In order to not have to write this disclaimer in every single chapter, for the entire story everything is copyrighted to other peoples, i.e. Sucker Punch (the creators of Sly Cooper and some other games) and other things like Mack Trucks and various video games to be mentioned. I own a few things like Chloe and some other thingy-ma-bobs ^^

The horizon was the color of moldy cheese.

And the pupil whom got to see it from the discolored windows everyday was none-other-than Chloe, a 'relatively mundane' teenager among thousands and thousands of other teenagers. First things first; whoever thinks that living in Freeport, Maine, is a nice, quaint, little New England thing with tiny little dancing faeries and giant moose is wrong. She didn't think of herself as anything special. With her glossy black hair, pale skin, and cadaverous body, along with her obsession for marine life and video games, she didn't receive many friends, never mind boyfriends. Brainless, incompetent jerks...they should all get hit by a bus. But alas, the stupidity pops up like those signs advertising politicians; just like a disease. One might as well even call those signs the equivalent to a plague at times, but that's not the point.

The heavily wooded area consisted of pine and oak trees that outlined the entire area, giving ideal homes for wildlife. Every so often, a deer would be spotted in a front lawn, munching away the grass that is always green thanks to the rain, but as of late, it's been as brown as a muddy cow, and all thanks go to the heat wave. She would stand on their porch and watch the animals, often speaking to them as if they could understand what it was that she said. It did, in a way, give her a sense of peace.

She lived in a small house with her parents, a bratty little sister, a dog that always barks, and a bird that never shuts up. Literally.

"Finally! Homework done!" she exclaimed, putting all of her binders into her backpack along with the pencil. She was surprised that her eighth grade homework turned out to be easier than previously thought. It was now four in the afternoon, making it a perfect time for yet another mindless video game after school.

She ran upstairs to her bedroom and carelessly threw her backpack on her twin bed. She saw Veronica's bed and sighed; seriously, out of all the asking, yelling, and negotiating, she still remains so lazy and slothful that she won't even make her own bed when asked.

She immediately forgot her anger towards Veronica. That's one thing that she can do with video games; they let her escape reality and her own personal problems as well as wordly problems by letting her forget, letting her disregard.

She was woken up rudely by a simple BEEP BEEP/BEEP BEEP/ BEEP BEEP noise. Her bright blue eyes fluttered opened at the alarm clock. 6:00. She sighed and turned it off, sluggishly getting out of bed. It went as this every day; she woke up, made her bed, collected all the laundry from the previous day, walked the dog, cleaned the dog and the bird's water bowl, scrubbed the bird's cage clean with sponge and soap, took out all the trash, emptied the dishwasher, cleaned the shower and the toilet, then watered all the plants outside. Thankfully, it was the last Friday in October…finally, the weekend was coming.

She grabbed onto her outfit, which was simply just baggy beige pants and a loose short-sleeved black shirt. She quickly put it on, putting her red pajamas back into her bureau. She made her way to the bathroom, opening up the disorganized drawer. There were hair combs everywhere and various hair elastics placed in random places, as well as an explosion of toothpaste. No one ever bothered to clean it; it'd just become a mess again…especially with her sister.

Heavy as her backpack was, it was slung over her shoulder and brought downstairs. She dropped it onto the hardwood floor as a sigh escaped her lungs. Opening up the refrigerator, she took in another breath, grabbing a random yogurt. She peeled off the top, scrapping the yellow substance off of the aluminum foil covering with a spoon and put it in with the rest of he yogurt. Yet again, she couldn't help but think about falling into the Sly 2 game. How cool would that be…being with anthropomorphic characters! She hangs out with animals, anyways….

The rest of her morning was usual. Out to the bus stop, into school, first classes, collecting homework, feeding the gerbil that bit her hand (again), then feeding the anoles that rather eat her fingers than the ever-so-expensive crickets that die often, then lunch period…however, the lunch period was not in the morning, so it was not normal.

"Hey, Chloe!" A voice yelled, coming up to her. It was her teacher, Mrs. Smith. She was the English teacher and despite her weight, she was actually very active, but she unfortunately could never rid her body of that belly. She was such a sweetheart of a lady…even if the other students didn't realize it. This was one gift of Chloe's…she was friends with all of her teachers, regardless of other student's thoughts or comments.

"Mrs. Smith?" Chloe inquired. "Something wrong?" she looked up from her sandwich which had already begun to fall apart. She wiped a bit of mustard off from the side of her face and looked up at her teacher.

"I just wanted to say that I forgot to hand out the homework for tonight. I know that I scheduled the 'Infinitive Phrases' test for Wednesday, but I know you…you're wiser than the other kids. So, it's your decision for the team. Should I not hand out homework tonight, which may be bad because it's less practice for the test, or should I just give it to everyone right now?"

Immediately, everyone at the table started yelling at Chloe to take the first offer. It was overwhelming; everyone was being loud, making it impossible for her to hear the individual words coming from people.

"Quiet!" she yelled out, but no one listened. "Quiet!" she yelled again, a little louder. Still, no one ceased their infuriating and excessive clatter. "QUIET!" the final time, strident enough for everyone to hear. They all quieted down, but because she had to repeat the simple two-syllable word many times, she decided to do the opposite thing that they had pleaded for. "Well, practice doesn't always make perfect…"-she began, smiling as everyone held their breath and continued their useless staring at her with hopeful eyes-"…but this isn't one of those cases. I would hand out the homework if I were you, Mrs. Smith." What is it worth, anyways? It's just another paper that would probably take ten to twenty minutes to complete. Besides, she would have choosen that choice anyways.

"Very well, sweetheart."

"WHAT?" everyone started their insane chatter again. How irksome that was.

"HEY!" Chloe screeched. "I could make her move the test to Tuesday instead! How about that?" they all went quiet again. It felt good to get a little excitement (and control) for once. However, she would not let it get to her head. She was the kind of person who enjoyed being 'in the middle' because she had less things to worry and have apprehension about.

When she arrived back at her house, she informed her mother of what had happened during lunch. She found it quite amusing, and thought that it was wonderful that her daughter had such a close friendship with her teacher, but she was always busy doing something of a different interest. Did a career have to invovle so much paperwork?

She finished the rest of her homework and went upstairs to continue her game. She turned on the television and put the disk back in it. While it had loaded, she rolled the beanbag chair a good distance from the television, checked the clock, and felt relieved when she saw that Veronica wouldn't be back home for about another thirty minutes, giving her half an hour to forget everything and escape to her own little world.

She grabbed onto the black game controllers and sat down. She waited for the bouncing blue and white raccoon symbol to disappear and start the prologue of the game. However, it didn't come. She waited about two minutes longer than usual. She sighed as she thought that the game froze. She stood up and walked over to the PlayStation, pressing the button with the green light on it and holding it down for a couple of seconds. Surprisingly, it didn't turn off like how it should have, which made her slightly bemused. She waited and waited, but it never turned off. "Oh, great…." She said to herself, standing up. The blood began rushing back into her legs instantly as she straightened herself, all the while pondering as to why it wouldn't turn off. Then the thought occured; Veronica. That brat!

She looked behind the television to check the wiring system. Everything looked fine. She then went back over to the PlayStation and pressed the button with the blue light on it, about to take the disk out. However, the disk tray wouldn't open. She tried again and got the same result. Again. Again. Again. Nothing happened. She was bamboozled and it was becoming rather irritating.

She stood back up and yelled upstairs, "Dad! TV's messed up! Can you help?"

"Yeah, coming!" Was her response. She turned back to the TV. The screen was white.

"Oh, that's lovely…now we're going to have to get a new TV." Chloe said to herself, then muttered, "Stupid Veronica..." She was startled when an earspliting role of thunger cracked through the sky and, almost as if on cue, rain began to pelt the ground. The wind randomly began to pick up and forced the trees outside to sway.

As she turned around, she felt something grab onto her around the stomach area. She would have screamed, but she felt herself be pulled backwards at a quick pace. Then, screaming with no sound, she felt something hit the back of her head head, and she blacked out.

The raccoon's feet were moving so quickly that not even an olympic athlete could compare. He was panting, the fur on his face blowing with the air as it rushed past him. "Hold still!" A female voice yelled. He had no intention of halting.

"This wasn't part of the plan!" His turtle friend yelled as he joined in with the escape.

"Yeah, well…this is where things get fun." The raccoon said to himself. "This is getting hot! You guys go warm up the van! I'll keep Carmelita busy!" He said. He continued to run forward as his two friends darted off to the sides to safety.

"You're all going to jail!" The fox bawled, her ears going down against her head.

"Pick me up at the rendezvous!" Sly shouted as he jumped forward through a window. The glass broke and he tumbled forward out onto the museum balcony. He scampered to his feet and jumped onto a clothing wire. He began running across it with such agility that it almost appeared as if he was literally running across air.

A couple of building-jumps later and he slid down a pipe to the vehicle. "FLOOR IT!" He screamed and vaulted himself into the open doors, then closed them, bracing himself.

The sound of tires screeching against the black pavement rang throughout his ears as the entire van (and everything in it) was being forced backwards at the sudden movement. The hippopotamus changed gears in the vehicle and turned the steering wheel left, which caused everything to move in the opposite direction. Sly, the poor raccoon, was being tossed about everywhere.

"Hang on, guys!" Murray yelled.

"What's it look like we're doing?" Bentley said as he clung onto the back of the passenger seat with a death-grip.

Murray switched the gears yet again and did a full one-hundred and eighty degree turn. The mix of rubber and pavement caused the ground to get four large, black tire streaks. The gears were switched again and he moved his foot from the brake to the acceleration pedal. He drove forward, dodging any cars in his way.

About thirty more minutes of near-crash experiences and they lost the cops for good. He pulled into the parking lot of the motel and turned the car off. "Woo, that was fun." The raccoon stated as he grabbed his cane and jumped out of the van along with his other two friends.

"Well, we failed at getting the Clockwerk parts." Bentley said blandly as they walked into the motel building.

"I say that we find the first member of the Klaww Gang…or at least discover who they are." Sly suggested as he rubbed his sore shoulder. Then he felt something wet on his hand and pulled it back. It was a sticky red substance smeared across the palm of his blue-gloved hand. When he tumbled through the glass, he must have had a shard stab him or at least cut him.

"Something wrong?" Bentley asked.

"I'm bleeding…darn it." He said, turning around. "How bad is it?"

He heard someone gulp.

"It looks like a little more than a scrape…."

"That bad?"

"Look, let's just you inside." Murray said and made sure that no one could see the blood on the raccoon by putting an arm around his friend.

They walked into the room and settled down. It wasn't really much for a hotel room; two queen-sized beds with green covers, yellow walls with three water-colored pictures of flowers, a wooden table with a Samsung TV, and a small bathroom. The bathroom had wallpaper (which really should not ever be placed inside of a bathroom because the steam from the shower can cause the paper to curl) and the ceiling paint was literally coming off. Or rather, it was peeling itself off. The shower was nothing special, either. No one would want to take a bath in it for fear of little hopping black dots mixed in with the fallen dried paint that already looked like bird droppings when wet. The shower curtain constantly came off. Cheap one star hotels…pft.

Sly sat down on the bed and took his shirt off. He was actually quite muscular underneath the shirt. He was extremely thin, though. The knobs of his spine showed easily through his skin as well as his ribs, but despite being a hundred and ten pounds, he was very well-built after years of physically strenuous work.

Bentley took a wet towel and started to wipe the blood away from Sly's shoulder and back to thoroughly inspect the wound. He was relieved when he discovered that it was not a bullet wound, but rather just a large gash from the glass. He cleaned it out to make sure that it would not get infected in the future.

"Hold tight pal, this is going to hurt." The turtle warned as he took out the stitches.

"Oh, Jesus Christ…." Sly said and closed his eyes as he gripped the bed tightly. He felt the first stitch slide underneath his skin. It was probably only going to take about six stitches, but with no pain relief, every stitch felt agonizing.

After a couple minutes, Bentley managed to stitch the gash together.

"There, just be careful about it. Skip the shower tonight, it's not good for new stitches."

"No kidding." Sly said and relaxed his muscles. He stood up and pulled his blue jeans up a bit, then turned around to face Bentley. "Thanks pal." He said, rotating his shoulder a bit. He turned his head over to look at Murray.

"I'm gonna take a shower, guys." The hippopotamus said, then closed the door.

"I wouldn't want to take a shower in that bathroom," Sly whispered to Bentley.

"It looks completely unsanitary." The longed-neck turtle agreed and shook his head.

Sly jumped onto the bed, landing on his back, immediately wishing that he hadn't. Grimacing, he sat upright and grabbed the remote to the TV. He wasn't used to not wearing a shirt. It felt weird…honestly, he's not used to having his abs show because they really did show quite well without his shirt on.

He flipped through the channels. Desperate House Wives, perhaps? He never watched it anyways. He heard one word from the show, which was plainly just 'fitness' and he switched the channel. National Geographic. Something on about Yellowstone National Park off in America. No, not interesting. He began flipping through the channels. NASCAR, MTV, Cartoon Network, Discovery Channel, TLC, and then Nickelodeon. Once he saw that Spongebob Squarepants was on, he left it at that.

"Ah! It's the Clam Burglar!" Patrick yelled, readying his pillow.

"No Patrick, it's me, Spongebob!" Spongebob said with an uncertain smile and took off the black ski mask.

"Nice try, Burglar, but Spongebob is my best friend and he would never steal from me!" The starfish yelled.

"No, really! Look!" The sponge held out his hand and showed the golden ring. The top of it opened up and showed a small display. There were two paper people, a sponge and a starfish. It went around in a circle as it sang, "We're best friends forever, best friends forever, ding!"

Sly laughed at the silly show. He'd been watching it since he first aired, which was back in 1999. He was only twelve back then. It's been his favorite show ever since.

Once it began getting late, he closed his eyes as his friends continued to watch shows. He accidentally fell asleep.

He was rudely awakened his turtle friend shaking him. He groaned and rolled himself over, saying in a tired voice, "What's up?"

"We're about to head back to Paris. The drive is going to take as long as it took to get here since we have to go through northern Africa, into Morocco and across the Strait of Gibraltar. So in plain talk…get up."

"Hmm…alright…." He said, then glanced at the clock. 4:30 a.m. I'll sleep in the car, he thought to himself, lethargically standing up. He reached over for his backpack and opened up the top, grabbing a new shirt. This was on long, going down to his knees, was white and decorated with the picture of a grey dragon in the front and black vines in the back. The baggy sleeves went down to just above his elbow.

He grabbed out a small comb and brushed through his hair, then grabbed his hat and stuffed it inside of the backpack along with the bloody shirt. The blood had crusted over by now, making that section of the shirt stiff with a dark brownish color. He slung the backpack over his good shoulder and grabbed onto his cane, then walked out with his friends.

The drive took about a week. First, since they were in Egypt, they drove across all of north Africa until they made it to Morocco. They drove to the north of Morocco and to the Strait of Gibraltar. The Strait of Gibraltar was the only thing separating Morocco from Spain. The whole strait was just eight miles across and there were various ferries going back and forth across the water. Sly's gang managed to get a ferry that would allow their vehicle onboard. About an hour later, they arrived in southern Spain. They got the van off of the ferry and then began driving north to Paris, France.

Sly took out an album from the glove compartment. He grabbed onto Within Temptation's album 'Mother Earth,' then put it in the car's CD player. It started playing the first song, which he would be listening to several times since they have such a long drive to Paris.

Once they finally arrived, it was pitch black outside, and they were all tired. They didn't have much to carry so that was a good thing.

Sly walked into his room and put his bag down. It was dark inside and looked rather spooky. He had one bed that was about half the size of a king-size bed that had black covers and a large, fluffy, white pillow. The walls were a deep red but the carpet was a dark brown. There was a single window looking out to the city of Paris with a tree just right outside of it that slightly obscured the view. There was a closet off in the corner of the room with white oak doors, one of them needing to be replaced.

End tables were next to the beds with lamps on them. The room was really nothing fancy. It was a place for him to sleep, not a place for him to spend a lot of time (awake) in.

As he laid down on his bed, he was surprised by a large white flash outside. He sat upright and looked out of the window, only to see nothing. He shrugged, desperately wanting to just fall asleep in that thick-blanketed and cozy bed of his, but him, being a master thief, got curious and decided to see what it was. So he walked outside and searched around for anything unusual. After a while of searching, he found nothing and shook his head. It was dark outside, anyways. Perhaps he was just too tired and was seeing things.

As he turned around, he saw something rustle in the bushes. He cocked his head and walked over, then moved the bushes out of the way. There laid a creature that he'd never seen before.

He pulled her out from the foliage and examined her, seeing that she had long, black hair, yet was furless everywhere else. She was smooth-skinned and pale, had a flat face, no tail, no claws, no wings, no fur, scales, or feathers. He was confused by the creature, but that didn't really matter to him. He picked her up bridal-style and walked back inside of the Safehouse. "Hey guys, I found something." He yelled as he carefully placed the unknown creature on the couch. He put her head on the pillow and noticed that she had a very long neck that was paler than her face.

"What is it?" Bentley and Murray said at the same time as they both emerged from their rooms.

"I don't know…I've never seen something like her before," he said.

Bentley examined her quickly, agreeing with Sly. "Well…let's just wait until she wakes up, okay?"

"Mine as well…I'll watch over her…whatever this thing is."

A few minutes later and the figure began to stir. Turns out that she was only moving around in her sleep, but then started mumbling to herself. "S…s…stupid…raccoon…." She said in her sleep. Sly, being a raccoon, just cocked his head and laughed a bit. Her neck seemed so long. That part was also added to the fact that her shirt was rather low-cut anyways. Her skin was just so pale like parchment and flawless that she was, in some weird way, somewhat beautiful to look at. He moved a little closer to her, putting his snout near her ear, speaking softly to her. He stroked her head gently in a tender attempt to wake her up. "Hey, are you awake?"

The creature's eyes fluttered opened, and immediately, she screamed. It wasn't a girly scream…it was actually rather a manly scream. "Baaa!" she yelled as Sly quickly followed in with the scream.

Chloe sat upright instantly, punched him on the side of the face, and, while backing up, fell off the back of the couch. Unfazed, she quickly scampered back to her feet and yelled, "Ah! Demon anthropomorphic raccoon!"

"Demon raccoon? Where?" Sly yelled in surprise, also backing up a bit. He was rather dumbfounded and stunned.

With a scream, Chloe dashed for the fire stoke near the fireplace. "Back off! I've got a…"-she looked at the fire stoke oddly-"…stick…and I'm not afraid to use it!"

Wow. What a simply basic line.

"Whoa, calm down," sly said.

"I knew this was a bad idea!" Bentley exclaimed.

"Okay, okay…can you tell me wh…" she began to say, but then started to look lightheaded. "Not good." She mumbled and fell down to her knees. She used the fire stoke as a support so that she wouldn't face plant into the hardwood floor. She had stood up too fast and got lightheaded because her heart didn't have enough time to pump enough blood to her head. With the lack of oxygen in her brain, her muscles had become temporarily weakened and she fell. Those moments are short and are quickly fixed with about ten seconds of rest.

Sly, Bentley, and Murray rushed over to her side.

"Hey, are you alright?" Sly asked.

Chloe, confused and obviously frightened, saw her blacking-out vision return to her, and she shakily stood back up. She looked around at the three and took several steps back. "You're all…all…animals!" she yelled.

"Yes…we are…?" Murray said in an uncertain voice.

Chloe immediately looked down at herself. She was still human. She then looked up at Sly, blinking once slowly. She was trying to figure out if she was dreaming or just simply hallucinating.

"What are you?" Sly asked. Chloe was then broken out of her daze.

"Me? I'm Chloe Yolanda Virgil. Sorry for my poor manners earlier…I hope that I didn't frighten you. Though I'm pretty darn sure that I did…."

"No, I mean what are you?"

"As in…species?"

"Yes."

"I'm a…human," she reached a hand out to Sly and extending her index finger. She touched him on the snout, just above the nose, "yet you're a raccoon."

"Yes…I am a raccoon. And, mind me, but did you say human?"

"Yes."

Everyone at that point started chuckling a bit.

"What? What's so funny?"

"Humans aren't real…are they?" Murray said. "They're just in fairytales, right?"

"Fairytale?" Chloe inquired. "No fairytale am I."

"But…but…." Bentley stuttered, "B-b-but…humans don't exist!"

"What are you talking about?"

"Humans are mythical...they've only been in fairytales…you can't possible be a human," Sly said, grabbing his cane from off the ground.

"Then do a blood test on me. I'll come up as 'species unknown," Chloe said and relaxed herself.

After a while, the raccoon said, "Guys, she's not kidding. She really is a human."

"But how? How did you get here?" Bentley asked.

"I don't know…I don't know how I got here. One moment I was upstairs in my bedroom and the next I wake up here," she said and started twiddling the fire stoke around.

"Humans are also said to have special powers," Bentley informed.

She flashed her eyes to him. "What kind of powers?" Chloe asked and continued to spin the fire stoke.

"I don't know…just powers."

Chloe thought of that for a moment. "How did I get here, anyway?" she mumbled to herself. She currently was not believing her eyes, yet she was conceiving the fact that she was in another world. A world that she had no clue as to how it came to be, but a world nonetheless.

She looked back up at Sly. "Anthropomorphic raccoon…anthropomorphic long-necked turtle and hippopotamus…what the heck?" she yelled. "I don't get it."

"What are you talking about?" Sly inquired.

"How did I get here? Why am I here? Did I just…no, that's not possible…is it? Magical powers?" she muttered. She looked over at Sly and had an idea pop into her mind. "Give me your hand," she ordered.

"My hand? Why?" since he asked the question, she grabbed onto his hand instead. His outfit was much different than in the game.

She faced the direction that he was in. She compared the underside of her arm with his. The vein lines in the wrist were in the same spot. "Same physical feature," she said and gave him his arm back. He looked so much realer in this world. His neck was as thick as it should have been, he had the muscles that he should have had, and he was actually furry and not just painted one color with shadows. There were folds in the clothes like how there should have been, and everything was just…real…and not comic-book styled or cartoon-ish.

She figured that she was either dreaming or this was real. But if she was dreaming, then why did she feel herself fall and why could she feel Sly's soft fur?

Freeport, Maine: In the state of Maine in the United States, there's a town called Freeport which is apparently known for it's shopping outlets. It's also Chloe's hometown.

Spongebob Squarepants: This is a show aired on Nickolodean and has been showing since 1999.

Within Temptation: This Dutch band's music varies upon the album. Sometimes it's rock, sometimes it's symphonic metal, sometimes it's just metal, and it's also a favorite band of Sly in thise story.

Author's Notes:

Eh, some parts in this are cliché, but please just bare with me ;) I hope that this is better than the other version I had of it.