Scarlet Fox

A Sly Cooper fanfiction by Jonathan 'KnightMysterio' Spires

All characters not original copyrighted to their original owners and used for non-profit amusement purposes. All characters that ARE original are copyrighted to me, so first request permission to use them in your own media if you wish to do so. Takes place a year and a half after the end of Sly 3.

Paris, France…

A lone figure sat on the rooftops of Paris, overlooking Interpol headquarters. His dark-gray fur and blue shirt and hat helped him to blend in with the night sky, the only thing standing out being the yellow lining on his gloves and the red pouch wrapped around his leg. A wooden cane with a gold hook in the shape of a stylized C lay beside him. He stared longingly into the building, his brown eyes tinged with sadness as he stared at the fox inside, busily working away at her desk. His black striped tail was curled around him.

A turtle in an armored wheelchair rolled up to him, his eyes hidden by thick glasses. "You gonna be okay, Sly?"

The raccoon sighed. "I guess… I should have known it couldn't last…"

The turtle frowned. "How did it happen? You and Carmelita were together for a little over a year…"

Sly shrugged. "Someone higher-up than Inspector Barkley called us on it, slipped me up with a question that I could only know if I remembered everything. I had to get out, make it look like I was just using Carmelita to get at some Interpol secrets."

The turtle nodded. "How… How's she taking it?"

Sly sighed. "I don't know, Bentley… They've had her on deskwork ever since I was found out a month ago… I don't know how she's doing, or how her job is going… All my usual entryways have been blocked…"

Sly looked up at the turtle. "You didn't have to get back together just for me. I know that you, Penelope and the others all had your own lives after the Caine Island mess…"

Bentley chuckled. "I guess… But honestly, Sly? We all missed you. Even Panda King and Dimitri."

Sly chuckled. "Those two showing up again surprised me…"

Bentley sighed. "Well… They didn't come without purpose. Dimitri heard about you getting found out and got it in his head that he was going to 'comfort you about de better to have loved and lost then never to have loved at all' or something like that."

Sly scowled. "Better to have… Bah. It's a stupid phrase. He should try being in love first before saying junk like that…"

Bentley nodded, thinking of his relationship with Penelope. "At any rate, Panda King came back because he needs a favor."

Sly nodded. "His daughter, right?"

Bentley chuckled. "Yeah. She ran off. Finally got tired of her dad chasing off every guy that came to call. She took his spare cannon and a lot of materials for fireworks, as well as some of his Flame Fu scrolls before disappearing."

Sly rolled his eyes and sighed. "We better go help look for her, then…" he said, standing up and picking up his cane, staring sadly at Carmelita's window, "I'm sorry, Carmelita… I just wanted to be with you… I never wanted to hurt you like this…"

Bentley and Sly headed down into the safehouse. As they did, they missed Carmelita's boss heading into her office and talking with her for a bit, the two of them heading out of the building for a case…

Sly and Bentley took the elevator down to the floor the gang was staying on, chatting idly. Sly was trying to keep his mind off of his mistake with Carmelita, talking about probable capers for the gang now that they were back together.

They missed entirely when Winthrop, Carmelita's assistant, came rushing into Carmelita's office. Due to the noise of the celebration down below, they didn't notice either when Carmelita's car, along with several others, sped off.

When Bentley and Sly arrived in the room the Cooper Gang, they found their teammates staring in shock at a TV screen.

Murray noticed them and waved them over. "You better take a look at this, guys," he said.

On the screen were reports of a group of cultists known as Clockwerk's Children. They had taken hostages and were planning a ritual sacrifice to try and bring back their leader, using recreated parts of his body to act as his soul's host.

Panda King scowled. "Obsessive lunatics…" he muttered.

Bentley frowned, stroking his chin and not looking away from the screen. "You know these crazies?"

Panda King, huge and imposing, nodded. "Indeed. Shortly after the death of Sly's parents, Clockwerk's megalomania had progressed to the point where he had started to believe himself a god. Others who shared this belief gathered around him. They helped build his lair in the volcano. The mere presence of these nihilistic fools is part of the reason Ruby, Muggshot, Raleigh and I left Clockwerk's side to start our own projects."

Sly smirked, idly twirling his cane. "Well well… Nothing like a little stress relief to start the evening right. What say we all head over to that hotel they've commandeered and see how many of them Murray can hit at once with a single Thunder Flop?"

Murray grinned, loving the idea and thumping his fist into his palm. Bentley shook his head. "I don't know, Sly. Something about this feels off, like it's a trap."

Sly rolled his eyes. "If we're careful, we won't even trigger it. When have we not gotten out of bad situations?"

Bentley just quirked his eyebrow.

Sly chuckled. "Okay, okay. But you rescued us all by yourself, remember. I still owe you for that one, buddy."

Bentley smirked. "Well… I guess we can get going. I have my own issues I want to work out with anyone connected to that blasted owl…"

The gang packed up and headed out, taking a back route to get to the hotel, the Chez Paris.

Bentley and Penelope hacked into the hotel's system, stealing data they needed.

Penelope looked over the blueprints of the building and nodded, sending out her remote controlled helicopter to check out potential entrances for traps. As she did, Guru spoke to Murray, a deep frown on his wise face.

"Huh? Something bad's gonna happen?" Murray said, frowning.

Guru nodded, speaking some more.

Murray frowned. "We'll be careful, master, don't worry."

"It's not us I'm worried about," Guru said.

Penelope's scout helicopter returned. She reviewed the footage it took and nodded. "Okay, Sly. We've got a way for you to get in and eventually let us in as well. They've got some kind of high tech rigging on the main doorways, but Bentley's devised a gadget that can allow him to remotely hack them. All you need to do is get in through the vents, set up the rigging, and keep them away from the device until Bentley hacks through," she said.

"Doomed to be typecast as the bait forever, I see," Sly quipped, earning a chuckle from most of the others, "See you all inside," he said. He got out of the van, and clambered up a nearby pipe towards the vent Penelope had specified. .

Bentley called out to him. "Be careful and be quick! We want to go in, rescue the hostages, whomp these losers and swipe what we can from them before the cops get here!"

Sly rolled his eyes. "Yes Mom," he teased, wriggling into the vent. He slid his slender frame through the air vent, eventually coming out in one of upper hallways overlooking the lobby.

"Little straightforward," Sly muttered as he wriggled free of the vent, "Not that many twists and turns… Such bad ventilation in this hotel."

He looked down into the lobby, pulling out his binocucom and zooming in on the cultists there, all armed with automatic weapons and holding terrified hostages in the center. Each cultist was clad in a black robe with Clockwerk's owl-head and gear insignia on the back, their species masked by the hoods. Sly scowled, remembering all the misery that owl had put him through, and angry that people actually worshipped the monstrosity.

Shaking his head, he refocused on his work. He skulked by several armed cultists, ducking behind trash cans and pillars whenever a guard passed by. He eventually made his way close to the back door, spotting the high tech locking mechanism being guarded by a burly guard wielding a sword and machine gun.

"Marvelous," Sly muttered. He hung back for a moment, thinking about what to do, sitting down and crossing his arms thoughtfully. After a moment, he noticed that the lid of the nearby metal trashcan was loose. Smirking, he picked up the can lid and threw it, the arc carrying it above the guard's head.

The lid flew into the darkness of the nearby hallway. The guard blinked, and hesitated for a moment.

Sly smirked. Egads, a guard with actual brains…

After a moment more of hesitating the guard went to investigate the sound.

So much for brains. At least he had it for a minute, Sly thought. Quickly, he moved over to the electronic lock on the door, adding the splice clip Bentley gave him.

Back in the rather crowded Cooper Van, Bentley nodded as data started flowing into his laptop. "All right," he said, "Hacking through the locking systems…" He began to type, working his way through the various barrier programs set up.

Sly frowned at the clip, a large, obvious device attached to the otherwise subtle lock. He had to keep the guards away from it while Bentley hacked his way in. He quickly dashed out behind a guard and ducked under a table, debating on what to do.

A pair of guards passed by the table, their legs bare underneath their robe, and a wicked grin came to his face. When a guard passed by, he discreetly reached out with his cane and tripped the nearest cultist. The cultist yelped, and glared at his buddy, who just gave him a confused look. The tripped guard shook his head, and resumed his pacing.

Sly bit back a snicker. When the two passed by each other again, he hit the other cultist in the foot.

"OW! What was that for?!" the cultist snapped at his partner.

"I didn't do anything!" the first cultist snapped, "You're the one who tripped me earlier."

"Oh bullshit! You stepped on my foot just now!"

"I did no such thing, you…" the first cultist paused, something dawning on him. When he went silent, Sly felt a chill running through him.

Egads. They're actually SMART, he thought worriedly, This may be a teensy bit harder than originally planned.

Sly braced himself, ready to move at a moment's notice. Sure enough, a minute later, the two cultists lifted the table up. Sly, quick as a flash, swung his cane, swatting the guns out of their hands.

"Anyone ever tell you the robed look is out?" Sly said, smirking at the two stunned cultists. Before they could recover their wits, Sly knocked them out with a well-placed strike of his cane. He prepared to bolt before he was noticed, but apparently the two guards had signaled their associates. Sly found himself facing dozens of cultists wielding guns, all aimed at him.

The cultist leader came forward, a tall man with vaguely ursine features wearing robes that were adorned with winged armor. "We've been expecting you, Sly Cooper."

"Nice to be wanted," Sly quipped, folding his arms casually and smirking in the cult leader's face.

"Heh," the cult leader chuckled, "Flippant even in the face of death. Indeed, you were a worthy foe for our lord."

Sly sneered. "Your 'lord' was an outright psychopath. A lunatic who's insanity led him to exchange his furhood for steel as cold as the void where his heart would be."

The cult leader slapped Sly. The raccoon just chuckled, wincing a little from the pain in his jaw. "Hit a bit of a nerve, didn't I?"

The cult leader growled. "You will not speak of our lord in so flippant a manner again."

Sly's eyes widened in amusement as he heard a familiar hissing sound. He turned back to the cult leader and grinned widely. "Actually, I think I will. Many times over."

The cult leader gave him a confused look. "What are you babbli…"

He was interrupted when a firework hit in him the back, exploding in a flash of color and sending him flying past Sly, the raccoon easily dodging out of the way. Soon after, Panda King's thundering voice echoed through the hall.

"SERVANTS OF EVIL!" Panda King roared, "YOU SHALL NOT HARM THESE INNOCENTS! FOR THE COOPER GANG HAS COME TO PUT AN END TO YOU!"

Sly looked over to the back door of the lobby, seeing Panda King and Murray leading the charge for the rest of the gang. Almost immediately after Panda King finished speaking, several more fireworks launched from the tube on his back, exploding in a flash of bright colors, blinding the cultists. Sly took advantage of this and dashed over to where the hostages were being held. Quickly taking out the guards with well-placed knocks to the head, he used his cane's hook to cut through the ropes binding them.

"Run," he said simply. The hostages hesitated for a moment, unsure of what to make of the bandit rescuing them, but decided to take advantage of their freedom, thanking him as they ran for the side exits.

Sly looked back to the others. Murray was running up a stairwell, and for a moment Sly thought he was running away. But Sly was grinning widely soon after, as Murray leaped over a railing with a loud cry of "THUNDER FLOP!" From the sound of it, he took out a good number of cultists.

Penelope had gotten behind a desk, using her remote chopper to fire sticky bombs at cultists, gluing them to the floor. She was starting to falter, though, as the cultists were coming closer and closer to her chopper with each shot. Bentley was protecting her, having mined the area around the desk and occasionally tossing his remote mines out at a cultist that got too close.

Guru was controlling one of the cultists, a large, burly hippo, making him run around crazily, trampling his comrades. The confusion it was causing was hilarious to watch. Even Guru seemed amused.

Dimitri was using his taser ring to full effect, the lounge lizard a surprisingly good hand-to-hand combatant. And Panda King was flat out dominating the field, a living volcano. He bellowed in fury with each strike, his frustration at the loss of his daughter, his shame at his past, and his rage at Clockwerk for using him fueling his Flame Fu.

Sly chuckled, preparing to run over to join them, when a powerful hand grabbed him, throwing him up against a wall. Sly winced, pain rippling through his back. He picked himself up as best he could, looking up at the face of his attacker, the cult leader.

The bear growled ferally. "You… The Nemesis… And the Traitor… All here," he snarled, laughing insanely, "This is too good. I will kill you all in one fell swoop!"

Sly sighed and gritted his teeth, gripping his cane tightly and dropping into a fighting stance, knowing he'd be in for a fight.

At which point the front door burst open, a very familiar and very welcome voice bellowing, "EVERYBODY FREEZE!"

The cult leader and Sly whirled, Sly grinning widely as he saw Carmelita, shock pistol at the ready, at the head of a veritable army of Interpol agents. The cultists started firing at the police, an aging bloodhound pointing at the bear.

"There's the leader! Take him out, Constable Fox!" he bellowed.

"Yes sir!" Carmelita said, dashing towards the bear, who growled savagely and charged her, ignoring the shock pistol shots

Sly felt a sharp pain go through his heart at what the bloodhound called her. Constable… She was demoted because of me…

He started to run to help her, when a loud cry from Bentley caught his attention. A particularly vicious looking alligator cultist had gotten past the bombs, Penelope's remote chopper in wreckage. The cultist's robes were in smoldering tatters, but he didn't seem to care, as he had both Bentley and Penelope in a cruel choke hold.

Sly shook his head angrily and ran to help his friends. Leaping up onto the cultist's back, he slipped his cane underneath the alligator's chin and yanked back hard, choking out the massive cultist. He gagged, dropping Bentley and Penelope, the mouse helping Bentley back into his chair as best he could. After a few moments, the cultist collapsed for lack of air, and Sly let him go.

"Get out of here," he said, "Things are getting hot, and the cops can handle the rest as well as the remade Clockwerk parts."

Bentley nodded. "I agree. Can you pull the others out?"

Sly nodded. "Go. Penelope, make sure he gets out safely."

Penelope nodded. "Will do, Sly. See you back at the van," she said, wheeling Bentley's chair out, the automated motors damaged by the cultist.

Sly turned to the others. Murray and Dimitri were holding their own, but Panda King and Guru were starting to be overwhelmed. Guru's host had been shot, the pacifist priest having to run for his life. Sly quickly ran to his aid, throwing down a smoke bomb to cover his escape, escorting him to the exit.

Guru gave Sly a worried look as he left, the lithe young raccoon easily dodging shock pistol blasts from the cops as they took out the horde of cultists. The feeling that something bad was about to happen was getting worse…

Sly closed in on Panda King, who was now fighting off the largest of the cultists, a polar bear twice his size. It was clear Panda King was tiring, his body bearing several claw scars and bruises that showed up through his fur, as well as some burn scars from shock pistol blasts that had strayed towards him. Sly snuck up behind the cultist and swung his cane as hard as he could, striking the cultist in the kidneys. The cultist roared in agony from the blow, turning on Sly. Panda King took advantage of this, throwing the last of his fireworks in his launcher and firing them at point blank range in the cultist's face.

The polar bear collapsed, Panda King falling to his knees. Sly knocked out an Interpol agent that tried to come up and arrest them, and helped Panda King to his feet.

"You okay, big guy?" Sly asked, worried.

Panda King nodded. "I will be. I think maybe this plan was ill-advised…"

Sly grinned weakly. "Yeah, I guess. You know me, though, anything to spit in Clockwerk's face…"

Panda King chuckled. "I will meet you in the van, Sly Cooper," he rumbled, running for the back door as best he could.

Sly quickly looked around the field as he headed over to Dimitri. Cultists were being taken out by shock pistol blasts by the dozen. Murray and Dimitri were still holding their own, although Dimitri's suit was singed in several places by shock pistol blasts.

Murray noticed him and nodded. "We headin' out?" he called to him, knocking out a cultist and then picking him up to use as a shield from a shock pistol blast.

Sly nodded. "Yeah. The cops can handle the rest of these bozos. Nothing to steal here, anyway."

"Got it," Murray said, "You head out, I'll get Dimitri to the van. Start it up for me so we can get goin' the moment I take the wheel."

Sly grinned. "You got it, buddy," he said.

He turned to run for the exit, when he heard Carmelita cry out. The cult leader had stabbed her in the side, and was looming over her with a large sacrificial knife, laughing madly. Carmelita was on the ground, clutching her bleeding side, barely able to keep her shock pistol aimed at the man.

No… NO!!! Sly, love overriding any sense of self-preservation and instinct, charged the cult leader, running full tilt, ignoring anything in his path. Shock pistol bolts missed him by millimeters as he ran, leaping up and striking the cultist in the face with a blow that would have shattered any normal cane, sending him sprawling away from Carmelita.

Sly went to help Carmelita, gently helping the fox to her feet. "S-Sly?" she said dazedly.

"It's all right," he said, "I'll get you out of here… I'm so sorry, Carmelita, I didn't know that things would get this bad for you."

Carmelita stared at Sly, horror growing on her face. "You… You weren't supposed to be here! You SHOULDN'T be here!"

Sly blinked, confused. "Carmelita, what…"

She shook her head, her thoughts muddled. "Sly… You need to get out of here, now! They were WAITING for you!" she said, her voice uncharacteristically frantic.

Sly frowned. "Well, I kinda figured they would be…"

Carmelita shook her head. "No, you don't understand! These are SUICIDE cultists! They're all rigged to blow up once you showed up!"

Sly blinked, confused, and looked around. Interpol agents were working on disarming vests on all of the cultists they had arrested. Murray and Dimitri had apparently noticed this and were fighting their cultists more cautiously. Sly's eyes widened in fright. "Explode…"

The cult leader staggered to his feet, throwing off his armor and pulling open his robes, revealing a vest of TNT strapped to his chest. "That's right, Cooper," he laughed, "And now I can take care of BOTH of the fiends who killed our lord!"

"NO!" Carmelita screamed. She threw off Sly, tackling the cult leader and pushing him back into a nearby room, slamming the door behind them.

Sly stood there for a moment, too stunned to think. Then he started to run towards the door… which was promptly blown towards him when the cultist exploded.

Sly was thrown backwards, tumbling end over end as he crashed into a door on the other side of the room. Coughing, thoughts of Carmelita overriding his instincts, he pulled himself to his feet. His entire body was in pain from the blast, and he coughed up blood. He staggered to his feet, crossing the room again, picking his way into the rubble of the room.

He saw a destroyed mattress, and guessed that Carmelita must have tried to muffle the blast somehow, which explained why the room wasn't as destroyed as it could have been. He took note of it for only a second before looking around the room, looking for Carmelita.

And then he saw her, his heart shattering at the sight before him.

The blue-haired foxwoman lay lifelessly, her body twisted at an odd angle. The fur on her back was blackened, bits of shrapnel sticking out of her body.

"Oh no…" he moaned, slowly turning her over, staring into her lifeless eyes, her expression frozen in one of pain and shock. Tears flowed freely down Sly's face as he held Carmelita's face in his hands.

"Oh God no… Please… Don't let it end like this…" he moaned. He gently put her on her back, and began to give her mouth to mouth, frantically doing chest compressions, sobbing desperately. "Please… I'm so sorry Carmelita… Please, God, DON'T LET IT END LIKE THIS!!"

Dimitri ran into the room. "Crackerbox, let's GO! Murray's already did the dine and dash on out of here and…" he snapped, trailing off when he noticed Carmelita's body. "Mère de Dieu…" he whispered.

"Can't leave her…" Sly said, his voice frantic, "I have to… I have to save her… I…"

Dimitri shook his head, gently putting his hand on Sly's shoulder. "Sly… It's over… She's gone… We need to get moving or WE be gone too…"

"She's NOT GONE!" Sly snarled, glaring at Dimitri through tear-streaked eyes as he threw off his hand, "I can still save her… I can still make things right for us both!! I CAN!!"

Dimitri stared at Sly in shock, at the guilt and despair in his voice. He twitched when he heard the police approaching, and sighed. "I don't have time to argue with you, crackerbox," he said, charging his taser ring, "You'll thank me for this later."

Dimitri punched Sly, the taser ring electrocuting the already battered raccoon into unconsciousness. Dimitri picked Sly up, and quickly got out through the window, dodging the Interpol agents scattered about as they secured the perimeter, slowly closing on the back where the Cooper Van waited. He found the van waiting, a frantic and very angry Bentley waiting for them inside.

"FINALLY! What took you so long? They're almost here!" Bentley snapped.

"Complications. Get us out of here," Dimitri muttered as he set Sly down, not in the mood.

Murray frowned, remembering his master's concerns from earlier, but revved the van's engine, quickly heading off just as the Interpol agents came through the door they did.

Bentley stared at Sly's battered form for a moment, and frowned. "Murray said they were all wearing bomb vests… What happened in there? Why is Sly unconscious?"

Dimitri sighed, sitting down on the floor of the van and lighting a cigarette.

Bentley frowned deeply. "A bomb went off in there. What happened? Was Sly caught in the explosion?"

"Someone was," Dimitri muttered.

Guru gave Dimitri a sad look, suddenly understanding. A look of horror appeared on Murray's face as he suddenly realized. "Last I saw of Sly, he was going over to help Carmelita with the cult leader… Was she…?"

Dimitri just sighed, nodding.

A chill ran through the collected members of the Cooper Gang. Bentley's normally lightning fast mind froze, unable to wrap itself around the concept of Carmelita Fox, Sly's love interest and the longtime rival of the Gang being dead.

Murray remembered how nice she was to him. She was dedicated to her job, but she wasn't mean about it. She really did care for Sly, he could tell, and he gave him jellybeans to eat when he had him prisoner one time, even though she didn't have to.

Penelope had been a little jealous of Carmelita at first, before she had gotten over her schoolgirl crush on Sly. But she had respected the dedication she had to her job, and the risks she was willing to take to bring in lawbreakers and stop madmen like Doctor M. She had grown new appreciation for her when she heard that Carmelita herself had come up with the scam to make Sly her partner in Interpol. It hadn't worked out, but she had confidence that she and Sly would find some way to get back together. That hope was gone now, having died with Carmelita…

Panda King remembered Carmelita as an honorable woman. She had personally arranged for his daughter to visit him in prison, which led to his eventual parole and subsequently put him on the path to redemption for his past sins. He said a silent prayer for her in Chinese…

Dimitri's memories of Carmelita were less fond, but he respected Sly's feelings for her, and knew that he would be hurting once he woke up, and would try to hurt him for taking him away from Carmelita. But he knew that he was in the right. And he had a feeling that Carmelita would appreciate him saving Sly from being arrested. At least, by anyone other than HER…

Penelope was the first to recover her voice. "So… So what now?"

Bentley shook his head, clearing his mind enough to function. "There's a doctor at the local hospital who owes us a favor. We stole back an important keepsake of his late wife and daughter's that a bunch of local mobsters had taken as protection payment, and he said he'd give us free medical care whenever we needed it, no questions asked, no turning us in."

Murray nodded. "I'll get us there."

The gang drove off in silence, heading for the hospital to take care of Sly's wounds.

------------------

Elsewhere…

Later…

------------------

The bloodhound agent that had led the charge in the hotel pressed his palm to a scanner, the only unique feature in the cold, dark corridor. He waited patiently, his dark brown fur almost blending in with the copper-colored metal of the hall. The door opened, and he walked into the medical lab, where several doctors were working frantically on a patient.

"Is she almost cleaned up?" he said, his voice colder than glacial ice.

One doctor nodded. "We're just finishing up now. The shrapnel is removed, her wounds are stitched up, and her fur has been restored. Thankfully, aside from a little bruising, there's no bone damage. Good thing that explosion wasn't all that powerful."

"So she'll retain full mobility, then," the bloodhound stated, "She won't need enhancement or prosthetics."

"Yes, Agent Mortis," the doctor said, the tabby cat smiling sycophantically, "She'll need recovery time from her ordeal, of course, but from all accounts the deception went off perfectly, so we have plenty of time for that."

Agent Mortis nodded, looking at the clock on the wall. "Do we have time to revive her?" he said, looking back down at the nude corpse of Carmelita Montoya Fox laying on the table.

The doctor nodded, pulling out a syringe. "We're down to the wire, but we still have time before the effects of the fake death pill become permanent," he said. He tapped the bubbles out of the golden liquid in the syringe, and injected it into Carmelita's heart.

The doctor injected the whole contents of the syringe in, and then removed it, stepping away. There was a long, tense moment as there seemed to no affect. Carmelita lay there lifelessly, not moving.

Then, so suddenly that the doctors in the room all jumped back in fright, she sat up, taking a long, gasping breath.

Agent Mortis stared at her emotionlessly. "You are well, then?"

Carmelita wheezed for a moment, trying to catch her breath and get used to all of her bodily functions working again. She glared at Agent Mortis and nodded. "Took you… long enough…" she wheezed, crossing her arms over her bare chest and shivering.

Agent Mortis motioned to one of the doctors, who promptly got Carmelita a hospital gown. She stared at it for a moment and reluctantly put it on. She glared at Agent Mortis again.

"You didn't say Sly would be there… I didn't want him to see that…" she snapped.

Agent Mortis scowled. "An unfortunate circumstance. However as we were using a fake faction of the Children of Clockwerk as the ruse, Cooper's intervention was inevitable," he said. He shook his head, annoyed with her. "I still don't know what you see in him…"

Carmelita sighed, looking down at the floor. "It's… complicated…" she said, unable to fully voice how she felt about the charming thief.

Agent Mortis snorted. "I don't pretend to understand how love works. I just think you could have done much better, especially since it nearly cost you your job when you helped fake his amnesia. But that's not the point. We've successfully faked your death, and can begin your training."

Carmelita glared at him intently. "And you'll keep your end of the bargain?"

Agent Mortis nodded. "As per our agreement, the Cooper Gang will have all charges against them dropped. The charges against Chief Inspector Barkley and your assistant Winthrop will be dropped as well for their part in that ridiculous 'amnesia' scheme. We owe Cooper a favor for the cases he helped close for our organization while he was a part of Interpol, so I don't feel too badly about this."

Carmelita nodded. I can do at least that much for you, ringtail… I'm sorry it came to this… She sighed, and looked at the floor again. "So what am I being trained for, anyway? You never really made it clear to me when you got me in on this scheme."

Agent Mortis looked thoughtful for a moment, and sent the doctors out of the room. "I suppose that since we're ready to begin, I can tell you. In fifteen years, a contest will be held between the greatest thieves in the world. It only occurs once a generation, and only the greatest thieves on the planet are invited to participate. The artifact being offered as the grand prize is an ancient crown of tremendous mystical power. Our organization naturally would prefer that power be in the hands of the proper authorities, contained and stored away where no one can use it."

Carmelita nodded. "And you want me to become a master thief, so I can be entered into the contest."

Agent Mortis smirked. It looked unnatural on his stone cold face. "Something like that," he said, moving to a closet in the room. He opened it, revealing a bright red coat and a wide-brimmed hat. "For all intents and purposes, Carmelita Montoya Fox is dead. You will be trained to take the place of a master thief that died a few years back, a woman of such skill that nobody was ever able to catch her. You will be altered physically to look exactly like her. You will be trained and drilled in her abilities and movements, her manner of speech, her various personal quirks, so much so that being her will feel more natural to you than being Carmelita does now. Your reflexes will be rewired to match hers. Your skills, your mannerisms, all of it remade into her."

Carmelita shook her head, confused, trying to figure out why that coat and hat looked familiar. "Who am I taking the place of?"

Agent Mortis grinned viciously. "She was my rival. The only one I could never catch. The only reason I was able to find her is that her gang betrayed her and killed her. Her name is… Carmen Sandiego."

Carmelita stared at him for a moment, recognition dawning. And then she snickered.

Agent Mortis frowned. "What's so funny?"

"Carmen Sandiego?" Carmelita laughed, "You're wanting me to become a fictional character that's used to teach kids stuff?"

To her surprise, Agent Mortis just chuckled. "Ah yes… That was a brilliant bit of cover-up on my part," he said, preening a little.

Carmelita stared. "She… She was REAL?!"

Agent Mortis nodded. "And while some of her robberies were exaggerated, she was just as skilled as she is portrayed in the educational games. She was the best, matched only by Conner Cooper and Arsene Lupin the 2nd. I personally supervised the creation of the games. My little bit of revenge on the woman who made my life a living Hell."

Carmelita stared at the hat and coat, her heart sinking as it finally started to set in; her life was over. She'd never be able to see her father again. The only way she'd see Sly again is as a rival thief, her friends at Interpol she'd only be able to see as a criminal.

Agent Mortis watched as the sadness started to settle into Carmelita, a tear streaming down her face.

"It's hard, Carmelita. But you're doing the right thing," Agent Mortis said, his voice without sympathy, "That crown is too dangerous. And you're the only one close enough to Carmen Sandiego in body type and physical ability to make this work."

Carmelita shook her head, curling up on the doctor's table, wrapping her arms around her legs. "It's just… so much to take in…"

Agent Mortis sighed, irritated. "I'll give you three days to recover. I'll set something up so you can watch your funeral. I'll even update you on Cooper's condition. But be ready, as your training will begin soon. Prepare for the roughest years of your life."

------ TO BE CONTINUED… -----