Screw it, I'm starting this now. I'm sick of putting it off.
Now for some background. I only just recently got into the Sly Cooper series with the fourth game, "Thieves in Time". I absolutely loved it, along with its main villain Cyrille Le Paradox. So imagine my surprise when I find out that there are barely any stories about the guy. (He isn't even in the character filter!) I felt that needed to change, and so I made a story about him and Sly.
Enjoy.
Chapter 1: Stranded
The first thing Sly Cooper saw as he regained consciousness was his trusty cane lying on the ground in front of him. He gripped the cane in his gloved paw and slowly sat himself up, squinting as bright sunlight assaulted him. As soon as his eyes adjusted enough for him to see, they widened in shock.
The remains of Le Paradox's blimp was lying in pieces all around him, but that wasn't what caught his attention. Behind the wreckage, he saw a large temple decorated with an Anubis head, along with some smaller pyramids. He quickly realized that the massive time portal Le Paradox had opened during their final battle must have thrown him into Ancient Egypt. And given the current state of the blimp, he was going to be here for quite some time. Even though he knew it would be useless, he pulled out his binocucom and attempted to contact Bentley. Sure enough, he got no signal. At least the device was still functional.
With little else to do, Sly decided to take a look around. He was a bit sore from the crash landing, so he had to use his cane to prop himself up. The tool wasn't intended to be used as a walking stick, but it served that purpose well.
He just started to head towards the wreckage when a foul stench stopped him in his tracks. Sly clamped a paw over his nose and gagged. As he recovered from that unpleasant surprise, he noticed that the stench seemed familiar. Reluctantly, he uncovered his nose and sniffed again. Yes, he had definitely smelled this before. Very recently too. It couldn't be...
Sly looked frantically around the area. In this sea of sand, it didn't take long for him to spot a flash of black and white poking out from behind one of the blimp's fallen wings. He walked over and hesitantly peeked behind the wing, finding the unconscious form of Cyrille Le Paradox waiting for him.
"You have got to be kidding me," Sly muttered. The last he'd seen of the skunk, he was falling off his blimp towards the waters of Paris. The fact that he had somehow ended up getting sucked into the time portal with him was a sure sign that luck was not on his side. He was sorely tempted to walk away and leave him to die, especially after what happened the last time he tried to save him, but he couldn't do it. He was better than that. He was better than him.
As he looked down at Le Paradox again, he noticed something else sticking out of the sand next to him. He grabbed the object and yanked it out. It was the rapier the skunk had used during their duel. Sly immediately attached the rapier to his belt. Unconscious or not, he wasn't letting him anywhere near that thing. He hoisted Le Paradox over his shoulder, trying to ignore his stench, and set off towards the large temple. It wasn't the most ideal place to hide out in, but he didn't have much of a choice. It would soon be nighttime and they needed shelter from the harsh desert winds.
Inside the temple, Sly found a spacious room lit up by torches and lined with a set of stone columns. He sat Le Paradox down in front of one of the columns and used some spare rope to tie his wrists together behind it. Now that his skunk problem was solved for the moment, he took the time to explore the rest of temple. Even in his current situation, he felt compelled to look for treasure.
As he searched around, he soon discovered that the place had been completely abandoned. He couldn't find a single sign of life anywhere. That was probably for the best, since he wanted to keep a low profile for now. Unfortunately, he couldn't find any treasure either. The former inhabitants of this temple must have left and taken their goods with them.
Disappointed, Sly was about to return to the main room when Le Paradox's voice made him halt.
"Ungh...where...where am I? Why am I tied up?!"
Sly stayed outside the room for a moment, trying to figure out how he was going to handle this. Le Paradox hadn't seen him yet, so maybe he could find some sort of disguise and fool him. Make him think he was an Egyptian building inspector or something.
"Cooper! I know this is your doing! Untie me at once!"
So much for that.
Sly decided to just bite the bullet and head inside. He refused to be intimidated by him. Le Paradox saw him immediately and glared hatefully. "There you are, Cooper! Where are we?!" As he took notice of the current surroundings, he slowly pieced things together. "When are we?" he asked, a bit nervously.
"Ancient Egypt," Sly answered. "Couldn't tell you the exact date though. We didn't exactly get here through normal means."
"And...my blimp...?"
"Wrecked."
The skunk's eyes widened in horror. "Are you telling me that I am now stranded in the distant past...with you?!"
"Hey, you're not exactly my ideal roommate either," Sly said. "But it looks like we're stuck together for now, so I suggest you cooperate."
He scoffed. "Why should I?"
"Because if you don't, I'm leaving you on that column and going on my merry way."
"You won't."
"Excuse me?"
Le Paradox gave a smug grin. "Two times now you have had the opportunity to let me die, and two times now you have rescued me. As I keep saying, you are so predic-OW!"
Sly smacked him with his cane. "And two times now you've been an ungrateful jerk!" The skunk was already starting to tick him off. Maybe he should just...
He got an idea. His anger subsided and he smiled at him in a deceptively calm manner. "Fine then. Have it your way." Without another word, Sly turned on his heel and left the temple.
He walked down the staircase in front of the entrance and headed around to the side, just far enough away for the skunk to neither see nor hear him, then pressed his ear against the wall and waited. Le Paradox was good at talking tough and making threats, but he was ultimately a coward. He had built his criminal empire mainly by getting other people to do his dirty work after all. The idea of being left completely on his own would terrify him.
And he was right. Not even a minute after he left, he heard Le Paradox start screaming after him. "Cooper, wait! Come back! I don't want to die! Please come back!"
Sly smirked. Who's predictable now?
He casually strolled back into the temple, still wearing his smirk. Le Paradox quickly wiped the panicked look off his face and tried to retain whatever dignity he could manage. "Alright, you win. What do you propose?"
Sly held out his cane and gestured around the area. "This temple is completely picked clean, and I doubt the pyramids nearby are any different. So I suggest we go looking for a town before we starve to death."
"That's your plan? Go wandering the desert like a pair of nomads? How do you know we'll find anything out there?"
"I don't." Le Paradox gaped at him. "Look, if you have a better plan, I'd love to hear it."
Le Paradox struggled to come up with something for a moment, but finally gave up. "Fine, we'll play it your way. Now untie me!"
Sly raised an eyebrow. Just how stupid did this guy think he was? "Uh...yeah, I don't think so. You can stay tied up for the night until I figure out what to do with you."
He hissed. "Well you had better figure it out fast, Cooper. The less time I have to spend in your presence, the better!"
"You and me both."
As the sun started to fall, Sly sat against a nearby wall and brought his cap down over his eyes, trying to get some sleep.
This was going to be a long night...
