A/N & Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to any of the characters that are affiliated with Sucker Punch Productions (2002-05), Nihilistic Software (2011), and/or Sanzaru Games (2012-Present). I do however, own their products and highly recommend to those who don't, to please support the creators of the franchise. The portrayal of their characters in this fan fiction is just that, of fiction; they do not in any way reflect the "actual-true fictional storyline" created by the *stated above* developers of the Sly Cooper franchise.
Greetings to my fellow authors, readers, and reviewers; I hope all of you had a wonderful Fourth of July, with no drunken fireworks mishaps. This is Deags here, and I've decided to stop being so lazy and post up the next chapter of Sly as a Fox. Also as a reminder, A Part of You is currently in the works. It's a co-write between me and ForeverFreelancer and it revolves around her original character "Tony Fox," Carmelita's Interpol partner. And is currently put on a small hiatus until ForeverFreelancer wraps up her original story The Fine Line Between Right and Wrong; so be sure to keep an eye out for both stories.
I'd like to thank the usual suspects for their reviews: NinjaxSketcheartx, BananaB0mb, cheesebread222, Why Fireflies Flash, timexgone23, and ForeverFreelancer. It's always the same line up every chapter; gets me wondering if this story isn't at all popular, and if I should trash it, and move on to another title. But I digress; I wanted to thank you again for keeping up with the story as well as taking the time to review.
With that said and done. Here is chapter nine. Enjoy.
Chapter Nine: Overview
All Sly could do was watch as she fell from rooftop heights, into the waters below. He continued to stare into the abyss, and the words from his nightmare could be heard: You killed her… you killed her.
"No!" Sly screamed, bolting straight up in his bed. He spun his head around trying to put together the missing pieces to the puzzle trying to understand his current situation.
"Verda?" No response, only silence.
He did another once over and realized that he was back in the safe house he and the gang established in Athens. He placed his face in the palm of his hands. He sucked in deep breaths between his teeth; he was surprised when he realized that his paws were wet from cold sweat, he was drenched.
After a few more deep breaths, he got up and went to wash up. His body felt out of sync, sluggish, and everything about him was aching. He twisted the knob on the shower, and allowed it to run for a bit; letting it warm up. He looked into the mirror, and couldn't even recognize the face that was staring back at him. He looked as bad as he felt.
His right eye was black and blue although one normally couldn't see it, he felt it; his jaw was sensitive to the touch; his left cheek was swollen trice the size of normal, and his fur was in a garbled mess. The bathroom started to fill with steam and Sly took that as his cue to hop in. He carefully undressed, cringing at the pain from trying to lift his clothing up and over his head.
Sly closed his eyes, and took his place directly underneath the torrential downpour, just letting the hot water rush down from the top of his head, down his abdomen, trickling down his thighs, to his feet, and finally down the drain. The water was at the highest temperature it could go, he felt as if he was cooking himself alive, letting the water soak into his joints, and boiling the tension and fatigue out of his bones.
He was starting to feel better, physically at least. His mind slow to start like an engine during the winter, under the heat of the shower it started to rev up and start. He recalled where he was and how he got there; and what happened after she fell into the Mediterranean.
After watching her fall, Sly got up from his prone position and prepared to jump, and was about to, when big strong arms both flesh and metal grabbed firm.
"Let go! I still have time, if I jump in now I can probably still save her!" he grunted as he twisted and struggled.
"You can't Sly, not in your state. There's no way you've regained full control of your bodily functions yet." Bentley interjected
Sly knew full well that this was true, he'd been electrocuted and shock pistoled enough times to know, that once you get hit by an electrical current, it disables your ability to send and receive signals to and from the brain, to whatever it is you want to control.
Your brain sends electricity signals down a nerve cell, toward the muscles in your body. The electrical signal tells the nerve cell to release a neurotransmitter, a communication chemical, to the muscle cells. This tells the muscles to contract or expand in just the right way to put your action in motion. However, when hit with an electrical current like from A.C's shock cane, it disrupts the signals, making it very difficult to decipher any messages your brain is sending to the rest of your body. You become partially paralyzed, temporarily until your brain can sort out the disruptions; you'll gradually begin to regain control of your bodily functions, but not all at once. It takes time, and Sly just didn't have enough.
"But…" Sly hated how weak he sounded. "I have to do something Bentley."
"You did all you could, there's nothing you can do for her now, all we can do is hope for the best."
Sly sagged and stop resisting.
"Let's go back to the safe house Sly, Penelope is waiting for us in the van, and with the explosions and alarms I set off back at the museum, the police should be arriving shortly." The hippopotamus released his might grip, as he chimed in.
Sly stood silently for a moment and finally nodded. Bentley and Murray stood in an awkward silence, unsure to their companion's train of thought. The sound of sirens, and the flashing lights of the red, white, and blue, usually an iconic symbol hurried towards their position to strip them of just that; freedom.
The three stood unmoving, unsure of what to make of tonight's heist. But after a moment, Sly turned and with his trade mark smirk failing to hide his sorrow simply said: "that's our cue." And the three headed back down into the van.
That was last night.
Sly turned the knob all the way to the right which made it squeak, and the water shut off. He dried off with the towel he brought in with him, and walked back over to the mirror. He used his paw to wipe the steam off the glass and was glad to see his handsome face, less deformed than previous.
His thoughts about his exterior appearance fell back into the recesses of his mind, and the vixen known only as "Verda" crept predominantly back into his train of thought. He walked back out into his room rubbing the towel to dry the hair on his head.
"Wow… so that's how you look like naked."
Sly froze in place, his brain ceasing function, he slowly swiveled his head towards the sound of the voice.
"Hi!" The pink mouse said with a big smile, she had a jar of some sort in her hands.
"Uh, hi." Was all Sly could muster up. The single second that went by seemed to last an eternity. Sly brought down his arms and wrapped the towel around his waist.
"Penelope! W…what are you d…doing up this early in the morning?" he stammered trying to regain his composure.
"Well I was working on installing the Antikythera mechanism into the cooper van, when I suddenly heard the sound of water running from your room, so I decided to check up on you. I brought some of the Guru's medicinal concoctions used for treating whatever ails ya, after a big heist like last night's." Penelope explained while putting the jar on the bedside table.
"Oh, thanks. You shouldn't have," Sly sat down on his bed.
"You still seem pretty out of it Sly, why don't I go back downstairs while you get some more rest. The guys will be up in a few hours so if you're up for it, come join us for breakfast."
Sly nodded at the notion, he could use the company of his friends in a time like this. He looked over at the jar and opened it.
"Oh, gees!" Sly pushed it away; the smell from it was horrid.
"Stop being a baby, that stuff works wonders. The Guru went out of his way to gather all the ingredients to make that, so be thankful and put it on all your 'boo-boos.'" Penelope rebuked.
"Boo-boos? Is that the technical term for what I have?" Sly returned with a playful smirk.
Sly reluctantly put a paw in; it was cool to the touch. He smeared a thin layer of it onto the areas that was the sorest, and had to admit it was working… whatever it was, he just wished that it didn't smell so rancid.
"Feeling better?"
"Yeah, you're right, this stuff does work wonders… just too bad it smells like some wild animal's 'business.'"
"That's because it is made from wild animal's business."
"Wait what?"
"Nothing, well I'll be going now, the smell is making my eyes water. Remember to rinse that off in about an hour, don't want it to dry up and harden it's murder on fur."
"Thanks again Penelope." Sly gave her a warm smile.
"No, thank you." She gestured at him.
"Oh… right, sorry about that. I'll get dressed after I rinse this stuff off."
"Don't be sorry." She said as she headed towards the door. "I'm not." She grinned at him, and exited the room.
Sly was once again left alone with his thoughts. He didn't like that, so he grabbed the remote and turned on the television. He flipped through the channels, nothing but Greek shows, obviously, but suddenly perked up when he saw a familiar face.
Standing there being interview was none other than his one and only; Carmelita Montoya Fox.
He immediately pressed the button which increased the volume and listened in, however when she spoke it was dubbed in Greek. Sly groaned and rummaged through his bag. He retrieved an electronic handheld device, that was shaped like a hammer, a rectangular object on top, and a handle that stems below it for holding by the user. It had grooves on the handle so it'd fit comfortably in one's grip, with an eight inch display on top.
Sly fiddled with it, and tried to remember what Bentley told him to do in order to get it to work. His trademark smirk crept up the edge of his mouth when sampling phonemes now… appeared on the screen.
It detected, recorded, and processed the phonetic language as "Greek." Then a small box underneath the highlighted language appeared stating: "Modern Greek derives from the same idiom used by Homer and other famous Greek writers and poets more than three thousand years ago. Greek was the language of the Gospels and has made a major contribution to all western languages."
Sly pictured in his head an arching rainbow in the background and Bentley looking directly into the camera saying: "The more you know."
All of a sudden, the mumble jumbo from the television was now heard in plain American English.
Things Bentley comes up with…
"We are here tonight with an agent of the International Police." The jackal news reporter explained, before turning to the red fox. "Inspector Fox, can you explain what happened at the National Archaeological Museum?"
Sly's eyes watched her lips moved, and for a moment forgot to actually listen to what she was saying.
"We believe that there was a break in last night, we are still currently investigating the crime scene; so we cannot divulge any information until we have assessed what is missing and gather up the evidence to narrow down the possible suspects." She answered with the typical "I cannot answer your questions at this moment in time" response.
There was a strobe effect of lights from flashes, and questions being bombarded at her so rapidly and concurrently that the device Sly was holding couldn't translate most of it. The Greeks were one of the most strict when it comes to artifacts, and they were obviously none too pleased at the current situation.
She simply repeated the statement, telling the reporters and the angry citizens of Athens that as soon as they find anything new, they will report it to the media, but for the time being to be patient, and bear with them.
This of course, was not received, and they continue to berate her and bombard her with questions. She sighed, cried out "no more questions!" and stormed off.
Sly watched the news feed for a little while longer, and a sad smile appeared on his face.
I'm always causing problems for you. He thought to himself.
He switched off the television, got up, and went into the bathroom to clean up.
A/N: Hello all, as you can tell this one is the resolution of the previous adventure, and things have slowed down a bit. I'll be honest with you, I've been wondering if I should even bother continuing this series; I tend to lose interest in a project shortly after I start it, blame it on my ADD/OCD-like personality where I tend to want to start things over from scratch. Anyway, this is like in any story, necessary to slow things down after the climax to set up the next parabolic story structure. I have to admit this was pretty forced, so it might not be up to par. I struggled and I had to push myself to complete it. Hopefully you enjoyed it anyway.
