Chapter 4

The thief training was going smashingly, though perhaps it was going too literally smashingly. Thankfully, Carmelita had been managing to get the training done successfully. But there were quite a few times where she had cut it a little closer than she planned. The first few days, Bentley had to put together his training bots constantly since Carmelita kept accidentally destroying them. So it would make sense that her state of pain and fatigue was a result of karma.

"How's the training going?" Murray asked as the three boys walked into the living room where Carmelita was.

The Vixen was currently laying down on her back on the couch clearly too sore to move. It also looked like her present aching feeling was keeping her from resting. Which seemed to have been her goal since she had a pillow resting under her head, and a glass of water on the end table beside her. Her hair was in a complete mess and her clothes weren't looking very great since there were a lot of holes, revealing several bruises from her effort. The three walked over to her as Murray asked, "Yikes. Are you okay?"

"Yeah. Don't take this the wrong way Carm, but you look like hell," Sly said as he sat down beside his girlfriend.

Carmelita raised her head slightly as she responded to the comments made, not even bothering to move the few strands of hair out of her face first, "I feel like hell. Props To Bentley for his training bots. You weren't kidding when you said I should take it easy."

"I learned the hard way as well," Sly said with a slight chuckle, "I was so excited to work on our very first heist that I trained my butt off. I felt paralyzed the next day. Speaking of, how did she do Bentley?"

Bentley looked at Sky with a deadpan expression, "Funny. A few close calls but I'd say that she deserves an A+."

"Yay," Carmelita replied with her face in the couch, "But I still ache."

"Just relax a little, and you'll be fine," Bentley suggested, "Hey, Murray. Mind if we work on some upgrades to your van?"

Murray nodded, "Sure pal. Let's go."

As the two took off, Sly began giving Carmelita a massage at her request. It wasn't uncommon between the two since she would often come home feeling a little sore. And ever since Sly gave her a massage after his first week of working at Interpol, he'd been doing it every time his girlfriend came home from a rough day. Not that either one was really complaining about it. During the massage, Carmelita said, "You should be a masseuse with hands like those."

"Oh," Sly said, remembering something as he handed Carmelita a box, "This is for you.""Well to be a good thief, you need to have good hands, This is for you.

Carmelita grabs the box and eyes it curiously, "What is it?"

"Consider it a birthday present," Sly said as the two adjusted their position on the couch so that they were sitting side by side.

Carmelita then Looks to Sly with a confused glance, "But my birthday isn't until Summer."

The raccoon simply shrugged in response, "I know that."

"Do you?" Carmelita asked in a testing way.

"You were born June 30th. I didn't forget your birthday."

"Just checking."

"Fine. Call it a Christmas gift.

"Christmas is still two months out."

Sly sighed, "Just open your present babe."

Carmelita examined the box as if expecting an unpleasant surprise. Which only happened once as a little prank from Sly when she agreed to join the team of thieves. She was told that it was simply part of her 'initiation' which she knew was a lie. At least, she assumed it was a lie since Sly had a tendency to be mischievous even when they were dating as Interpol operatives. So when Carmelita finished examining the box, she looked at her boyfriend, and asked, "What's this?"

"It's a thief's starter kit," was all he answered with as he waited for her to actually open the box.

Finally, Carmelita opened up the box and found a mix of items inside which she pulled out one by one. The first thing was a dark red satchel containing numerous lock-picks and many cards similar to what Sly would generally leave behind. Next was a dark red thief's mask which looked to be sized perfectly for her. After that was a red binocucom also sized perfectly for her face. Finally, she pulled out a dark red sneaking suit which she assumed Sly had a hand in making because of how it looked in terms of style.

When she finished going through everything, she said, "Hell of a starter kit."

Sly smiled as he gave her a kiss on the cheek, "Only the best for my girl."

Carmelita also pointed out another observation, "It's all red."

"A little personal touch for you," Sly replied, "Goes well with your fur."

"I love it," Carmelita beamed. She was about to say more nice things until she noticed other objects at the bottom of the box. When she pulled one of the items out, she noticed that they looked like cards. She looked to Sly, and asked, "What are these?"

"Little cards like what I leave behind," he answered, "Those are red too."

Carmelita looked surprised, "Really? Do Bentley, and Murray have these kind as well?"

"I offered but they decided not to," Sly replied. Back when they first started, he wanted to make the guys feel included in the heists by making them personalized calling cards. They preferred remaining anonymous, or at least that was what Sly was told at the time. It makes sense to him but he still feels like there was another reason other than that. When Sly finished his train of thought, he spoke once more, "Besides, now people can see what happened to Old Ironsides Fox."

Carmelita looked ready to punch her boyfriend, "Excuse me?"

"It's what Neyla called you," Sly explained.

"She wasn't the only one," she shrugged before giving an amused chuckle, "I feel tempted to go after my old coworkers as well."

"Well we can screw with them," Sly offered, "But we have to be careful not to steal from them."

Carmelita shrugged once more, "Eh. Interpol doesn't pay super great anyway."

Sly smiled as he put an arm around Carmelita's shoulders, "Anyway, you'll need that outfit for one final test."

Carmelita looked almost shocked at the statement, "One more test?"

Sly gave a slight laugh at her surprise, "Don't worry. It's physical. And it'll be the toughest test of all."

Carmelita began to leap enthusiastically into action, "I'm ready now-Ow."

Unfortunately, her previous aches came back to remind her to wait, "Maybe another time."

Sly began laughing a little harder at her halted enthusiasm, "Yeah. It's pretty tough anyway. Your final test is a field trial. You'll be stealing a very specific item from my family's vault."

"Your family vault?"

"Yeah. Bentley will guide you from the control center. However, you'll just have Bentley to support you. You'll be on your own other than that."

"I see. So why your family vault?"

"Well we can control your challenge. There's a bunch of security in place to stop intruders and they're really tough. We tossed a dummy in there and that's how we got metal for the lockpicks. However, since it's not dire, you'll be okay."

"Making things easier on me?"

"Just a little."

"I'd rather take the challenge head on."

"Okay then. We start in a few hours. You might want to get ready."

As Sly got up and walked away, Carmelita began regretting her words already. But she'd rather not face a challenge than go through one that was made easier for her. So as soon as she was feeling up to it, she got suited up in her new outfit and took a little time to admire how it looked on her. She won't lie, and admit it looked really good on her. As she walked out to meet up with Sly, she thought out loud, "This will be fun."