I'm back! This chapter took me a little longer to write, but it's the longest one so far and I really like it. Please, feel free to R&R or PM me with any questions. Thanks, and enjoy, The Land of Isis.
DISCLAIMER: I am not Sucker Punch, or Sanzaru, or Sony, therefore I do not own Sly Cooper or any other characters from this amazing franchise.
Sunlight poured into my small room as day began to break. I rolled over, trying to stay asleep as long as I could. No doubt Bentley would be in any minute to actually wake me up before launching into whatever plans we had for the day. Maybe Murray was making breakfast; he really is a great cook.
I slowly opened my eyes, half expecting to see the blue wallpaper of my room and the Eiffel tower out my window, before remembering I wasn't in Paris anymore. I took a deep breath and silently got myself up, careful not to wake Chisisi. Even though I would've preferred to sleep in a little longer, I decided that now was a good time to try to gather some reconnaissance information. After all, that's how all of Bentley's plans began, so I figured recon was a good place to start. I've never been a fan of sneaking around in the daylight; heists are always easiest to pull under the cover of night. But I needed to find out what was happening as soon as possible, which meant pulling a recon mission during the day. I grabbed my cane and tip toed out of Akil's house. Careful to avoid any wandering eyes from villagers who may have been nearby, I made my way to the rooftop; from there, I could navigate my way from roof to roof throughout the city until I reached my destination.
As I jumped from one rooftop to the next, I realized I wasn't entirely sure where I was going. I stopped for a moment to take in the view of the city beneath me. It was clear that the area I was in was very poor, and therefore full of common citizens who were forced into worse conditions due to the selfish pharaoh. I looked towards the more lavish area of the city where an enormous palace stood. Whoever this pharaoh was, I was certain that was his home. I was about to make my way there when a voice stopped me.
"His base isn't over there Sly." I turned around to see Chisisi idly standing on the top of the building next door. He comfortably executed a perfect forward flip to reach the top of my building and walked towards me. I had to admit, I was impressed by the young raccoon.
"Chisisi, what are you doing here?" I asked with concern. The last thing I needed was for him to get caught or hurt. "You should be at home with your family."
"Come on Sly, I've been sneaking around this village basically my whole life. I know where everything is. Please let me come with you. I can help!" Chisisi pleaded. I looked the small raccoon over. He was a teenager, probably sixteen or seventeen. He may have been rather lanky, but he seemed to be very fit. He was agile and strong; he looked a lot like I did when I was his age. I could see it in his eyes how much he wanted to help out, and if what he said was true, I could have use someone who knew the area.
"Okay Chisisi, I'll let you tag along. But the minute there's any immediate danger, I want you to let me handle it, okay?"
"Okay, that's fine. As I was saying, his base isn't over there," he said while pointing to the rich area of the village.
"What do you mean? Whose base?" I asked.
"Runihura's of course," he casually replied, "the pharaoh who's ruining our lives."
"You're saying that the man who thinks he owns the world doesn't live in the richest part of town?" I questioned.
"Oh, he lives there, sure. But that's not where his secret base is," Chisisi stated. At this point I wasn't sure if he was being legitimate, or if he was trying to sound impressive. Either way, I decided to listen to him.
"Explain," I simply stated.
"Alright, but let's go somewhere safer. No offense, but people can still see us on the rooftops." I glanced down to see a handful of people looking at as. Great, I couldn't have people see me; with my bright blue sweater and hat, it was obvious that I didn't belong here.
"I know where we can go," I said. "Just be sure to keep up." I took off in a sprint towards the only location, outside of Akil's house, that I knew was safe. As we reached the small supply shack that I had found the day prior, I turned around. To my surprise and delight, Chisisi was right behind me. I warned him to be careful as we quietly slipped inside my original safe house.
"We can talk here," I said. "Now what did you mean by secret base?" But I could tell that Chisisi was distracted by all the seemingly dangerous supplies surrounding him.
"What is this place?" he asked.
"You mean you don't know?" I questioned.
"No, my father doesn't really approve of my sneaking around the city. I try not to venture too far away," he stated.
"Well, I believe this was a supply area when the pyramids were being built, but has since then been shut down upon completion of the pyramids," I said (god, now I sound like Bentley).
"And what, you just stumbled across this place when you got here?" Chisisi asked.
"I crashed not too far from here, so this was the first secure location I found," I replied. Chisisi's eyes lit up at the mention of a crash. I never had explained to him exactly how I got here.
"Can you show me?" he asked eagerly.
"I'll show you where I crashed if you tell me more about this pharaoh. What was his name again?" I asked.
"Runihura," Chisisi answered while wandering around the small shack.
"Right, tell me about Runihura," I prompted.
"Alright, so, our 'pharaoh' Runihura came to power a few years ago after Pharaoh Khalid died, may he rest in peace. Khalid got really sick one day and he didn't have any sons to take his place. So he turned to his eldest daughter, Habibah, to pick a husband who would then become the next pharaoh. Rumor was that she was gonna pick my dad, but at the last minute, some stranger shows up claiming that he was sent from Set to rule us. He showed us a was-sceptre, which is a huge symbol of power and told us that Set gave him that as proof that he was worthy. Khalid was skeptical, but his daughter ended up choosing Runihura, even though she didn't seem too happy about it. Khalid died a few days later, and was buried in a tomb within one of the pyramids. Then, about a week after that, Habibah went missing, leaving Runihura the throne all to himself."
My mind was racing with this new information. I wasn't just dealing with crazy criminals anymore; I was dealing with gods and goddesses and people who were legitimately in positions of power. Even if this Runihura character was lying about his claim to royalty, which at this point seemed very likely, he was still chosen to be pharaoh. Plus, it didn't help that I knew next to nothing about the Egyptian deities, and it looked like they were going to play a pretty big role in this job.
"Sly? You okay?" Chisisi asked, breaking me out of my thoughts.
"Yeah, I'm just trying to figure everything out," I replied. "Few questions- who's Set?"
"Set is the god of chaos, war and storms. According to legend, he mutilated Osiris, his brother and the god of the dead, before Isis was able to bring him back to life. Set is super powerful, although we don't worship him in particular. My father is a big follower of Isis, obviously."
"Yeah, obviously... okay, second question. You mentioned that Runihura had a base. Where is it? And what is his plan?"
"Runihura is constantly visiting the pyramids; he spends more time there than at his palace! People say it's because he's still mourning Khalid, but I don't buy it. I'm not sure what he does in there all day, but as far as a plan goes, he's pretty much been ruining all our lives. He's not providing any extra building materials for our houses, claiming that they're needed for the pyramids, which means our homes are slowly falling apart. Our food is being rationed because a portion of the food is being taken to the pyramids so that 'Khalid may be satisfied in the life after this', whatever that means. "
"Has anyone tried to challenge him yet? Like, is anyone fighting against this?" I asked.
"Every time someone tries to stop Runihura from destroying our lives, he shows us his was-sceptre and says that he is ruling under command of Set," Chisisi explained.
"So, if the was-sceptre wasn't in the picture..."
"He wouldn't have any reason to be pharaoh, and he wouldn't have any proof that Set is there to back him up!" Chisisi exclaimed, finishing my thought for me. I couldn't help but smile as a plan began to formulate in my head. The way out of this was by pulling a heist; finally, something here I'm comfortable with. I just needed to find a way into the pyramids to steal the was-sceptre from Runihura.
"Chisisi, do you know a way into the pyramids?" I asked.
"No, not really. I know that they're supposed to be heavily guarded, but I haven't really poked around the pyramids before. They kind of creep me out," Chisisi told me.
"That's alright, we'll just need to do a little recon to see if we can find a way inside. Probably better to do that at night though," I said. The two of us stood in silence for a moment, somewhat awkwardly as neither of us knew what to do next. Chisisi finally broke the silence.
"How about that crash site?" he asked shyly.
"Sure," I said while chuckling, "follow me."
My eyes scanned the debris of the fallen blimp, the events of the last 24 hours running through my mind. Chisisi wandered around the desert, picking up various pieces of machinery and trying to figure out what they were. I kept hoping he wouldn't ask me, because I didn't have a clue what any of this stuff did. After a few minutes, Chisisi made his way back to where I was standing.
"What is all this?" he asked.
"Well, remember last night when I told you about that skunk who was trying to wipe out my family history?"
"Yeah... Le Paradox, right?"
"Right, Le Paradox. This is his time machine, in pieces of course, but this is it," I said while staring out at the scattered blimp parts across the desert. "We fought on top of this blimp as it was about to crash into 2013 Paris, but instead it crashed here."
"So what happened to him?" Chisisi asked.
"He stole my paraglider off my back and jumped off the blimp. Of course, seconds later, he hit a plane and fell to the Paris rivers below, but he left me stranded on a flaming blimp to die." I meandered towards a large part of the blimp wreckage, climbed on top of it and sat down along the edge. Chisisi followed me without hesitation. We sat there in silence for a few minutes as my mind continued to wander. I couldn't help but wonder what my gang was up to in 2013. Did they continue without me? Or are they still looking?
"Are you okay?" Chisisi asked, breaking me out of my memories. I turned to look at they small raccoon. It was crazy how much he reminded me of myself when I was younger.
"I'm okay Chisisi, I just miss my home." I said, turning my head to look at the pyramids.
"What's your home like?" Chisisi asked sheepishly.
"My home? I've always called Paris my home, even though I've lived in areas all over the world. I've pulled heists across the globe, and for each job, that location becomes my home for a small amount of time. I guess, my home is wherever my team is, and right now they're in the year 2013." I didn't know why, but I found it easy to open up to Chisisi; it was like talking to a brother.
"Anyway," I continued, "I have to find my ancestor, Slytunkhamen Cooper. He created this book, called the Thievius Raccoonus, which holds all the Cooper tricks of the trade to become a master thief. And my friends have this book in 2013, so if I find the book..."
"You can leave a message so they can get you," Chisisi finished. I had to admit; he was a smart kid, and he had real potential to be a great thief. He was going to be extremely valuable to me if I wanted to successfully take down Runihura. I wanted to go explore the pyramids right then, but I knew that it would've been to risky, especially for Chisisi. Even though I've only known Akil and his family for less than a day, it felt as if I'd known them my whole life.
"You're a smart kid Chisisi," I told the young raccoon.
"Thanks Sly, but my sister is the smart one. She's almost as clever as my dad."
"Either way, you're going to be a big help to me for this job. With my gang living thousands of years in the future, I need some people I can count on. Are you in?" I asked. Chisisi's eyes lit up with excitement.
"Absolutely! I'll do whatever I can to help you!" Chisisi exclaimed. He sprang up, ran over to my side and gave me a hug. I was confused and stiff at first, but I eventually hugged the kid back. It felt good to be someone that others could look up to. I never had the opportunity to be a mentor, and I lost the chance to be mentored by my father when I was just a kid. From then on out, I learned what I had to on my own, with a little help from my team and the Thievius Raccoonus here and there. The chance to pass on my knowledge to someone else was a daunting task, but I was very excited for the challenge.
"Thank you Sly," Chisisi said.
"You're welcome Chisisi," I replied.
We decided that waiting until nightfall was the best opportunity to try to sneak into the pyramids. We made our way back towards Akil's house to wait, only to find a small crowd gathering outside of his house. Chisisi ran to find his father, while I snuck around to the back of the house, careful to avoid the crowd. I slipped in through the window in Chisisi's room at the same time Chisisi was opening the front door. I looked around the small house, trying to locate Akil, and found him in Sagira's room, which was surprisingly empty. Akil looked broken; he was frantically rubbing tears from his eyes while pacing in circles around his daughter's room. I stood in the doorway of Sagira's room for a moment, trying to figure out what had happened. Chisisi seemed to realize what was wrong and rushed to his father's side, muttering, "Did they take her?" under his breath repeatedly. Akil slowly nodded and Chisisi broke down into tears.
"What happened to Sagira?" I asked tentatively.
"They've taken her!" Chisisi screamed. "They've taken my sister!"
"Who has taken her? Where?" I demanded. Akil slowly looked into my eyes and I could see his defeat. Whatever had happened, he believed there was no way to fix it.
"Runihura. He's taken Sagira to the palace."
So much crazy stuff is about to happen! Hope you enjoyed it, and the next chapter should be up soon. Thanks, and God bless =]]
