Chapter 1: Memory Demons

"Ever see a scorpion sting itself to death, Sly?" Bentley was beaming behind his mahogany desk, I could just see his glasses peak out from behind the laptop monitor. The turtle seemed to be really enthusiastic about this assignment. He was researching the types of defense strategies different predators used to their advantage against prey, and the rare circumstances that turned those defenses against them. Some could call it a cruel study, but it was a necessary one for the job we were planning to pull off. At least, that's what Bentley kept trying to convince me of.

Only one event came to mind, I thought it would get a rise out of the turtle. "Well, there was that time in Ayer's-"

"And NOT the one in the outback, we promised never of speak of that again." his voice was firm.

I paused for a moment, glaring at him. He had a slight smirk on his face but his eyebrows were furrowed. I sighed dramatically. "Fine. Then no, Wizard, I haven't seen a scorpion sting itself." I shifted positions in my chair, crossing my legs to try and relax. "Why do you ask?"

"Well, do you remember that job in India?"

I had a 'Seriously Bentley?' look on my face. "We've had lots of jobs in India, Bentley. Can you be any more specific?"

"About ten years ago?"

I thought to myself for a minute, digging in my memory to find the event. It took me a while, but eventually it all came back to me. "The Firestone job, that was one of our best heists… and the first time I actually spoke with Carmelita."

"Ah, memories…"

We both sighed heavily, remembering the past events of the heist.

"You know, we really should eventually try to sell that stone. I mean, it looks good on the fireplace mantle, but it's kind of cumbersome to keep with us for every heist."

Bentley shook himself out of his memory-driven euphoria. "Yeah, I guess so. I'll try to get on Thief Net one of these days. Anyway, while you were out trying to steal the thing, Murray and I were trying to collect specimens of the local flora and fauna."

"Why were you doing that, if I could ask?"

Bentley shrugged, and started typing on his computer. "I was interested in the Indian wildlife at the time, Murray ran out of his backup supply of Pringles, and we went from there. Anyway, in our search for specimens, we found a duo of Indian Black Scorpions dueling over a dead wild dog carcass. We were lucky that Murray brought his new video camera along with him, otherwise we'd never have been able to get this on film." He pulled a drawer and picked out a thin remote control through the neatly organized devices. He clicked a blue button, and a thin projector screen popped down from the ceiling. I prepared myself for one of Bentley's infamous slideshows, but instead I saw a mediocre made video. I assumed it was from Murray's camera. I could say one thing, I was glad Murray didn't try to become the next Spielberg.

Terribly made or not, I could see clearly what Bentley was trying to show me. Two black scorpions were fighting, right near a body of some tailed animal. I could see one of the creatures had a grip on the other's tail with its pincers, pushing back on the others stinger into its own body. I could see the poison starting to react with it, making it wither and lose consciousness. Instinctively, I shivered at the sight of their battle. Not many people knew this, but I was deathly afraid of scorpions, arachnids, and the like. Really, I haven't told anyone of this fear but Bentley. It was in Prague, when he found out. He would have tried to console me, or make some rash remark about the fear. My mind went back to the brief conversation we had on the subject.

"Really? Insects? Why be afraid of insects? They're one of, if not the greatest and most important part of the earth's ecosystem! If anything, they should be revered! Well, minus of course, the Contessa, but she's the exception to the rule."

I didn't pay much attention to his ramblings; I was very uncomfortable with the topic we were on. Bentley could easily see my emotion on the subject, but for whatever reason, he kept at it. I guess it was because he was trying to break my fear of the creatures.

"Bentley, I respect your feelings on the matter, but please. I'm uncomfortable and shaky from our current situation as it is."

"Oh, come on Sly! Wait…" He stepped out of his chair, opened the window, and outstretched his arm to the right side of the window. He pulled out a palm-sized fur ball. I, with my natural curiosity, peered to see what the item was. As I got closer, I saw the thing unfurl from its orb shape to outstretch eight jittery arms and four pairs of eyes.

I yelled out in fright, and scrambled to the top of the table we were on. I snatched my cane from my pack, and climbed up a small pillar that held up the roof of our makeshift hideout. "BENTLEY! Get that thing out of this room, NOW!" I was wide eyed in fear; my reaction seemed to startle Bentley quite a bit. He quickly slid up the window again, and flung it out into the humid Prague air. My heart still beat wildly, but I slowly slid back down the pillar, once I saw the creature shot out the window.

"… Well. I'll admit it. I didn't exactly expect the fearless thief to be so frightened of spiders."

I sighed slowly. I couldn't believe it either sometimes. Believe it or not, that was one of the few rational fears I had. After a long and uncomfortable silence Bentley asked me how I had come to obtain this phobia. I sat silently for a while, with my own thoughts. I questioned if I should have told him, if he would have accepted it. Quickly I came to my senses, he was my best friend. I could trust him with anything.

"I was eight… well, technically seven and 364 days old… My parents and I had just planned a special trip to the museum of Natural History…" I chuckled sadly. "Somehow they got me into a miniature tuxedo before the night was over. I could remember how uncomfortable the suit made my tail, which added to my intolerable mood. I was impatient, excitable. A pretty normal thing for a kid on the day before their birthday. Sometimes I think to myself, when I can't sleep, what would have happened if I hadn't begged to go home, if I had been a better kid… Either way, my parents knuckled under from my constant whining, and I was brought home.

It was 9:48. The moon was hanging low in the sky. My parents were curled up on the couch, me on my father's lap, watching a nature documentary on National Geographic. We were so content, a true example of a family. Then an out-of-place sound came to our ears. Ring, ring ring… the doorbell sounded more menacing than I could remember at the time, but I pushed it out of my mind." I could see Bentley with an empathetic look on his face. I started to choke up a bit. "My father set me on the ground gently, and went to the keyhole to find who it was… he shut it as quick as he opened it. My mother hid some of the more valuable artifacts of their thieving lives, a golden statuette, a jade figurine, and a couple other mismatched items. Then my father rushed me to the closet, shoving the Cane in there with me. He locked away the Thievius Raccoonus up in our vault behind the family painting. He slid open the loose lock we had on the door, normally we didn't worry about prowlers or burglars… we didn't worry."

A tear started to fall down my cheek. I turned away from the turtle, stepping out in front of the hideout window. I stood silent again, trying to regain my composure and continue with my recollection of the facts. I could just feel Bentley's gaze boring through me, his sadness radiating to me.

I took a deep breath, and continued. "The door slammed open. I could hear deep thunks, cracklings of lightning and burning fire… the worst was the laughter. The laughter was sickening, appalling to hear. I placed it as Mugshot rambling of their success. These words were the only things I remember anyone in the Five saying that night…

Mugshot was still bellowing, 'Looks like the spider hag was right! Guess that means I won't have to bash her skull in.' he sounded a bit disappointed in saying this. Then I heard… then I heard a warbling voice outside of the closet. It sounded calm, but I could feel hate in his voice.

'Yes, it seems as though our deal will have to go with the Countess. I wish he didn't have to die this way. It's much more than he deserves, associating with the… Coopers.' He said that word with a certain air of malice.

Another voice, with a thick British accent came out of the burning silence. 'Does this mean I have to return her Hyp-nautical plans, Clockwerk?'

An icy cold chill ran up my back. I had seen that name in parts of the Thievius Raccoonus many times. Whenever I found a description of him, I told my father that the bird scared me. He said I had a right to be afraid, but he never continued with an explanation. I could hear creaking, almost mechanical. I always imagined this was the owl smiling. 'No, keep it. She will have enough success at her… ahem, 'newly acquired' estate. You may use the plans to your own will, Raleigh. But now for business.'

Now a deeper voice came to my ears. I found later that it was the Panda King. 'Yes, these Coopers will draw too much attention if left here. I shall set the charges around the home. It shall be a pile of ashes before daybreak.'

I must have blocked out their… their-" I couldn't say that word. I could think of dozens of others to describe it; unholy, evil, terrible, Murder, chaos, destruction, but I couldn't get the word out. "-what they did. I don't remember seeing them do it. All I hear is Clockwerk's menacing laugh. That laugh…" I couldn't go on for a little longer. I stood silent for who knows how long, looking out that window.

"And then they took the book." My face was marked with a few more teardrops. I turned back to my friend. "Two weeks ago, before you came, I had a new reason to fear. That was when I finally found out about the Contessa. Eventually, with my time in solitude she threw me a file folder of hers. It looked near ancient, being kept together by tape and glue. I could read the word 'Cooper on the file though. After reading it, I put together the final pieces of the puzzle. That the Contessa was the reason why my parents died. I was in my own personal hell just living in the same country as her, much less the same complex." I wiped my tears away with the cuff of my sleeve. "And she was playing with me again. She's toying with my emotions, with my life, trying to destroy it piece by piece."

'And now one of my best friends is trapped with that maniac.'

"SLY!"

I was awoken quickly by Bentley's shout. I must have drifted off during the video, I soon found that Murray made his way to the chair near me. He looked pretty excited, seeing that we found one of his older movies.

"Well, like I was trying to say before, this is an extremely good example of a technique we could start to try and learn. Yes, we've been putting the environment's defenses against out foes in the past, which is a good step in the right direction for thieves. But with your return to our company Sly, we might want to start working on some new defenses. Now, I've uploaded the moves and positions that each of us could best attempt to do into each of our binnocucoms, all we've got to do now it train with them. Now let's get to it!" The screen slid back up quickly. Murray whooped in excitement, ran out to the garage. Bentley wheeled his way over to me. "You okay, Sly? You're spacing out a lot more nowadays."

I frowned slightly, I was confused myself on why my memories were visiting me so frequently. I shrugged nonchalantly, as usual, trying to hide my emotions. "Not sure. Don't worry, it's probably just a weird raccoon thing, or something. Head out to the van, I'll catch up with you guys in there in a couple of minutes."

He looked skeptically at me. "Well, if you're sure." Bentley didn't sound certain, but he looked like he trusted me to deal with my problem on my own. He started to pump his arms quickly to the garage. "Wait for me, Murray!"

I smiled slightly. I slowly rose from the wooden chair, and walked through the walkways of our hideout to grab my cane and backpack. My mind was still up in the clouds, but I could keep my body going here on the ground. I had to; we had a job to prepare for! I couldn't let the past catch up with me again, it had done that enough times in my life. Now the only thing important was the future, to prepare for the future. At least, so I had thought. But either way, the Cooper Gang was on its greatest adventure yet, one that could change the very fabric of reality, and the history of our world. It could even destroy the gang, if we weren't careful…

As I walked through the garage doorway, my head felt like it had split open. I was in searing pain, falling to my knees. Suddenly my mind raced, showing different images and memories of my past. I could hardly understand most of them. Then my vision stopped on on one particular picture. I was in the middle of some city, by the looks of it it was ancient. I walked along for a few seconds, then saw an ominous shadow rise above me. I turned around slowly to see my greatest fear realized. A silvery black bird outstretched its wings, its talons were clicked open, making a charp ping in the near silence. Then I heard its piercing cry, my ears felt like they were bleeding, compounding the pain in my head. Then, as quickly as the pain and vision came, they both left. I was lightheaded. I found I was still on my knees, barely being able to keep my head up. Quickly I lost the ability to keep my head aloft, and I fell to the hardwood floor of the hideout. I slipped in and out of conciousness, eventually sucumbing to the pull of unconciousness.

Sometimes I really, really hate Monday mornings.