dire it is.

"I want you to study that." Sly ordered, curing Winthrop's confused expression.

"Well, I'll be off then." Winthrop said. "Is that all?"

As Winthrop started to leave, Sly took his shoulder and shook his head. "Stay here. Just in case the culprits decide to come here as well, which is a possibility considering they attacked the home of two police officers, we should remain together."

"Understood, Captain." Winthrop agreed.

Winthrop sat down by a desk close to the door, which was shut, and Sly got to a desk on the other side of the room, picking up the phone to make a call. They remained mostly in silence for awhile, the only noises being Sly whispered over the phone, and Winthrop's occasional sounds of thoughtfulness and typing a ta computer. After awhile he got out of his chair and hurried over to Sly, who just hung up the phone and released a huge sigh.

"Captain." Winthrop insisted. "I think I've got something.

"Hm." Sly only turned his head.

"I was unsure at first," Winthrop explained, "so I wanted to make sure, but I've seen this symbol before. At several crime scenes that I've investigated."

The symbol on the calling card was the face of a black stallion with demonic-looking red eyes. The card itself appears to the same size as Sly's old calling cards. Winthrop turned it over and looked confused when he didn't see anything.

"On most of these there's text on the back. They usually say 'Master' or 'Overlord'." he said.

All of a sudden, a knock came to the door. Sly answered it, and saw it was Captain Barkley, the person Sly was previously talking with on the phone. He was a short badger with brown fur all over his body, a large white mustache, large white eyebrows, a white shirt, long red tie, and a yellow star badge on his chest he had an angry expression on his face. He walked in and Sly shut the door behind him.

"Sorry, sir," Sly said, "but we're clearly being targeted, I want the door closed."

"What's this all about, Cooper." Barkley demanded.

Sly explained the little bit of information and they're gathered on the situation so far, and Captain Barkley caressed his mustache, looking thoughtful.

"Alright, I'll inform all of Interpol tomorrow." He stated. "In the meantime, you both should go home and get some rest. We'll all need to be full of energy in order to face what's coming."

Sly and Winthrop agree, and the three leave Sly's office, turned off the computer, shutting off the light, and shutting the door, locking it behind them. After exiting the Interpol building, also shutting off the light and locking the door of it, Barkley heads to his large black pickup truck, Winthrop to his red Prius, and Sly to his black car. Barkley and Winthrop were the first to drive away. Sly sat waiting in his car for some reason, and when they were out of sight he stepped out, leaving the door open, and called for Bentley to come out of hiding. Embarrassed, Bentley slowly emerged from the shadows, near the back end of Sly's car. Sly turned around, strangely seeming more happy than last time.

"You again?" Sly said, jokingly.

"That's the sarcasm I'm used to." Bentley teased.

"Look, I already told you…"

Bentley cut him off, talking so fast that he occasionally stumbled over his words. "I'm not gonna attempt to convince you to join back up with the gang again, at least not on a permanent basis. But we do need you help, it's urgent."

Sly, confused, walked closer to his old pal. "What's going on, Bentley?" He inquired, recognizing the urgency in Bentley's voice.

Bentely then began an elaborate explanation of what occurred between now and the last time they chatted with each other.

Bentley soared above Paris attached to five cables extended from Penelope's RC Chopper. Before too long they arrived back at their house, and Bentley was placed safely by the door. After that he entered, and Penelope, who was on top of the safe house, followed closely behind after recovering her RC Choper. They closed and locked the door behind them, after which turning on the list.

"Were you listening in?" Bentley inquired to his lover.

"Yes, I heard everything." She confirmed. It's too bad that Sly won't quit being a cop. And without him, we won't be able to get Murray back either.

"Indeed." Bentley somberly agreed.

The two headed for their bedroom, but stopped dead in their tracks when the front door slammed open with great fury. They turned their heads with a start, and saw four cloaked figures walk through the door. They were huge individuals, muscular, and shoulders hunched up like football players. The only parts of their bodies that were visible were tiny parts of their hands and feet, and they were each carrying machine guns almost as large as their bodies.

"I thought you said they weren't home." One of the cloaked figures boomed.

"Looks like our information wasn't accurate." Another said.

"No matter." A third gloated. "As long as we don't have to deal with Cooper or the fat hippo, it still won't be a problem."

The fourth shook his head and pointed. "Look, it's the brainiac turtle and mouse. Let's take them hostage." He suggested. "I'm sure Cooper won't think about fighting against us if we have his precious friends."

The four cloaked figures approached Bentley and Penelope, but Penelope was quick. She leaped in the air and did a spin kick to one of their heads, punching another hard in the gut, sending them both tumbling to the ground in pain. As she took time to brag, a third one crept up behind her and grabbed her, throwing her up against a wall. She hit her head with such force that she got knocked unconscious. Thinking fast, Bentley unleashed a smoke bomb, which was hid inside of his wheel chair, and made a run for it, traveling the length of their large house. The room the front door was connected to led to a long hallway. T his hallway connected to almost every other room in the house, including all the bedrooms, the dinning room,t he bathroom, the laundry room, and the garage. The back door, which led to the patio, was attached to the same hallway adjacent to the front door. Bentley scurried as fast as he possibly could away from the intruders. It pained him to leave the love of his life behind, but he wouldn't accomplish anything by getting himself captured too. Besides, he had faith that Penelope wouldn't be harmed because of the thug's desire to use her as a bargaining chip with Sly. Every few feet Bentley released some more smoke bombs to make sure that the thugs' vision would remain obscured until he left the safe house. He finally got to the back door, exited, and slammed it tight. Realizing that he was out of smoke bombs, Bentley headed into the shed behind their house and hurriedly acquired not only more of them, but also several other weapons, plus his, Sly's, and Murray's binocucom's. he had removed his own previously to conserve space in his wheel chair; after all, his wheel chair might be great, but even it has a limit to how much technology that it can hold at any given time. With all that done, he left the shed and began strolling up the street. With Penelope being captured he can't ride in the car due to not having the use of his legs. He left just in the nick of time too, because the Thugs had just caught up and were leaving his house. Three of them attempted to give chase, but the fourth one, who was probably the leader of the four, stopped them.

"Don't bother." He said. "Just mess up the house like we did with the other. After that, take the girl and get out of here. We made a scene, so it won't be long before the cops arrive."

His partners obeyed, and entered the house, their leader following closely behind after letting out a cocky chuckle.

Sly was sitting in the seat of his opened car as Bentley told the story, his head lowered in somberness, his hands tightly clutching his knees. Bentley was sitting in front of him. After he was done, Sly took a few seconds to absorb the information he was told, and then explained to Bentley what had happened with them lately. When they were done chatting, Murray suddenly showed up in his van, the Cooper Gang symbol returned to it, which brought a rush of nostalgia to Sly, which he tried to hide. Murray got out, and Bentley explained that he contacted him on his way here. Murray was also dressed in his traditional garb. Before they could continue their conversation, Murray opened up the back doors of the van and out hopped The Guru, adorned in his underwear and hold his Walking Staff with his Moon Stone tied to it with a string.

"Didn't expect this." Sly exclaimed. "Looks like I've got no choice but to rejoin now."

"You sound disappointed, Sly." Murray responded jokingly.

"It's not that." Sly assured him. "It's just that I've made a great life for myself with Carmelita. We've even talked about having children. But now some asshole is targeting us. I'm sure I'll have lots of fun running with you guys again, but my reason for concern is how I'll explain this to Carmelita. She still thinks I have amnesia."

"I'm sure she'll understand if we explain the situation to her, Sly." Bentley replied.

"I hope so."

"Oh, Sly, one more thing. Sorry for what I said earlier. Ya know, about your father? That was out of line." Bentley lamented. "I'm sure that no matter what you did with your life, weather it's a thief or a cop, he'd still be proud of you."

"Thanks pal." Sly responded. "That means a lot to me."

Sly shut the door to his car, and Murray, Guru, and Bentley got inside the Cooper Van. The two vehicles pulled out of the Interpol parking lot. As they left, a shadowy figure could be faintly seen talking to someone on a hand held radio.