Carmelita Fox

"You can't escape me, Raccoon!"

- Carmelita to Sly, as he escapes her in Paris

Inspector Carmelita Montoya Fox is a female fox with orange fur, brown eyes and blue hair. She is a member of INTERPOL and is almost always in constant pursuit of the Cooper Gang, and therefore Sly Cooper, who views her as a love interest. During the events of Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time, Carmelita temporarily joined the Cooper Gang and helped Sly save the Cooper Clan through time travel. She is currently investigating Sly's whereabouts.

Carmelita first appeared in Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus at the age of 21. Her current age is unknown, as she was 23 in Sly 2: Band of Thieves and 24 in Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves, but an undisclosed amount of time passed between that and Thieves in Time.

She was voiced by in Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus,  in Sly 2,  in Sly 3 and  in Thieves in Time and following appearances.

Background
Carmelita is a fourth-generation member of law enforcement. At a young age, she studied at Sleuth Academy and graduated at the top of her class. After graduating from the Police Academy with honors, she began working for the Investigative Services Division of INTERPOL. Her boss and mentor was Inspector James Barkley. At an unknown point in her career, Carmelita became acquainted with Constable Neyla and The Contessa.

Meeting Sly
When Inspector Barkley was nearing retirement, he wanted to know he was passing his department into the right hands. Therefore, he gave Carmelita, his rookie protegee and the number one candidate for the job, the task of securing the Parisian Opera House and protecting the Diva Diamond, a jewel owned by opera singer Pachyderma Tuskinanny. While patrolling the roof, Carmelita found a raccoon looking at a map and overlooking the city. Assuming the worst, she called for some guards and they apprehended him. Seeing the intruder face to face, she was taken back by how attractive he was. He was then put in the janitor's closet. He eventually escaped and when Barkley found out, he yelled at Carmelita, blaming her for his escape.

Angry about how the intruder had made her look the fool in front of her boss, she stormed off in search of him. She searched backstage for any traces of the raccoon. While investigating, she heard a commotion around the corner from her position, but when she inspected it, there was nobody there. On the opera's stage, Pachyderma was wailing over the fact that the Diva Diamond was stolen. Barkley screamed at Carmelita at the top of his lungs, reducing her to tears.

Out of nowhere, a man fell from the air above them; he had been tied up suspended by a rope and had a paper bag over his head. Carmelita removed the bag to find Pierre, the stage manager, with the Diva Diamond around his neck. Inside the bag, Carmelita found a calling card from Sly, which revealed the identity of the intruder. For securing the opera house, protecting the Diva Diamond and arresting Pierre, Carmelita was given a promotion by Barkley. This would be the first time of many that she and Sly would encounter each other.

Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus
Carmelita appeared to stop Sly from escaping with an INTERPOL file on the Fiendish Five. After Sly's escape, she pursued him to each of the Fiendish Five members' locations, her first captive being Sir Raleigh. She later tracked Sly down in Mesa City, pursuing him once again but ultimately failing to capture him. She went on to apprehend the criminals known as Muggshot and Mz. Ruby, before pursuing Sly once more in the Kunlun Mountains. Of course, she failed to capture the Cooper Gang but did not miss her chance to arrest the Panda King in compensation for this loss.

During the gang's mission in Russia, Carmelita sneaked into Clockwerk's base of operations ahead of them with her jetpack. She was captured and held prisoner within Clockwerk's gas chamber but was subsequently freed by Sly during his infiltration of the headquarters. Agreeing to the terms of a temporary truce, Carmelita aided him in his final war against Clockwerk during their battle above the Krakarov Volcano. She gave him cover-fire when he dashed to retrieve his cane by venturing into Clockwerk's installation. Carmelita then offered her jet-pack to him when he went to finish Clockwerk off and further assisted in the battle by shooting holes within the owl's interior design, allowing Sly to fire in the weak spots that formed as a result.

Once Clockwerk was defeated, Carmelita confronted Sly on a catwalk above the volcano crater. True to her word, she gave Sly the promised ten-second head start. However, Sly preferred to wait until the last second and took Carmelita by surprise by kissing her on the lips. Despite greatly enjoying the kiss, Carmelita was enraged immediately after discovering that the distraction had allowed Sly and his gang to escape arrest by handcuffing her to the catwalk railing, but she later freed herself (as seen in the Japanese version of the ending).

Protecting The Venus de Whalo
"Tonight is a night of celebration, Madame D'Oinkeau. Your statue is safe with me."

- Carmelita vowing to protect the Venus de Whalo

Sometime after the defeat of Clockwerk, Carmelita was invited to a party in Monaco held by Beverly D'Oinkeau and her fiancé Dimitri Lousteau. She was tasked by D'Oinkeau to protect the Venus de Whalo, a valuable statue, from any harm. While Carmelita was viewing the statue, three guards arrived and informed D'Oinkeau that they had apprehended an intruder fitting the description of Sly Cooper, in the attic. Carmelita rushed upstairs only to find a wrecked art studio that exposed Dimitri as an art forger, though Dimitri had already fled. Carmelita went back downstairs and found the Venus de Whalo gone, stolen by Sly.

Carmelita searched the grounds of D'Oinkeau's mansion for any traces of Sly or the Venus de Whalo. While searching a bridge near the mansion she was suddenly surprised by the raccoon himself who quickly disarmed her. The two began a conversation in which Sly attempted to convince Carmelita that they were both working towards the same goal. Carmelita begged to differ, telling Sly that he was just another criminal and thus part of the problem. Sly asked her to think back to the night they met, when he helped her catch Pierre, but Carmelita argued that she was not as naive as she was then.

Seeing a window of opportunity, Carmelita quickly retrieved her shock pistol from the ground. By the time she turned back, Sly was already gone, having escaped on a boat with Bentley and Murray.

Sly 2: Band of Thieves
"I'll be seeing you soon... Ringtail."

- Carmelita to Sly after the latter escapes her grasp

When Sly ventured into the Museum of Natural History in Cairo in search for the remaining Clockwerk Parts, Carmelita intervened along with Constable Neyla, whom she had allowed to partner-up with her as a mere favor to the high-ranking Contessa. She failed to capture Sly, being distracted by Neyla's accusations against her obsession with him. Carmelita later arrived in Paris, and, enraged at missing her opportunity to arrest the Cooper Gang, vented out all of her frustrations on an unfortunate Dimitri. During her operation in India, Carmelita danced with Sly at Rajan's ball, unwittingly serving as the perfect distraction to aid in the Cooper Gang's theft of the Clockwerk Wings. Upon discovering her dance partner's true identity, Carmelita blew her cover and disrupted the entire party, making numerous arrests and forcing Rajan to flee into obscurity in order to escape arrest. Later, when Neyla succeeded in capturing Rajan and betrayed the Cooper Gang, Carmelita was framed as an accomplice of the Cooper Gang, resulting in her arrest at the hands of the Contessa.

Carmelita was later found by Sly within the Contessa's castle, being confined to an Iron Tech 250, hours away from being brainwashed by a Mind Shuffler (which was amplified by the Clockwerk eyes). Essentially, the Contessa intended to have Carmelita take the fall for her at INTERPOL by brainwashing her into an obedient slave of hers, but the INTERPOL agent was freed by the Cooper Gang before she could succumb to hypnosis. Seeking vengeance on the Contessa, she proved quite a nuisance in both her and the gang's plans, shooting down a blimp that Bentley had boarded. Carmelita acquired the Clockwerk Eye that Bentley had recovered, only to lose it to Murray. She was soon forced to turn to Sly and the others for aid in escaping Neyla's forces.

Carmelita later showed up in the heart of Jean Bison's train operation, capturing Murray in her efforts to place the remainder of the gang into custody. She failed and was once again forced to flee from INTERPOL forces. Sly tried to think of a way to clear her name, some way other than turning himself in.

Somehow acquiring a helicopter, Carmelita joined forces with Sly to battle Neyla after her betrayal of Arpeggio and subsequent merging with the Clockwerk frame, thus becoming Clock-La. Once Clock-La was defeated, Carmelita took her final vengeance upon Neyla by crushing the Hate Chip, which had empowered Clock-La, causing the Clockwerk Parts to disintegrate and crushing Neyla to pieces. In an ironic twist of fate, Carmelita ended the menace of Clockwerk and became the savior of the future generations of the Cooper Clan.

Aware that his weary – and in Bentley's case, injured – comrades had no hope of escaping, Sly turned himself over to Carmelita in exchange for their freedom. Due to this, Carmelita was reinstated as an INTERPOL agent with an additional promotion by Inspector Barkley when the forces arrived to clean up the site. While on board an INTERPOL helicopter, Carmelita and Sly began to converse over their previous adventures. This conversation soon evolved into a discussion of their shared interests, and became the equivalent of a first date between the two. Carmelita even showed Sly the bottle of champagne she had been saving for the special occasion of his arrest. However, the moment ended when Carmelita realized that their flight seemed to be prolonged, something that Sly also noticed when he saw the Eiffel Tower floating by a grand total of seventeen times. Investigating, Carmelita discovered that Bentley and Murray had done Sly one last favor before their departure, and the raccoon managed to escape capture once again, gliding away from the helicopter. She yelled, "I'll find you, Cooper!" as Sly drifted away on his paraglider. She then calmly says "I'll be seeing you soon, ringtail." (This is the only time in the series that any of the characters openly speaks in a cinematic.)

When Carmelita went back to her office, she finds the same bottle of champagne left by Sly on her desk. She then continues to search for Sly, whose current whereabouts are still unknown.

Analyzing the Cooper Gang


Carmelita was analyzing some camera footage of a recent robbery Sly had tried to pull off. Confused as to the motives of Sly and Murray's clumsiness during the heist, she soon retired into slumber. Sly later broke into the room to steal back the map he had tried to loot in the first place. Carmelita suddenly awoke to his presence, shock pistol in hand and prepared to take down the raccoon. She taunts him for his clumsiness, but is infuriated when he manages to escape from her with the map to his family's fortune. Carmelita then proceeds to round up a group of mercenaries and swears to capture Sly once and for all.

Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves
"Sly: So forward. What happened to the demure girl I used to know? Carmelita: She grew up and stopped taking grief from guys like you!"

- On Carmelita's colder attitude

Carmelita encountered Sly in Venice, where she is investigating a tar crisis linked to local mob boss Octavio. Octavio hires the Blue Viper Gondola Gang to terminate Carmelita, but their attempt is thwarted by Sly and Bentley; however, Carmelita is oblivious to this deed. Carmelita unknowingly aided the Cooper Gang by defeating a great number of Octavio's thugs. She arrests Octavio after Murray defeats him.

Following the gang to the Australian outback, Carmelita became possessed by the Mask of Dark Earth during the gang's final operation. Bentley attempted to sedate the possessed Carmelita with multiple shots from his sleep darts. Unfortunately, the dart's chemicals interacted with the Mask of Dark Earth's evil properties, which caused a chemical reaction within Carmelita's body. This caused her to grow to the size of a giant. Sly eventually managed to revert Carmelita back to her normal form by climbing up her bootlaces and removing the mask, while the INTERPOL forces in the area landed the final blow on the Mask of Dark Earth, in exchange for their own lives. Sly and the gang cared for the dazed Carmelita following the aftermath of the incident and provided her with some "photographic evidence" using her camera.

Carmelita returned in Kinderdijk, chasing Sly in the background of the ACES biplane tournament. After yet another chase, which was purposely orchestrated by Sly and Bentley, Carmelita engaged Muggshot in battle, defeating him and sending the criminal back to prison. Later, she pursued the gang to China, where her shock pistols were necessary in order to charge a battery required for the recently recovered team van. Lured into General Tsao's palace, she overheard a false ploy concocted by Sly and Bentley to steal away Tsao's intended bride-to-be. Seeking to trap Sly, Carmelita snuck into the bride's dressing room and donned a ceremonial wedding outfit as a disguise. After Sly and the gang defeated the Stone Dragon summoned by Tsao, the wedding occurred, where Carmelita revealed herself and used her pistol to knock out Tsao. Though surprised at arresting Tsao instead of Sly, Carmelita still took the emperor into custody.

Carmelita failed to track the gang during their war against Captain LeFwee in Blood Bath Bay. This was addressed by Sly, who sent her a pirate postcard. However, she and her squad of mercenaries arrived on Kaine Island to discover Sly in the grip of Dr. M's monster. She engaged the genetic mutate in combat and proceeded to assist Sly in his final showdown with Dr. M. Weakened by the battle with Sly, the crazed doctor attempted to fire a laser blast at her. However, Sly sprung in front of the blast, saving Carmelita. After Carmelita finished Dr. M off, she discovered that Sly had developed amnesia from the blast's impact. Carmelita took him with her, convincing him that he was her partner, Constable Cooper. She appeared in the end credits of the game, standing hand in hand with Sly on a balcony in the Parisian landscape. While Bentley watches from a distance with his binocucom, Sly glances at him and winks, thus implying that he was faking his memory loss in order to develop his relationship with Carmelita.

Timing is Everything
It is unknown when Timing is Everything takes place, though it can be assumed it takes place sometime during the events of Sly 3.

Carmelita is first seen in this animated short when Sly walk into a janitor's closet and sees that she has been tied up by Muggshot's goons. He pulls the tape off of her mouth, which causes her to scream in pain. She is disgusted to see him, but realizes that he is her only way out. Sly begins to untie her, but realizes that she could be a liability to the mission, so he ties her back up and puts the tape back over her mouth, promising to return soon. Carmelita begins to throw herself around in anger until she knocks a toolbox with a flare inside into her lap. She ignites it and uses it to burn through the rope which creates smoke that sets off the fire alarm.

Carmelita bursts from the closet, takes out a nearby guard and grabs his pistol. As Sly defeats Muggshot in the cockpit, Carmelita bursts through the door and points the gun at Sly, but holsters it when they both realize that the plane, due to Sly and Muggshot's fighting, is going to crash into a mountain. Their attention is turned when the Cooper Van comes through the roof of the plane. Realizing there isn't enough time to get them into the Van, Bentley desperately tosses a cable onto Muggshot's belt buckle and Murray ignites the backup rockets with the two on Muggshot's back. This launches them out of the plane just before it crashes into the mountain. They watch the explosion and Carmelita decides to pull her gun on Sly a second time, who kisses her. He jumps off of Muggshot's back and waves good-bye as she becomes infuriated, but then sees he gave her the watch, smiles, and watches the gang float off.

Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time
"Sly Cooper you no-good, lying thief! I'm locking you up for good!"

- Carmelita after seeing Sly in the museum

Carmelita enjoys her relationship with Sly so much so that she doesn't notice his coming relapse back into thievery. However, she began to suspect this as she observed Sly's quick glances at the priceless treasures they were guarding, but Carmelita tried to ignore her suspicions, trying to convince herself that Sly had indeed changed. Unfortunately, Carmelita found Sly spying the museum across from their Paris penthouse, partially confirming her suspicions and upsetting her even more.

Prologue
While Carmelita is on an assignment, Sly and the gang break into Le Paradox's museum to steal a Japanese dagger to go back in time to Feudal Japan and save Rioichi Cooper. Carmelita notices this on the monitors and realizes Sly was lying to her all along and their usual cop-and-robber relationship is revived. Furious, she drove to the Museum in an attempt of capturing Sly. After failing to capture Sly once again, she notices strange green gas coming from down the hallway.

Investigating, Carmelita found Le Paradox stealing his own treasure. In her moment of shock, she was unable to react quickly and Le Paradox sends her to his henchman Sheriff Toothpick in the 1880s.

Go West Young Raccoon
Toothpick puts Carmelita in a carriage to get her killed. She was then rescued by one of Sly's ancestors, "Tennessee Kid" Cooper, while Sly, Bentley, and Murray get captured by Toothpick himself, who revealed Carmelita was merely the bait for him to capture the Cooper gang. Carmelita and Tennessee then rescued the Cooper Gang from solitary confinement. From this point on, she sticks with the gang. She aids them in the heist against Toothpick, she protects Bentley as he is en route to hack into the gold train's whistle control. She then goes with the gang back to the Ice Age when they have to make an accidental time-jump to save themselves.

Despite the situation she finds herself in, she's still pretty sour to Sly. Oddly enough, she shows courtesy to Tennessee despite being a Cooper and a thief, even going so far as to say he's quite a gentleman.

Clan of the Cave Raccoon
At the beginning of the episode, Carmelita leaves the gang for a time, being frustrated at Sly. Later, Sly meets up with her again after his failed tailing of Grizz. She reveals that she's been tailing Grizz by herself the whole time, and that she has Grizz's security codes and the schematics to his fortress. After revealing this, she says she'll give the information to Sly, but only if he gives it to Bentley. Sly then asks Carmelita if she'd rather give it to Bentley directly, to which she replies yes. They then return to the hideout. It is then that Carmelita realizes that in spite of herself, she's discovered a new found respect for Sly and his gang. She also comes to terms with the sobering realization that despite her efforts to reform Sly, she cannot force him to become someone he's not; she realizes that Sly is Sly, and she has to accept him for who he is. She then comes to the conclusion that she and Sly are truly on the same side of justice, only on opposite sides of the law. Later on, she aids the gang in the heist on Grizz's fortress.

Of Mice and Mechs
Carmelita goes to watch over Sir Galleth Cooper, who heads off to fight the moat monster, a mechanical three-headed dragon. She's met by a slightly jealous Sly who says he doesn't recall Carmelita watching his back when on jobs, to which she replies that she does when she's trying to capture him. She rescues Galleth after he had gotten eaten whole by the robot dragon. Galleth asks Carmelita to keep this between them as "being saved by such a fair damsel wounds him deepest."

Forty Thieves
In order to get past a heavily guarded door, Carmelita was forced to distract the guards by dressing up as a belly dancer and dancing, much to her displeasure. Needless to say, Sly definitely approved this plan. After Sly's triumph over Miss Decibel, Carmelita had already been snatched away and tied up by Le Paradox, who then returns to Paris.

Epilogue
When Sly goes up to Le Paradox's airship, he finds that she is still tied up. When he tries to free her, a glass container traps and captures them both. Le Paradox then takes the two of them to the bridge, where he explains his motives and the fate he has planned for the two of them, all while Bentley, Murray, and Sly's ancestors are working to get their canes back and reach the bridge to try to rescue them. As he is about to toss them into his "Time Tunnel" machine, Tennessee Kid frees them when he shoots the container at the last second, just as he, Bentley and Murray had gotten to the bridge. After Tennessee was sent back home, Le Paradox tried to smash Sly and Carmelita with a claw of his mobile blimp control station, but accidentally hits the Time Tunnel, causing it to malfunction. Sly then orders the others to take Carmelita and get off of the ship. Carmelita tries to apologize to Sly for how she treated him, but he brushes her off right before she, Bentley, and Murray get off of the ship.

Later, after Le Paradox's defeat, Carmelita returned to INTERPOL, where she threw herself into her work and busting criminals at a record pace. According to Bentley, Carmelita's been so busy, he hasn't seen her in a while. She also begins her own private search for Sly. When she comes across wreckage from the blimp, she finds the photo of her and Sly dating that Sly had kept throughout the whole adventure. Upon seeing it, now faded, torn and water-damaged, Carmelita realizes that Sly had truly cared for her all along, and that she never gave him a chance to explain himself. She is left completely heartbroken and regretful, due to now knowing that she could not tell Sly how she really feels about him in return since he is lost in time after he was trapped on the blimp when it was sucked into the portal.

Despite returning to INTERPOL, Carmelita still stands as an ally to the Cooper Gang, knowing Sly is still out there and, just like Bentley and Murray, has promised herself that she will find Sly.

Physical appearance
Carmelita is a vixen with brownish-orange fur, a beauty mark under her left eye, and thick, wavy dark blue hair with bangs tied in a braid by a gold hairband. Her outfit includes a dark blue midriff-baring top that zips in the front, form-fitting dark blue pants, and a choker from which her INTERPOL badge hangs. She wears a light brown leather jacket and yellow gloves. She wears a golden hoop piercing on the top of her left ear. Carmelita wears long dark-brown or black combat boots; though in the cutscenes for Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus and in her in-game model for the said game they are shown with steel toes with a yellow police star on each one.

In the Japanese version anime-styled scenes of the first game, the blue colors on her clothing are instead closer to a shade of black, and she wears brown shoes instead.

In Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus, Carmelita's jacket is dark brown and has zippers on the sleeves. Her top also has a zipper on it. She additionally has an INTERPOL badge attached to her belt. These features would all be removed in her later appearances.

In Sly 2 and Sly 3, Carmelita replaces her original steel-toed boots with plain knee-high brown combat boots (yellow-brown in the 2D cutscenes and artwork) now wears lipstick.

In Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time, Carmelita's ensemble changes quite a bit. She now sports a bra top, dark blue miniskirt, brown heeled belt-buckle boots with flaps, and her jacket's sleeves are now rolled up above her elbows. Likewise, her physical appearance has also drastically changed with her hair now loose. Along with HD graphics, she is thinner overall, has pointed ears fanning upward and more defined cheeks.

She has worn other clothing during undercover missions and everyday life, including a long black ball gown with a split down the left side of the skirt, a red Chinese-style dress with a veil, and a short blue dress, among others.

Personality
Carmelita's outlook on crime is very black and white, firmly believing that any lawbreaker must be brought to justice, regardless of how minor or major the infraction was. Pursuing this vision with her shock pistol, Carmelita was extremely rigid in her view and pursued all criminals with equal determination, from murderers to jaywalkers to thieves, extending to Sly and his gang. Both she and Sly have repressed romantic feelings for each other and their relationship was portrayed rather ambiguously throughout the series until the conclusion of Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves.

Despite believing any criminal should be brought to justice, Carmelita acts justly to her captives, as evident when she offers Murray a bag of jelly beans during his captivity and ensures that he is comfortable in his makeshift cell. Carmelita is very devoted to her line of work, and must keep her emotions under control in order to keep her temper in check. Carmelita has been seen to enjoy regular day-to-day activities when off duty, such as viewing art galleries, listening to music and buying boots.

Although Carmelita obsesses over trying to arrest Sly, she does harbor some respect for him and more, though she can't really admit it to herself. She even once mentioned that it was a shame that Sly was working on the other side of the law.

Due to her rigid attitude, she was left heartbroken and regretful when she realize Sly has been caring for her all along after his disappearance. Finding the picture during her date with Sly, she realizes that she didn't give him a chance to explain himself, further lamenting herself.

Abilities
Carmelita is shown to be an excellent combatant and very capable in a fight. She has impressive acrobatic skills, capable of matching Sly in agility and speed. She also possesses great balance, given that in her chases, she always manages to prevent herself from plummeting down near fatal landings (such as near the edges of high buildings or mountain peaks). Carmelita can also leap higher altitudes than Sly to compensate her inability to climb/spire jump/rail walk and is incredibly adept at using her shock pistol. She seems to have a great deal of lower body strength, given her jumping abilities and the fact that she's shown delivering kicks that can send even the burliest of flashlight guards flying. She also has a strong force of will, being able to fight off the Contessa's hypnosis (which was also being powered by the Clockwerk Eyes, increasing the Contessa's abilities). Sly himself complimented her skills when Bentley expressed concern for her ability to go one-on-one with Muggshot, who she was able to damage (albeit only slightly) with a physical attack, something even Murray was unable to do.

In Thieves in Time, she is also able to change her ammo type from default to Auto Fire, Charge Shot, Stun Ammo and Triple Fire. Also, she is surprisingly good at belly dancing, which she reluctantly used to distract the guards while Sly, Salim and the gang opened the vault.

Quotes
{In her love connection video} "Hola, my name is Carmelita. This is my first time ever trying one of these internet dating sites and not that comfortable to be on the camera. I am looking for… I don't know what I'm looking for. I do know what I am not looking for. I am not looking for a conniving two-bit thieving raccoon! Ehh. I'm sorry. I should say that I've spent the last 4 years in a very dysfunctional relationship, but that's all in the past. And now I’m ready to move on and begin a whole new life, so if you don't have a criminal record or live in a van with a turtle and a hippopotamus or sneak around in the middle of the night breaking the law. Send me a message, we can go out for dinner like two normal people on a date, talking to each other, telling stories, going salsa dancing. Not pickpocketing wallets, stealing jewelry, and busting into the restaurant safe! I'll get you, Cooper!"