Chapter One: Wrong Place, Alarmingly Wrong Time

     It's getting late, I thought to myself. The red-orange glow of the sun was half under the horizon, and the air was cooling down steadily. The thick crowds of Paris were clearing out at a similarly steady rate, lowering the noise pollution by a great deal. 
     While the quieter atmosphere was nice, I wasn't very keen on being out on the streets of Paris after sundown. I hadn't been living there long enough to know if the streets were safe when it was dark. I felt like I would be an easy target for thugs, so I was trying to simply not make myself one and stay in once it got dark. 
     I stuck my phone into my pocket and got up, deciding to head home then, since I didn't have much of an actual reason not to. I'd just been sitting in the local park for some fresh air so I could say that I hadn't spent all day inside. I took a moment to stretch my legs and swish out my tail before heading towards the park exit. I made sure to keep my back straight and head up, trying to look more confident and dangerous than I actually was. It probably didn't do much in reality, but it made me feel that I looked like less of a target, and that eased my anxiety about being out alone. 
     I'd only been on my route home for ten minutes at the most, when I noticed a junction of firetrucks, police cars, and ambulences that were cutting off my usual path. Looked like there'd been a car accident with a mack truck and some probably drunk drivers. They had police tape up and everything...
      "Gotta go around, I guess," I mumbled to myself in annoyance. I hated taking detours, being that I had no natural sense of direction at all. It was a miracle that I'd memorized a path between the park and my apartment. 
     I headed down a different side street, sighing to myself. I thought I knew where the street would lead and that I wouldn't get lost; I remembered someone giving me directions when I'd first moved to Paris that involved this street. It would take a little longer to get home, but it would get me there.
     I, however, did not remember that in order for that road to lead me home, I'd have to walk through a few seedy looking backalleys. Oh great, I thought, as my anxiety spiked higher. I walked faster, trying to put on a more serious and threatening appearance, as if I meant business in those backalleys. 
      Thankfully for me, it looked like no one was there, though in the dark it was hard to be entirely sure. The looming closeness of the buildings and lack of street lights made it seem like the sun had already gone down long ago. I was starting to relax my posture and feel calmer after a while, though, because I could see the well-lit main road ahead of me. ...But that was when I head two very unfriendly sounding voices from the alley exactly to my right. 
     "Stealing those Clockwerk parts was a piece of cake! Like taking candy from a baby! Now my money-printing is going up up!" a strange accented male voice cheered, very over enthusiastically.      
     Before the two were entirely in the alleyway, where they definately would have seen me, I scrambled to crouch behind a trash dumpster, trying to keep my breathing quiet. I'm not religious, but in that moment, you can bet that I was praying to god they wouldn't notice me.
     "Yes, it was." a very gruff voice replied. "However. Now that you have the Clockwerk tail feathers, you have to promise to hold up your end of the deal, Dimitri," this man sounded very threatening, and it made my fur stand on end.
      "Yes of course, I hear you loud and clear. Distributing the spice to the patrons of Paris is the least I can do for a smoove clique of people like the Klaww Gang. Consider it done, yeah?" the strange accented man, who the other called Dimitri, responded. I heard a ciggarette be lit up and Dimitri took a drag off it. 
     "Good. I don't want it to have been a mistake letting you in on this," the rough-sounding man warned. 
    I was struggling to not make strangled panicked sounds. This had to have been one of the most tense and scary things I'd experienced up to that point in my life. I couldn't even believe what I was hearing. I was listening to criminals talking about their crime rings! I was going to be in so much trouble if they saw me! They'd probably kill me!
     That thought was enough to make me scared enough that I started to panic and lost my balence, resulting in me falling against the dumpster, making a loud clanging noise as I hit it. Paralyzed with fear, I suddenly couldn't breathe because oh god they definately heard that and they would find me and do god knows what to me!
      "What was that?!" the unidentified man snapped. I heard fast footsteps coming my way (while the man called Dimitri said something I didn't hear), and in a panicked moment of adreneline and self-preservation, I booked it back down the alley I'd come from, hoping to god that I could reach the main streets and get help before I was caught.
     But I'd barely made it around the first turn when I felt a strong and large hand grabbing my arm and throwing me against the wall.
     I squeaked out a small scream and squeezed my eyes shut at the blow of the wall against my back. As I opened my eyes I couldn't think of words to say to try and make these people leave me alone. 
     A large tiger man was the one who had me pinned to the wall, looking angry. "How much did you hear?" he demanded. This was the other man who'd made the warning remarks, not the strange accented Dimitri.
     "I promise I'm not going to tell anyone! I don't even know what you're talking about!" I was frantic and on the verge of a full-out panic attack and I was definately almost crying. I was so terrified that this man was going to kill me for overhearing his criminal plans. 
     "Promises do not mean anything," the man replied. "They are only spoken words amongst strangers,"
     "Please don't hurt me!! I don't even know who you are, there's nothing I can do to you!" I begged loudly, hoping that someone would hear me and come to the rescue or call the cops or just freaking anything! I didn't want to die like this!
     "There is no place for mercy in the Klaww Gang, little girl. I am afraid there are few other ways to take care of this problem," the tiger growled. 
     "Wow, that's really cruel," a male voice (that was not the other man called Dimitri), said from someplace I couldn't imediately locate. A figure then swiftly (and expertly) jumped down from the rooftops, holding what appeared to be a fancy cane. His featues were hard to make out in the dark, but he had a bushy tail that appeared to be striped.
     "What?" the tiger whipped his head over to look at the figure. "You! The Cooper Raccoon!" he growled loudly. 
     "Oh, so you've heard of me? I feel so flattered. Would you like an autograph?" the bushy tailed man (who was apparantly a raccoon?) sounded so cocky and sure of himself. He didn't show an ounce of fear. "Here, I've got a pen,"
     I involuntarily flinched as the man jumped forward with great speed and precision, and knocked the tiger man back with his strange-looking cane, pulling him off of me in the process. 
     Without the weight of the tiger's arms holding me to the wall, my legs gave out and I hit the cold floor, shaking and trying to not panic and cry. 
     The tiger growled, baring his claws. He pounced towards the smaller raccoon, who simply darted to the side to avoid the leap. He then grinned mischievously. "Sorry to cut this date off so short, but it's getting late. We really should be going before it gets too dark," then he knocked his cane against the floor, releasing a smoke bomb that clouded up my vision imediately and made me start to cough. As if I couldn't breathe before...
    I suddenly felt myself being swept up into the arms of the raccoon, who then ran down the alleyway, away from the enraged tiger man. I let out a weak scream at being picked up, but refrained from screaming more, knowing that this guy was trying to save me.
      "Hang on tight!" the raccoon said as a warning, and then jumped up onto the rooftops. I squeaked a little and choked on my breaths as I realized that we were airborne, and wrapped my arms tightly around his neck.
     As soon as his feet touched the roof, he was sprinting across it. Guards had been called to chase us, and were yelling in the alleyways, trying to figure out where we went.
     I closed my eyes tight as the man jumped off of the roof and down to the ground, continuing to sprint. He darted around a few buildings, before running up the steps to one of them and opening the door, quickly stepping inside. The clean air-conditioned air was very welcome in my lungs, and so was the quietness of the room we were in. 
     "Ah, Sly, you're ba- Oh... Who's this? Is she okay?" there's a nassally voiced turtle speaking to the guy holding me. 
     "I don't entirely know," the raccoon says, setting me down into a wooden chair. "Another assumed Klaww Gang member was threatening her. Guess she overheard their plans or something," now that there was proper light, I could see that this man was indeed a gray raccoon. He wore a blue shirt with gold trim around the neck, a blue hat on his head, and blue boots. His eyes were brown, and he wore a black mask over his face (though I wasn't sure why? Wouldn't his raccoon markings be the same underneath?). He looked entirely too calm for someone who had just rescued a girl from a man twice both their sizes. Coupled with the expert moves he'd pulled off, I was starting to suspect that he wasn't just a good samaritan. 
     "Oh, my. That sounds like a very traumatic experience for a civilian. Miss, are you okay?" the turtle asked. I nodded out of habit, though I most certainly was not okay. That was the most terrifying thing I'd ever experienced. I'd never had anything like a near-death experience before, and good god was it mortifying. I was fighting to stave off a panic attack, and was steadily losing.
      "I think she's in shock," the raccoon says. He pulled the turtle away, out of earshot to say something to him. I could have listened in if I tried, but by then I was so freaked out I was getting dizzy and couldn't concentrate. A third man, who was a pink hippo, joined the huddle to listen to the raccoon.
     I heard a third voice (that I later realized was the hippo) say something, but everything suddenly sounded very far away and I couldn't focus on what they'd said. My senses felt like they weren't working; I'd zoned out and everything was getting fuzzy and blurry. 
     And that's the last thing I remembered.

     When I woke up, I was on a slightly uncomfortable couch. Something cold and fabric was on my forehead, and I could only assume it was a washcloth.
     I whined and rolled over, holding the cloth to my head. The coldness felt nice. I sat up just enough to see the room I was in. I didn't exactly remember what had happened, but I felt like I definately should have.
     "Oh, you're awake, that's good," I turned my head to the right to see the turtle sitting at a table with a computer before him. "Are you okay?" 
     After seeing the turtle, my recollection of my near-death experience returned to me, and that definately did not help me stay any kind of calm. "I think so..." I muttered despite that, sitting up entirely. "What happened?" 
     "After Sly, the raccoon who saved you, brought you here, you passed out from the shock," the turtle explained.
     "Oh. That's kind of scary," I said, slowly standing myself up. I'd never passed out before and it was certainly not something I wanted to experience again. I stretched out my legs and arms, finding that everything was kind of sore. With the force the tiger had used to pin me to the wall, I wasn't surprised. 
     "I can imagine it must have been," the turtle nodded, a look of understanding on his face. "My name's Bentley. What's yours?"
     "Nyx," I replied. I sat down catty-corner to the turtle at the table he was at, hoping that I wouldn't be invading his personal space or something. It just felt easier to talk to someone when they weren't across the room from you. 
     "It's a pleasure to meet you, Nyx. We... Think that you might be in danger if you overheard any of the Klaww Gang plans. I don't want to have to bring this up but... Can you tell me what happened back there?" Bentley looked really sorry about having to ask, but I understood that it was important. He said I might be in danger. Though I was very, very confused about why these guys didn't just take me to the police so I could file a report. But I didn't feel like I couldn't trust them, so I started to explain.
     "There was this guy who I guess is Dimitri, I didn't get a chance to see him, and this other tiger guy. The tiger was telling Dimitri that he had to hold up his end of the deal and distribute some kind of spice to Paris patrons, now that they'd stolen uh... They stole something, what was it called?" I lightly bit my lip as I tried to remember. It was on the tip of my tongue but it was something so obscure sounding that I couldn't quite recall what it was, considering the panicked haze I was in when I'd heard it. Bentley patiently waited to see if I would remember. 
     "Something about... Something about the parts of something... They especially mentioned... Tail feathers? Whatever that might mean..." I muttered this more to myself than to Bentley. Thinking aloud always helped me straighten out my thoughts.
     "Clockwerk tail feathers, perhaps?" Bentley offered, seeming geninuely interested.
     That sounded right. Clockwerk, whatever that was. "Yeah! Yeah, that's it," I said. "I got really scared and lost my balence after that, and made a lot of noise. I tried to run away... But that tiger grabbed me really fast. I tried to tell him that I didn't understand what he'd been talking about, and that I had no idea who he was so I couldn't report him, but he said that promises didn't mean anything..." I started getting a little worked up again recalling the incident. "...I thought he was gonna kill me... And then your friend, Sly showed up..." I took a really deep breath to keep myself calm. I was alive, I reminded myself. It had been scary but I was alive. 
     Bentley smiled gently and pat my arm reassuringly. "Mm. I'm afraid you just walked into a very vicious crime circle," he said sympathetically. "Once Sly and our other teammate, Murray get back, we'll think of the best way to keep the Klaww Gang from finding you," 
     "Uh. Why don't you just take me to the police?" I asked slowly. I remembered my previous thoughts about how Sly wasn't a normal citizen, and hoped I wasn't opening another can of worms by asking.
     "That's sort of complicated..." Bentley began. "But to begin, in short, the three of us are a gang of thieves, known as the Cooper Gang, and we have some business with the Clockwerk tail feathers that Dimitri has stolen," 
     Thieves? So one group of criminals had saved me from another group of even worse criminals? "Oh. Uh. Okay..." I really didn't know what to say. They didn't seem like bad people, but Bentley had just admitted to being a criminal.
     "That's probably unnerving to you, isn't it?" Bentley asked. I made a sort of "Yes kind of I don't know I'm confused" face at him in response. "Don't worry, we're not the sorts of thieves you might be thinking of. Uh, think of it like Robin Hood? Have you read that?" 
     "Robin Hood? Sooo like. You guys steal from people who are evil, to help innocents or something?" I asked. I'd never actually read the story of Robin Hood, but everyone was familar with the "Steal from the rich, give to the needy," thing.
     "Sort of. Our goals are much more personal, but in essence, yes. We steal from criminals who are actually hurting people to put them out of business," Bentley nodded. "It's Sly's family tradition,"
     "I see..." I nodded. "That actually sounds kind of heroic if you think about it the right way," I decided to save any questions about the family tradition thing for later.
     Bentley laughed. "You're one of few people who might see it that way,"
     "But um. That doesn't explain why you can't take me to the cops?" I had to bring the subject back to that before I got distracted. "I get that you're thieves who have business with this Dimitri guy, but the cops wouldn't have to know that you saved me from his people, right?"
     "The Klaww Gang is a vicious group with selfish and criminal goals. If my psychological profiling skills are accurate, which they usually are, I don't think they'll hesitate to break into police headquarters to find you if they think you're a threat to any of their operations," Bentley explained, shaking his head in obvious disapproval.
     "...And considering what that tiger guy said to me before Sly showed up... They're probably looking for me already, huh?" I asked, feeling very intimidated by the thought that there were hitmen or something after me.
     "Most likely. We're good at not being found, we sort of have to be, so if you stick with us until the Klaww Gang is eliminated, the chances of them finding you are slim," Bentley said. "But you're going to have to trust us, and we entirely understand if you don't,"
     I thought about it a moment. Sly had saved my life once already, when he most certainly didn't have to. And he and his friends didn't seem bad at all, even if I'd only really spoken to Bentley. Sure, they did bad things, but they were working towards a good goal, it seemed. That made them okay to me. And I figured that considering their "jobs" consisted of not being detected or noticed, perhaps my best bet to stay alive would be tagging along with them. It was probably flawed logic, but at that moment, traveling with thieves sounded a lot safer than whatever atempts the police might make.
     "Yeah. I think I trust you,"