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"The Spice of Life"

It was a dark night on the border of Calcutta; Sly Cooper had gotten intel on the location of Rajan and the heart of Clockwerk, which was in his possession. It was time for him to deal with the tiger, and in order to do that he needed to infiltrate the beast's lair. He knew that he had to get that heart back at any cost; and he knew that the tiger would be protecting it at all costs...

"Sly? Come in!"

A different voice than Sly had expected suddenly sparked through the raccoon's earpiece and he winced, cupping his fingers over his ear in an effort to hear more clearly. "Murray? What are you doing on comms?"

"We've had a little bit of trouble. I may have accidentally set off the van's alarm system and we may...or may not be getting chased by Rajan's palace guards."

Sly rolled his eyes. "Great. So what's the good news?"

"The good news is that if you can find a way into the main fortress, you won't have to worry about Rajan's guards because they're on us..."

"All of them?"

"Uhm... lemme check..." There was a short pause. "Yup... yup I think that's about all of 'em... so get going while we try to lose these suckers!"

"Don't lose them too fast then." Sly said as he ran toward the end of the road just outside Rajan's estate and leaped toward one of several small columns outside it.

It wasn't difficult for the raccoon to find a place to hide. He crawled up the columns and leaped through the air, catching onto a tapestry hanging down from the front of the towering gate. He crawled up over the wall with ease and slid down behind the gate, landing as light as a feather.

"Okay. I'm in, how're you guys doing?" He asked.

There was a buzzing noise and a crackle, prompting Sly to remove the piece from his ear and discard it. "Damn... hope you guys can keep them busy long enough." He said as he rushed into the building.

It was quiet; the halls were dark, and the only sound he could hear was the gentle ticking of a clock in a room he'd rushed past. His heart skipped for a moment as the clock chimed out the hour of eight, and he was up the hall before the ringing finished. He pressed a button on the side of his mask, sending a new visor down over his eyes. He reached the power room under the main spiral of stairs and with a quick slap of his cane, he dismantled it. As the lights went off, Sly tapped the visor and it switched to Night Vision, flooding his eyes with a soft green light that allowed him to see effortlessly in the darkness. His first mission accomplished, Sly quickly rushed from the room and started up the staircase. He kept his paws so quiet as they touched the carpet that he couldn't even hear himself moving. As he reached the top of the stairs though, he was surprised to see two large rhinos rushing toward him. They too had night vision goggles on and barrelled straight down on Sly with intensifying, synchronous roars.

Sly gasped at the sudden addition of guards and jumped into the air. He angled his hook around the wrist of one of the rhinos, then pulled up, causing him to punch his partner directly in the face. He spun and slipped down in between them, kicking the other in the crotch and making him shriek in pain as he grabbed his front in agony. Sly then took his cane, wrapped the hook around the second rhino's ankles and sent the beast's foot directly into the other's crotch, both of them shrieking in pain now, he released both and then spun around, striking the both of them and sending them tumbling down the staircase like boulders. To Sly's enjoyment, they collided with a small squad of guards who were just making their way up to investigate the disturbance as well and all of them crashed down below.

"No guards my butt..." He quipped before making his way down the hallway.

The corridor was long, and as he reached the other end of it, he spotted a flashlight being waved in his direction. Sly removed his night vision and slipped quickly to the side to avoid the light. He held his cane close to him and watched as the flashlight's glow scanned the wall next to him; he ducked lower to avoid being seen as it swept across the wall in front of him now. "Okay..." he pondered.

As the light sweep began to move away from him, Sly quickly jumped out and threw his cane directly at the source. It was a larger spot-flashlight and the cane managed to strike directly onto the glass. There was a crack and the flashlight went off. "HEY!" He heard someone shout as Sly activated his goggles once again and rushed the guard: This time a tiger; who looked up in sheer helplessness as Sly descended upon him, Sly made quick work of him; sending the tiger's arm up over his head from behind and slamming him into the ground.

"This is turning out to be a lot more work than I figured..." He said as he stood up and looked at the towering door standing in front of him now. "Hmm... this looks like it could be the place." He thought. Spotting a small mechanism where the knob should be, Sly realized this was that security implant that they had received intel on. Tapping his ear he spoke. "Bentley, Murray? I'm in, what's the combination on this door?" He paused and realized suddenly that he had left his ear piece downstairs somewhere when it fuzzed out. "Well great. Looks like I'm on my own here..." He said as he approached the door.

Rajan's vault was highly sophisticated; with no windows and no way down from above, the only way in was through the door with a singular security lock on it. Sly approached the door and investigated the lock; it seemed simple enough, a turn combo lock, but this appeared to be digitally activated, so he couldn't simply put his ear to the vault and turn the lock. He knew he would need to overload the system in order to break in. Sly removed his mask for a moment and took off his visor. Connecting the wires he slashed open the lock with his cane, revealing its inner wiring. He restored the visor on his mask and turned on the hacker program that Bentley had installed. Connecting it to the doorway, he began to hack his way in.

"What are you doing?!" A voice sounded out as someone rushed toward Sly. Sly removed his mask again, allowing it to do the work as he took out another two guards. This time one rhino and one tiger. He made short work of the pair, and soon they were both lying unconscious on the floor.

Sly heard the security controller beep and the lock on the vault door click and fall partially open. Regaining his mask, Sly made his way in.

The vault was on its own power circuit and was well lit. Mounds of gold and jewels made up the majority of the vault; vast riches from an empire of spices, it really floored Sly how much wealth Rajan had accumulated during his time selling on the black market. A lot of the spices were illegal and he'd gotten a rather thorough foothold of Calcutta's black markets through his sales and distribution. Sly closed the door behind him and looked up to see the heart of Clockwerk suspended over the room. It appeared to have one of its ventricles attached to a long wooden staff, but otherwise, the artifact was in tact and he knew he needed to get it out of there. Climbing to the top of the treasure mound, Sly found himself too short to reach the heart even with his cane. He noticed that the object was being suspended overhead by some strange tractor beam emanating from the ceiling above it. It was way too risky to try and knock it out with his cane, he needed to find a way to release it.

"RAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!" A roaring noise coming from behind Sly caused the raccoon to suddenly duck for cover as a tiger leaped from the base of the mound and easily snatched the staff from its suspension. Rajan slid down the pile with the staff in his hands; he was not wearing a shirt, but wore a pair of baggy white pants and a purple turban on top of his head. As he came to a stop he turned around and his muscles flexed as he turned to face the thief. "So you are Sly Cooper eh?" He asked. "I'd heard rumors you would be coming for the heart. I'm impressed you got so far."

"I'm not leaving here without that heart, Rajan." Sly said.

Rajan laughed and took a step back, waving the staff as it began to produce a strange electrical field. "Then you will not be leaving here at all... Cooper!"

Suddenly, a blast of lightning shot from the heart and Sly narrowly avoided being struck by it as he dove out of its path. Rajan simply laughed again and ran at Sly, wielding the staff and causing a larger bolt to shoot from it. Sly dove into the gold mound; he knew that it wouldn't conduct the current and he watched as Rajan began to send out waves of electricity that quickly flooded the room. He grunted and ducked back under his shelter. "You idiot! You're going to kill us both!"

"I am an idiot? You were the one who came here searching for the heart in the first place!" He shouted as he drew a cutlass from his belt and stabbed it into the gold mound. "You are the one who came here searching for it! Who's the idiot here?"

Sly dove out of the gold to avoid being slashed and grabbed Rajan's scepter. The tiger growled and held it at both ends, trying to swing the heart enough to shock the raccoon, but to no avail. "Give it up, Rajan!"

"Never, Cooper!" Rajan grunted as he argued with the raccoon and both men fell to the ground, wrestling for control of the heart. "I will never let you have the heart!"