Disclaimer: This disclaimer is for the entire story. I do not own Sly Cooper, or any other concepts developed by Sucker Punch Studio's. Any other concepts, or ideas I do not think up myself are the property of their respective owners.
Now that the Disclaimer is out of the way, I am proud to present another story from your's truly, Renamon's Assistant. I also would like to take this time to apologize to those who were reading Sands of Time. I am sorry to say that the story, sort of his a brick wall, and I vowed never to leave a story unfinished on I do this mainly because I hate it when I am reading a good story, reach the last chapter posted, and find out the author hasn't made a new addition to the story in years. So, the story Sands of Time may return, and it may not. We will just have to see if my inspiriation returns. Now, onto this new story, A Soul Shattered.
A Soul
Shattered
Chapter 1
Five
Pieces, One Soul
Paris, France
Old Warehouse
District
1: 38 A.M.
A dark cloud cover hung over the city of Paris. Lightning streaked across the sky occasionally, lighting up the world with a flash. A cold wind blew through the city streets, causing an eerie howl to fill the air. A strong rain poured down from the sky, dousing the city. The usually lively Paris city streets were empty, no one wanting to be out in the terrible storm.
Unfortunately, Carmelita Montoya Fox did not have a choice about being out in the storm. She stood amongst several other Interpol officers, a red trench coat wrapped tightly around her light frame in attempt to ward of the cold. The hat she had been wearing got blown away, and now her hair was soaking wet from the constant rain. She had been called out, away from the warmth of her nice dry apartment, to help with the capture of a criminal she had arrested a few years back, Mz. Ruby.
Mz. Ruby, the voodoo mystic of the fiendish five, had escaped from a maximum security jail about a week ago. Now, they had surrounded her in an abandoned warehouse. They had waited for three hours now, hoping Mz. Ruby would surrender. Carmelita knew better though. Mz. Ruby was not someone that would give up without a fight. Six times over the course of the three hours, Mz. Ruby had sent out a few zombies to try and drive the Interpol Officers away. Carmelita had held everybody in place though, and they had reached a stale mate.
Carmelita turned when she heard a constable calling out her name. The constable was a giraffe, and he had a cell phone with him. Carmelita took the cell phone, thanked the constable, and held it up to her ear as she said, "Inspector Fox speaking."
"Carmelita, this is Chief Barkley. I just got word from the higher ups. No more waiting, you are to move in and arrest Mz. Ruby, Now."
Carmelita nodded her head and said, "Understood." Carmelita lowered the cell phone away from her year, and closed it as she handed it back to the giraffe and said, "Constable, round up five other officers, and bring them back here. The chief has ordered us to move in, and arrest Mz. Ruby by force." The giraffe nodded his head, and began to move through the crowd of officers, finding five other officers willing to help.
A few minutes later, Carmelita and the six other officers were creeping past the line of police cars and toward the warehouse. Carmelita took the lead, with the giraffe constable following behind her. The other five officers were all constables consisting of a pelican, black bear, brown horse, mountain lion, and a German Shepard. The group reached the staff entrance to the warehouse, and Carmelita glanced back at the other officers before she reached out, and gently opened the door. Once she was sure the coast was clear, she motioned toward the other officers and they moved into the warehouse.
They were in a set of offices that were separated from the rest of the warehouse. There were seven doors in the hallway, three on the left, three on the right, and one at the end of the hall. Carmelita looked back at the six constables, and motioned toward the doors on the left and right sides of the hallway. The constables nodded their heads and began to move toward the six doors on the sides of the hallway while Carmelita moved toward the door at the end.
Carmelita waited till everybody was in position before she gave them a signal, and each officer moved into through their respective door. Carmelita waited in the hall, listening until she saw the other six doors slam shut, and then disappear. Carmelita rushed over to where on of the other doors had stood, and felt around the wall. There was no trace of the door left. Carmelita pounded on the wall a few times, and she heard someone pounding from the other side. The other six officers were trapped in the six offices that were next to the hallway. Carmelita tried to use her shock pistol to blow through the wall, but the walls proved too sturdy. Carmelita pounded on the walls a few more times, and told the officers to sit tight.
Carmelita picked up her radio, and tried to call for back up. To her surprise, her radio refused to even turn on. In aggravation, Carmelita threw the radio down on the floor, breaking it into pieces. Carmelita groaned a bit, realizing that she would end up paying for a new radio before she looked at either end of the hallway. The only door that hadn't disappeared was the one she had been standing at. Even the one she had come in through had disappeared.
After a few quite minutes, Carmelita turned and looked at the only door left. She raised an eyebrow, getting a bad feeling in the pit of her gut. Carmelita tightened the grip on her shock pistol bring it up near her head as she moved slowly toward the last door in the hall. She stepped up beside the door, pressing her ear against door before she reached out, and slowly turned the door knob. With her shock pistol held tightly, Carmelita slowly opened the door and stepped into the main part of the warehouse.
The warehouse was filled with dust, and it looked as if no one had been in the warehouse for years. The long rows of shelves were filled with boxes, most of them empty. Some of the shelves had collapsed in on themselves, but most of them still stood, blocking most of the warehouse from view. Carmelita moved slowly, taking silent steps as she moved past the shelves. She held her shock pistol out, checking behind each corner before moving on in her search for Mz. Ruby.
Carmelita had gone through several rows of shelves when a green flash of light came from the far side of the warehouse. Carmelita made her way across the warehouse, breaking free of the rows of shelves and into tall piles of boxes. Finally, after a few minutes she reached the edge of a pile of boxes filed with scrap metal and peaked around the corner. That is when she caught her first sight of Mz. Ruby. The Voodoo priestess was balancing on tail, sitting right beside a large, black cauldron. Around her, bottles of strange liquids and powders floated through the air. Mz. Ruby was using a long stick to stir the contents of the cauldron while some black fires burned underneath the cauldron, causing the strange liquid inside it to bubble and boil.
Carmelita stood perfectly still as she watched Mz. Ruby take hold of one of the bottle floating near her head, and pouring its contents into the cauldron. She then reached out with one of her scaly fingers, and dipped into the cauldron. She pulled it out, and tasted the dark purple liquid that covered it. She smiled as she said, "Ahhh, my Cajun voodoo potion is almost complete. All it needs is a tiny spot of swamp gas, a few bones, and the most important ingredient. Water from the ancient, dark mojo spring."
Carmelita watched as Mz. Ruby reached down, and lifted up a tiny vial that was on a string wrapped around her neck. She pulled the vial off, snapping the string before she reached out and uncorked the vial. A black mist began to rise out of the vial. Mz. Ruby smelled the black mist, smiling as she poured the strange black liquid into the cauldron. The strange liquid quickly turned pitch black, and a green mist began to rise out of the potion. Mz. Ruby was smiling, blowing out the flames beneath the cauldron as the green mist from the black potion began to turn red.
Carmelita finally saw enough, and jumped out from her hiding place as she yelled, "Freeze Mz. Ruby, you are under arrest."
Mz. Rudy turned, and stared at Carmelita for a few seconds before she smiled and said, "Well, if it isn't the little wrench inspector that arrested me, and got me thrown in jail. I didn't expect to see you again my dear, you just saved me the whole trouble of hunt you down."
Carmelita, lowered her shock pistol a bit, here eyes widening as she said, "What?"
Mz. Ruby continued to smile as she said, "That rights, I was hoping to run into you and that Sly Cooper. I have to repay you to for throwing me in jail, and destroying my lovely home. It will take me a year to bring back all my voodoo children, and rebuild my bad mojo generators. So, I going to make sure neither you nor that troublesome raccoon can stop me. Now, why don't you come have a bit of my Nightmare Stew, it has quite a punch to it."
With out another word, Mz. Ruby's raised her hands up, and began to cast her voodoo magic at Carmelita. The combination of triangles, circles, squares, and "X's" flew at Carmelita. Carmelita, dodged, and began to fire her shock pistol at the voodoo priestess. Mz. Ruby blocked the shots with her voodoo magic, and launched a barrage of circles at Carmelita. Carmelita tried to dodge the magic, but four circles struck her, and formed rings of magic around Carmelita's hands and feet.
Carmelita paused for a second, looking down at the rings around her wrists before she looked up at Mz. Ruby. Mz. Ruby was smiling as she raised her finger, and with and rolled her finger as if calling Carmelita toward her. Carmelita suddenly felt the rings pulling on her wrists, and they lifted her up into the air and over toward Mz. Ruby.
Mz. Ruby just continued to smile as the rings on Carmelita hands and feet spread her limbs apart, like she was shackled to a wall. The rings continued to suspend Carmelita in the air as they brought her right up beside the cauldron. Carmelita looked down at the black, tar like liquid that was in the cauldron. It smelled of rotting fish, and was so disgusting it made Carmelita gage. Mz. Ruby chuckled a bit, noticing Carmelita chocking on the cauldron's fumes as she said, "Why my dear, don't you like Mz. Rudy's cooken. You haven't even given it a try, and trust me on this fact. One taste is enough for the potion to take its course."
Mz. Ruby then smiled as she waved her hand in the air a few times, and made a wooden spoon appear. She took the spoon into her hand, and then dipped it into the potion in the cauldron. She pulled the spoon out bring with it a spoonful of the strange black liquid. Carmelita watched, and then her eyes began to widen as Mz. Ruby reached over and took hold of Carmelita's chin. She then began to move the spoon, laden with putrid liquid closer and closer to Carmelita's mouth.
Mz. Rudy was about to force the spoon into Carmelita's mouth when she stopped, and began to look around. Her eyes narrowed, and she stepped away from Carmelita as she said, "I know your in here you body bag of swamp gas. Now get your black tail out here."
Carmelita wondered who Mz. Ruby was taking to until she saw someone seeming appear out of the shadow of a tower of boxes. He was a black panther that was just a bit taller then Carmelita. He had a thin, lean frame and was dressed in a pair of black pants, black shoes, and a white, long sleeve shirt. He stared coldly at Mz. Ruby, his emerald eyes emotionless as he said, "It took you long enough to notice I was here Mz. Ruby."
Mz. Ruby snarled, her eyes filling with anger as she said, "Black Phantom, you swamp slime, what are you doing here?"
The panther chuckled, taking a few steps forward as he said, "I haven't been called that in years, since I quit being your apprentice you demented old crocodile."
"What would you have me call you then, your normal name, Blain Shadow Walker? Yeah, I remember your real name. I also remember when you came to me, homeless and alone. When you told me how your family was killed by some strange creature, and that you were the last of the infamous Shadow Walker clan, some of the most powerful mystics known to this world."
Blain Shadow Walker growled, pointing an accusing finger at Mz. Ruby as he said, "Yes, that is all true, but do not forget it is you who sent that strange creature to attack my family. You have dug your own grave, and it is high time I put you in it."
Mz. Ruby laughed, her large jaw flapping wide as she said, "Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. If you had the gull to do that, you would have done it years ago."
Blain began to slowly walk toward Mz. Ruby as he said, "That is true. I didn't have to nerve to kill you because doing that wouldn't be bring my parents back, but now its different. The second I heard you escaped from jail, I came to at least make sure you ended up back behind bars. Then, guess what I walked in on. You, preparing a potion so dark, and evil there aren't words to describe it. To make it worse, you were intending to give the Soul Shatter potion to this woman. You know as well as I what the potion can do if it is eaten."
Mz. Ruby laughed even harder, her cackle filling the warehouse. Finally, she calmed down enough to say, "That is the point. I know exactly what that potion can do to someone, and I want it to happen to her. You want to know something else you black cat, you aren't going to stop me from giving the Soul Shatter potion to her, and everybody else that crosses me."
Blain lowered himself down, touching his hand to the floor. He then slowly stood back up. Surprisingly, the cement floor seemed to melt, and it flowed up as Blain raised his hand higher. The liquid cement clung to the tips of Blain's fingers, and remained connected with the floor. With a final glance over at Carmelita, he glared at Mz. Ruby as he said, "It ends here." Without another word, Blain swung his arm quickly, and the strings of liquid cement became like whips, and lashed out. They struck the cauldron, and broke it apart. The dark liquid spilled out into the floor, and evaporated into the air. Mz. Ruby was in shock, but her shock turned to rage as she began to attack Blain with her voodoo magic.
Blain let the cement fall from his fingers as he raised his hands up, and blocked Mz. Ruby's attacks. Blain's hands moved quickly, striking each on of Mz. Ruby's attack as it got close enough. Finally, Mz. Ruby stopped for a second to try a new set of spell, and Blain made his move. He lunged forward, and seemed to disappear into thin air. Mz. Ruby looked around wildly, trying to find him, but Blain reappeared behind her. In his hand he held a sphere of bright red energy. Before Mz. Ruby could react, Blain forced his hand forward and from the sphere a large surge of mystical fire blaze out, and sent Mz. Ruby flying.
Mz. Ruby went crashing into a pile of boxes, and it looked like she had been beaten. Blain watched her for a few moments before he turned and faced Carmelita. He stared at her for a few seconds before he brought his hand in front of his chest, and began to make a series of complicated symbols. His hands were beginning to glow, and Carmelita felt the voodoo rings that were suspending her in air starting to weaken when a large blast of purple voodoo magic struck Blain, and sent him flying. He slid across the cement floor a few feet. When he stopped sliding, he laid still for a few moments before sitting up, and seeing Mz. Ruby walking toward the cauldron.
Blain wondered what she was doing until he saw her reach down into the shattered cauldron, and pulled out a wooden spoon that still had some of the black liquid, the Soul Shatter potion. Blain quickly stood up, and began to run at Mz. Ruby. He was to late though. Before he could reach Mz. Ruby, she took hold of Carmelita's chin and stuffed the spoon into her mouth. Carmelita struggled, refusing to swallow the strange liquid. It didn't matter though, the liquid suddenly gained a mind of its own, and dove down her throat. Carmelita suddenly felt very strange. The world was growing colder, and her vision was beginning to blur. The last thing she saw was Mz. Ruby rearing back, and cackling as she pulled the spoon out of Carmelita's mouth. Carmelita's body began to glow, and suddenly five sphere's of light shot out from her body, disappearing through the warehouses walls.
Blain was frozen stiff, he was too late. Blain's anger began to well up, and before he knew what he was doing he placed his hand on the ground. A mystical circle appeared around him, and glowed for a few moments before the wall behind Mz. Ruby exploded. Mz. Ruby turned to look at the hole caused by the explosion, and her eyes widened as the dust from the explosion cleared. She could see the line of Interpol officers, and all of them had their shock pistols pointed at her. She looked back at Blain, but saw that he had disappeared.
Suddenly, a voice from the line of police shouted, "Freeze, your surrounded."
Mz. Ruby growled, and looked down at her shattered cauldron. She would have to create a whole new Soul Shatter potion for that raccoon, Sly Cooper, but it was alright. She would make the potion an hundred times over if it meant she could rid herself of Sly Cooper, and she had already gotten rid of Carmelita, the other thorn in her side. All in all, it was not a bad day. With another glance at the line of police, she smiled as she said, "Sorry, but I can't stick around. My voodoo children await my glorious return. See you around." With that Mz. Ruby disappeared. The Interpol officers rushed in, and began to search the building for Mz. Ruby.
The rings that held Carmelita up in the air disappeared, and she crashed down onto the floor. She stood there for a few seconds, and a few officers began to walk towards her. One opened his mouth to ask if she was alright, but suddenly Carmelita began to fall over. Luckily, the two officers were able to catch her. They gently laid Carmelita on the ground, and one checked her pulse while the other called for an ambulance. Carmelita seemed fine, there wasn't a scratch on her. Yet, they couldn't get her to respond, or even to open her eyes. She just lay there, as if asleep.
