Author's notes- Wow! It certainly has been a long time! I'm finally coming back to this poor neglected story. Thank you to everyone who is still following this story (even though I left you hanging for so long.) Without further ado, on with the chapter!

Chapter Seven:

The First Job

Bentley unglued his eyes from the computer monitors when he heard the door to the safe house open. In walked Sly who, despite his messy fur and slightly dirty clothes, had a bounce in his step.

"I take it the training lesson went well?" Bentley asked.

Sly laughed sheepishly and rubbed the back of his head. "Well..."

Lily took this moment to trudge in behind him. Her appearance was a completely different story. Dirt covered her clothes and face while a few twigs were sticking out of her dark, tangled hair. Her eyes were filled with both exhaustion and frustration.

"Lily! Are you all right?" Bentley questioned with a horrified look in his eyes. He quickly shot Sly a death glare as the older raccoon started snickering.

Ignoring her brother, Lily let out a groan before curling up on the couch. "I'm fine. The only thing that's damaged is my pride."

"Oh, come on. You didn't do that bad," Sly reassured as he sat down next to her.

"Are you kidding!" Lily's head shot up from the pillow. "I've climbed pipes, balconies, snuck around on ledges, and run over rooftops to steal things. Now I can't run across a rope or even do a Rail Jump or a Spire Slide!"

"Don't you mean a Rail Slide or a Spire Jump?"

Lily threw up her hands. "I don't care what they're called! I'm pissed that I can't do them!"

"You've only just started," Bentley explained. "You're not going to get it on the first try. Just keep practicing."

"Oh yeah? How long did it take for Sly to run across a tightrope without plummeting to his death?"

"... Two days?"

"Exactly! I have no clue how long this is going to take me!"

Sly patted his sister's head. "You're a Cooper, Lil. It will come to you eventually."

Another groan was Lily's response.

"Well, you might want to buck up. I have a new job for both of you," Bentley said.

Lily's head lifted up. Exhaustion had been quickly replaced with curiosity in her eyes.

"Me too?" she asked.

"Yes, you too. Time for you to get some experience out in the field," Bentley tapped a key and photos of Dimitri walking the dark streets of Paris flashed onto the projector screen.

"Your only goal is this: If you see the boss, tail him. We might discover something by studying his movements."

"Bentley, where do you even get these pictures?" Lily questioned.

"Uh... I do a little... recon work myself..." the turtle stuttered. He obviously didn't want to talk about it.

"Alright. Lily go get cleaned up. Meet me up on the roof in a few minutes," Sly said.

Filled with renewed enthusiasm, the brunette bounded to her room and rushed to get ready. Done in a matter of minutes, she stepped out the front door and into the cool evening air. Dimitri's nightclub glowed like a beacon less than a hundred feet away.

Grabbing onto the pipe on the side of the house, Lily climbed up and walked over to her brother who was looking through his binocucom.

"Here, put this on," without taking attention away from scanning, he held his hand out to her. In his palm was a black thief mask.

"Thanks, but why do I need to wear this?" she asked in confusion.

"To conceal your identity."

"Aren't we both kind of showing our identities? We're both carrying recognizable canes. The fur over our eyes are masks already. Why can't we just use those?"

Sly lowered his binocucom and fixed her with an amused smile. "You would be very surprised at how gullible people can be. Especially if you alter your appearance."

Taking his word for it, Lily tied the mask around her eyes.

"How does it feel?"

"Kind of weird."

"You'll get used to it," he replied before standing. "Bentley set a waive marker for the job. You ready to go?"

Lily nodded. She could already feel the excitement bubbling inside of her.

"Just try to keep up," and with that statement, Sly was flipping through the air and landing on the rooftop just below the safe house. He took off in a sprint as soon as his feet touched the roof.

"Hey, no fair!" Lily yelled. She easily caught up to her brother and matched his stride.

"Not bad."

"Ditto."

Without breaking his sprint, Sly once again sprang into the air and landed gracefully on a cable with street lights hanging from it. He ran to the middle with ease and looked over his shoulder. Lily had stopped in her tracks.

"C'mon, don't be afraid," he called to her.

Lily shook her head. "I can't!"

"You can do it!"

"You said that earlier today. Remember how that turned out?"

"This is different. We're not that high off the ground. If you do fall, you won't break your neck."

"You're not helping."

"Just step out. I won't let you fall. I promise."

Those words seemed to instill a small amount of courage in Lily. Releasing a deep breath, she carefully placed her foot onto the cable. The fact that someone could actually walk on this seemed preposterous. It was so thin that Lily almost panicked when it sunk slightly under her weight.

"Just relax. Don't focus on the ground. Concentrate on keeping your balance," Sly encouraged.

Lily held her arms out to her sides and put her other foot out. She swayed but then straightened as it shook slightly.

"Keep it tight in your chest. Look at me. You're doing fine."

Slowly but surely, she placed one foot in front of the other just like Sly had instructed her. Her confidence slowly built as she drew closer to the middle of the cable and her brother.

"I'm doing it! I'm really doing it! I can't belie-" her thought was cut short as one of her feet slipped. The scream barely left her mouth before Sly caught her.

"I've got you," he said gently.

Lily hadn't noticed how much she was shaking until that moment.

"You think you can make it the rest of the way?"

She quickly shook her head.

"Alright, hold on," making sure she was safely standing back on the cable, Sly hoisted her onto his back. As soon as her arms locked around his neck, he ran easily the rest of the way across. Reaching the end, he jumped into the air before front flipping and landing in a crouch.

"You're such a showoff," Lily mumbled. She unlatched her arms from Sly's neck and carefully slid off his back. Her brother stuck out his tongue.

A few minutes of roof running later, the two thieves arrived at the harbor. Floating next to the dock was a large boat that was much brighter and flamboyant than the other boats around it. It obviously belonged to Dimitri.

Bentley's voice started giving directions through the earpieces in Sly and Lily's ears.

"I just intercepted an email from Dimitri. He's ordered his guards to ring the boat's bell when the coast is clear."

"Coast is clear for what?" Sly questioned.

"Of that I'm uncertain, ring the bell and follow him without being seen then maybe we'll find out what he's hiding."

"Jeez, this guy is pretty paranoid," Lily muttered. She started walking toward the boat, but a hand on her shoulder stopped her.

"You should probably let me do this part," Sly said.

"Why?"

"This is your first mission, and hiding quickly after alerting someone can be a little tricky if you haven't had practice."

Realizing that he had a point, Lily nodded and climbed back onto the rooftop without complaint. Laying down on her stomach, she peered over the edge to watch her brother work.

Sly walked over to the bell and hit it once with his cane. He jumped on the roof of the boat just as the door that led inside opened. A purple lizard in a flashy green suit and smoking a cigarette emerged.

"Dimitri sure has a bizarre taste in fashion," Lily thought to herself. The flamboyant lizard started strutting off the boat and down the dark street while blasting disco music from his Ipod.

Sly had joined her and was now watching Dimitri. He looked over his shoulder at her and smiled "You ready for this?"

"Hell yeah," Lily replied with a confident smirk.

Unfortunately, the majority of the mission was just following and watching Dimitri from the rooftops. Completely boring. They finally got to see some action when they made it to the water tower.

"You ready?" Sly asked.

Lily looked up at her brother in confusion. "Ready for what? All we've been doing is stalking."

"Bentley needs us to get a little closer. But, we can't do that with all the guards around, can we?"

A small smirk spread over the younger Cooper's face. "Let's do this."

"You remember how to do the take down move?"

"Yeah yeah, let's go already," Lily replied with a wave of her hand.

"Fine, Miss Smarty Pants. Show me what you got," Sly jumped off the roof and landed softly on the pavement. He proceeded to sneak over to one of the guards.

Taking a breath and exhaling, Lily got down from the roof. Shifting onto the balls of her feet, she quietly crept up on a rat guard. Before she could back out, she struck upwards with her cane. The guard went into the air flailing his arms. Catching him by his torso, Lily slammed the rat onto the ground. He was knocked out cold.

"Great job, Lil!" Sly called softly. The other guards had been taken out, but the pride in her brother's eyes filled Lily with joy. So what if it was only one guard? She had successfully taken him out without complications.

Sly took this moment to call Bentley on his earpiece. While Lily had been lost in her proud thoughts, her brother had managed to snag the code Dimitri had entered to go into a secret door near the docks below.

"So, what did you think of your first job, Lily?" Sly asked her.

"Well, stalking Dimitri was kind of boring, but it was awesome taking down a guard for the first time," she replied.

"Why don't we head back to the safe house. You've had a busy day, you should get some rest."

"But I'm not-" a big yawn cut off the rest of her sentence.

Sly chuckled and wrapped his arm around Lily's shoulder. "Riiight. C'mon, Lil. Time to get you to bed."

/CCCC/