Chapter 11. Ancient Egypt.
Inside the time vortex, the cardboard box traveled through blue clouds and lightning.
"How far do we need to go back?" Daxter asked.
"Well the MTM said we need to go to around 1400 B.C." Calvin explained as he steered the time machine. "That's what Bentley set his time machine to before we took off."
"Yeah, but how will we know what year to get off from." Hobbes asked.
"Trust me, i'll know."
They continued the trip in silence for a few minutes.
The MTM broke the silence. "Get out of the time vortex now."
Calvin pressed a button and the vortex disappeared. It was replaced with a vast desert that had a group pyramids that stood out of the bare nothingness. Next to them was a marketplace that had houses made of brick and had roofs of straw. In the middle of the marketplace was a tower that seemed to look down on the buildings.
"Wow." Tails said looking down. "Should have brought my camera."
"Now to figure out where Bentley and Murray are." Jak said. "Assuming they've arrived before us."
"About that." The MTM said. "They've arrived and appear to be setting up shop. I'll guide you to the building that they're in. First turn left."
Calvin did so, and they flew towards the marketplace.
After flying for about a couple of minutes the MTM spoke again. "Now land in that alley below so you can't be seen by the residents here."
Calvin landed the box in the alley and once everyone was out, he put it back in his hypercube.
"Get out of the alley and enter the building on the right.
The group walked out, with Jak taking a quick look around. Once he was sure no one was looking at the group, he motioned the group and they went into the building to the right.
Inside the building, Bentley and Murray were setting up the base. Bentley had set up a generator and was on a computer, meanwhile Murray was doing his best to cover up the van up.
Bentley noticed them enter. "Ah good you're here. For a moment I thought you landed in the wrong year."
"Well thanks to my piloting, we managed to get here." Calvin said.
Bentley nodded and got out a tablet. "Now then let me explain how we're going to find Sly."
He pressed a button, and a screenshot of high tech looking binoculars.
"Sly and us use these binoculars to communicate with each other and take photos." He explained. "I also designed them with a tracker so in case we lose one, we can easily find it."
"So what are you going to do first, Try to call him?" Jak asked.
"Well we tried that when we arrived, but got nothing." Bentley explained. "I'm guessing it's due to the battery dying, so we're going to have to track it down."
"Okay, so who's going to do it?" Hobbes asked crossing his arms.
"You are." Bentley said pointing to the group.
There was a pause before Calvin spoke.
"Of course." He muttered.
"Now the binocucom has been found in one of the buildings not far from here. It's possible that Sly might be there, so you might want to check there first."
"Never fear Bentley." Hobbes said patting him on the head. "We'll find and bring back your friend in one piece."
"If we find anything relating to your friend, we'll contact you." Calvin said as they exited the building.
With that the group left, leaving Bentley and Murray alone.
Back at Ratchet's universe, the other group was on the roof. They were right now trying to figure out how to get to the hovercraft. The Umbra couldn't climb up walls thankfully, but there was an occasional rattle from the hatch they escaped through.
"Is it clear yet?" Socrates asked lying down on the ground staring at the sky.
"No." Sonic said.
Amy checked on the umbra down below. They had grouped up at the building and were reaching for them, but because our heroes were on the roof they couldn't get to them.
"Is it clear now?" Socrates asked again.
"No." Clank said.
Andy noticed the hatch had begun to rattle again, so he went over to it held it shut.
"Is it clear now?" Socrates asked once again.
"Yes." Amy said.
"Really?" Socrates asked springing up.
"By that, I mean no." Amy said.
"Oh." Socrates frowned and went back to lying down.
Guess what he began to ask again.
"Is it clear.."
"Socrates stop asking that question." Ratchet said getting slightly annoyed.
"But i'm bored." Socrates replied.
"Why don't you try to entertain the umbra down below us?" Sonic asked.
"Okay." Socrates said. He then began to walk to the edge, pulled out a few balls and began to juggle.
"We need to get out of here." Amy muttered.
"I agree." Andy said. "Ratchet, do you have a plan to get to that hovercraft yet?"
"I'm working on it." Ratchet replied.
Ratchet looked around, there was no tower they could knock down so they could just go over the umbra, nor could he summon the aphelion because it was still wrecked from the crash landing back in Sonic's universe.
There was only one option he had to go with.
Ratchet got out another weapon and aimed it at the ground below.
"What are you doing?" Clank asked as Ratchet aimed the weapon.
"Clearing a path." he responded.
He then fired the weapon, launching a bomb from below. After bouncing for a few minutes it exploded.
That was the cue Ratchet needed as he jumped down. Everyone else, noticing this, ran to the roof and jumped off with him.
The bomb that Ratchet had fired wasn't actually done, as it had split into smaller bombs and they were taking out the umbra as well. Making going through the crowd much easier
As they ran through the crowd Ratchet fired his blaster at any umbra approached them, Amy swung her hammer, Sonic used his speed to fight them, while Andy and Socrates used whatever they could find such as a broken pole, a empty can, a clipboard and a water balloon to hold them off.
They managed to make it to the hovercraft where Ratchet tore the door open and climbed inside, while the others went into the back door.
"Clank do you have the card?" Ratchet asked slamming the door on a umbra that was leaping towards him.
Clank nodded and got the card out. Ratchet grabbed it and began looking for a place to put it.
In the back the others were having a bit of difficulty shutting the door as some of the Umbra had made it and were trying to pull the door open. Sonic, Andy, and Socrates were trying to hold the door, but the door was still kept open slightly.
"I am sick of these things already." Andy grumbled as he held the door.
"Let's just hope Ratchet gets this vehicle started so we can get out of here." Sonic said.
Back in the driver's side Ratchet had found the place to put the keycard and put it in.
Nothing happened.
"What?" Ratchet said. "I put the card in the right place, why won't it start."
"It probably needs some time to start up." Clank said.
"How long would that take?"
"Maybe about a minute."
In the back area, the three holding the door were slowly losing as the door was opening slightly wider.
Suddenly, a umbra grabbed Socrates leg and began pulling.
"HEY." Socrates cried as he grabbed on to the door
Sonic and Andy, noticing Socrates was in trouble, let go of the door to help him. This caused umbra to rapidly advance, making their way towards the door. Amy went to them and began swinging her hammer against the umbra.
"When will this vehicle move already?" Sonic asked as he and Andy pulled at Socrates.
In the driver seat, Ratchet was counting down the seconds until the vehicle started up.
Just then, he heard the sound of the engine starting up. Instantly he grabbed the wheel and put his seatbelt on.
"Better hold on Clank." he said.
With that Ratchet put his foot on the accelerator.
In the back, some of the umbra were beginning to get in the vehicle despite Amy's attempts. Socrates meanwhile was losing his grip against the door.
Just then the vehicle began to accelerate, causing Socrates to be thrown inside. There were umbra still holding on to the door but were now losing their grip.
Sonic made his way to the still open door, which wasn't easy as there was wind due to the vehicle moving at a fast speed.
Eventually he managed to reach the door and used one hand to reach for the door handle and the other to hang on to an edge to prevent himself from being thrown back by the wind.
He managed to grab the handle and taking advantage of the speed, let go of edge he was holding on to. This caused the wind to push him back and shutting the door in the process.
The others watched as the umbra chased the vehicle, but were quickly lost thanks to the speed.
"Well." Amy said. "At least we're safe for now."
Andy peeked over and saw Ratchet driving.
"Ratchet, how long will this trip take?" he asked.
"About 6 hours." Ratchet replied. "Provided that we don't have to take any detours along the way."
"I don't know about you but I need a nap." Socrates said stretching himself on the floor. "These last few hours have really exhausted me."
"You do that." Sonic said taking a seat and rubbing his head.
"Are you okay?" Clank asked peeking through the hole.
"Not exactly. Part of our group is missing, we don't know where they are and creatures that we can't seem to stop almost killed us."
"What do you know?" Andy remarked. "I have that same feeling for the same reasons."
Back in Egypt, the group were navigating through the market.
"So." Daxter said grabbing an apple from a market stand. "Can we expect to encounter a mummy here?"
"Hopefully not." Tails said.
"Well, if we do have to enter a pyramid i'm not taking the MTM inside." Calvin said.
"Why's that?" Daxter asked
"Well there was this one time Calvin had to write a report on egypt." Hobbes began.
"Hobbes." Calvin said narrowing his eyes.
"And since he couldn't have bothered actually studying, he decided to go to Egypt."
"Hobbes."
"When he along with me, Andy, Socrates, and Verman went into a pyramid." Hobbes continued, Sherman gave a quick glare when he said that. "The radiation from one of the features from the MTM brought a few mummies back to life."
"I'm warning you Hobbes." Calvin said with barely contained anger.
"And wouldn't you know it, Calvin got a D minus on his report." Hobbes said, finishing the story.
At that moment Calvin tackled him and the two began fighting.
"Oh look we're here." The MTM said.
Jak, Daxter, Sherman and Tails stopped. Calvin and Hobbes didn't seem to notice and kept fighting.
The tower looked like it had seen better days. The windows were boarded up and the clay was worn in several places.
"So how do we get in?" Sherman asked.
"Let's try the front door." Jak said approaching the door.
He tried to open the door but it wouldn't budge.
He then tried to kick it open, but with the same results.
"Well we aren't going in that way." Jak said going back to the group.
"Wait isn't there usually a opening hatch on the top of these towers?" Sherman said.
"Yeah but we're gonna need to climb." Daxter said. "Maybe two can go up there and check."
"Yeah, but who?" Tails said.
"I can go." Jak said.
"We have one." Sherman said. "But who else should go?"
Everyone turned around and looked at Calvin and Hobbes, who were still fighting.
After they managed to stop Calvin and Hobbes from fighting, Hobbes was chosen to go with Jak.
They started by climbing up one of the houses and then jumping across the roofs until they eventually reached the top of the tower.
The top of the tower was nothing special. There wasn't much except for a rug and Jak and Hobbes didn't see a hatch.
"Don't be fooled easily." Hobbes said. "Entrances like these are usually hidden."
Jak, taking that advice pulled the rug and found a door. He opened it and the two entered.
The inside of the tower looked like someone was living here. There was something that looked like a bed, a table with an empty plate that was dusty, a few items of varying quality piled in a corner, a blue cap and shirt, a black mask, and perhaps the item that was most out of place in the timeline, a pair of blue hi tech looking binoculars near a window.
Jak picked up the binoculars and inspected them. On them were two buttons, Call, and Photography, there was also a dial that said zoom. He looked through them but nothing much happened except what you'd expect when you looked through binoculars. But when he tried the buttons a display popped up saying, "NO BATTERY."
"Looks like this Sly Cooper person was here." Hobbes said inspecting the clothes. "Judging from the state of this place he hasn't been here for a while."
"I also found what looks like the binoculars Beantly showed us." Jak said, showing them to Hobbes.
"So essentially, we are at a dead end." Hobbes said. "Also, make sure you don't give those to Calvin."
"Why?" Jak asked.
"Calvin kind of had a incident with his father's binoculars years ago." Hobbes explained.
"Oh what happened?" Jak asked.
Before Hobbes could explain they heard a shout.
"HOBBES, JAK, HELP!"
"That sounded like Calvin." Hobbes said racing to the window.
He and Jak looked outside, they watched in shock as Calvin was thrown in a bag by a jackal and Tails cornered by two cats.
"We need to help them." Jak said getting his morph gun out.
"Wait." Hobbes said. "They don't know we're up here."
"But they're gonna get kidnapped." Jak said. "And may I remind you that your friend got thrown into that bag."
Hobbes thought about it for a moment before saying. "Good point, attack them."
Jak aimed it at the Jackal, who was picking up the bag and fired. Unfortunately the shot missed and got the attention of the Jackal, who looked up and saw them.
"Hey." it yelled. "There's someone up there!"
The two cats looked up and saw the two. Meanwhile the Jackal ran off. Jak and Hobbes ducked away from the window.
"What do we do now?" Hobbes asked.
"Well if someone ever comes in and and tries to capture us, we'll try to fend them off." Jak replied.
However as they waited for whoever came in they heard a noise. Curious they peeked over and saw a robed figure with a hood and a gold cane fighting one of the cats cornering Tails.
The figure managed to defeat one of the cats before the other began to sneak up on the figure. However the figure noticed the other cat and used the hook at the tip of his cane to trip the cat before whacking the cat upside the head.
The figure then ran and using the environment made it to the rooftop of one of the buildings.
Certain that things were safe, Hobbes and Jak got out of the tower and went to Tails.
"Are you okay?" Hobbes asked Tails.
Tails nodded "Did you find anything up there?"
"We did find the binocucom." Jak said. "But other then that nothing much. What happened down here?"
"We we're waiting for you to find anything, the jackal and the two cats cornered us and took Calvin, and they were about to take me until that hooded figure showed up and saved us."
"Where's Daxter and Sherman?"
"Right here." Daxter said peeking out from a pile of blankets.
"Glad your safe Daxter. But what about Sherman?" Hobbes asked
"The jackal took Sherman along with Calvin." Tails explained.
"I'm presuming Calvin has the MTM."
"Yes he does."
"Then we need to go after them."
"But we don't know where to go." Daxter pointed out.
"Let's just try to follow the jackal." Hobbes said.
"How are we supposed to find him?" Tails asked.
"Simple, find the one with the brown bag that looks like someone trying to get out of it and follow him."
With that the four gave chase to the jackal that took Calvin and Sherman.
Inside the bag the jackal was carrying, Calvin and Sherman were trying to break the bag to escape, but it wasn't working.
"It's not a plastic bag Calvin." Sherman said as Calvin tried to poke the bag with his finger. "It's burlap."
"We'll it's still can be broken." Calvin said as he began to dig through his hypercube. "We just need something sharper."
After some digging he finally got a pair of scissors and began to poke the sharp end against the burlap bag. Sure enough the scissors poked through the bag.
Smiling, Calvin turned the scissors upward and began to cut a gap.
Eventually the gap was wide enough that he and Sherman managed to slip through. Unfortunately that made noise and that caught the attention of the jackal.
"Hey." He yelled when he caught sight of the two.
"Run." Sherman said.
Calvin didn't need any warning as he scooped up Sherman and began to ran.
He moved through the the alleys of the marketplaces, with the jackal in hot pursuit of the two.
"We need to lose this guy before we find the others." Calvin said.
"The basket's" Sherman said pointing to one of them. "We can hide in there."
Calvin quickly dived in one of the baskets and put a cover on it just to make sure he and sherman would not be seen.
The jackal made it to where Calvin and Sherman were hiding and looked around. He saw two closed baskets and looked back and forth at the two. Deciding which one the two were hiding in.
He eventually picked one and saw..
A bunch of hay.
He looked inside the other and saw some pomegranates.
Disgruntled he ran in the direction where he assumed the two went.
After a while Calvin poked his head out of the basket that was opposite of the ones the jackal searched.
After looking around to make sure the coast was clear, he grabbed Sherman and got out.
"Okay we lost him, now we gotta find the others." Calvin said.
"Probably going to take awhile." Sherman said looking around. "We don't really know how far that jackal took us and we don't know if they at least followed his path."
"There they are."
Calvin turned around and saw Hobbes, Jak, Daxter and Tails running towards them.
"How did you find us?" Sherman asked as they approached the group.
"We kind of lost you when we tried following the jackal that took you." Tails explained. "But we found him running and assumed he was chasing you."
"What did you find up in the tower?" Calvin asked Hobbes.
"Well, not much." Hobbes said. "We found the binoculars Bentley showed us, some clothes, and a ton of artifacts. But not the person we're looking for."
"Darn." Calvin said. "I'll call Bentley to tell him what we found."
He got out the MTM and dialed Bentley's number.
After a few seconds Bentley picked up. "Hello, who is this."
"It's Calvin."
"Calvin, Did you find Sly?"
"No, we checked the tower. All we found were some clothes, artifacts, and something that looks like binoculars."
"That's probably the binocucom. Could you describe the clothes?"
"There a blue shirt and cap and one of those masks that bandits would wear in old cartoons."
"Those are definitely Sly's clothes. Do you have anything else that might tell him where he is?"
"Unfortunately, no." Hobbes said. "We're not fearing the worst yet, though."
"Don't worry Bentley." Calvin said reassuringly. "We'll find him."
"I hope so." Bentley said.
The group stood in silence for a bit. If this Sly Cooper character was dead, this trip might be all for nothing. But despite this, they were confident he was alive.
Suddenly Bentley spoke in alarm. "You might want to hurry back here. There's a giant sandstorm coming towards this village."
"Wait What." Daxter said, taken aback by the sudden outburst.
"A sandstorm is heading here and it's going to hit the village in a couple of minutes."
"What if we can't make it here." Tails asked, worried.
"Then find another way of sheltering yourself." Bentley said. "I've got to hang up now. Murray, block the windows."
The line went dead.
"MTM, how far is the place where Bentley and Murray are hiding?" Calvin said panicking.
"It's about 3 minutes from where we are, and that's the quickest route." The MTM said.
"3 minutes!?" Daxter asked. "We'll never make it at that rate."
"And I can't teleport you there because the teleporter still isn't working at the moment."
"Looks like we're gonna have to find our own form of shelter." Sherman said.
Calvin immediately ran to the first building he saw and began to rapidly knock on the door.
"Let us in, please!" He said desperately.
In response the curtains of the building closed.
Not giving up Calvin ran to the building next to it and began to tug on the door handle.
"Come on, open up!" he said through gritted teeth and he tried to pull the door open.
"Tough luck kiddo." The person inside said. "It's your fault you didn't find shelter in time. Now you're going to get buried."
Calvin growled in frustration.
"Now what?" Jak asked. "A sandstorm is heading our way, we're too far from where Bentley and Murray are and no one is going to let us in."
"I suggest we find somewhere to hide, like an alleyway." Sherman suggested. "We should also put on some protective gear."
"Good idea." Jak said as he pulled his scarf to his mouth and put is goggles on.
Calvin dug through the hypercube and pulled out spare scarves, bandannas and goggles. "These are all have and I can put sherman in a bag for protection since I don't have any scarves of goggles to fit him."
"What makes you think i'll ever go into a bag after what we just experienced?" Sherman asked with a stare.
"It's either that or get buried in sand." Hobbes pointed out.
"I'll take the bag." Sherman said quickly.
Calvin fashioned a bandana into a sack and put sherman in it.
By then everyone had put on a bandana and began looking for an alleyway to hide behind before the sandstorm hit.
At this point, things started to go wrong.
The sandstorm reached the town and the force of the wind resulted in Daxter being blown off Jak's shoulder.
"DAXTER." Tails yelled.
By then however, Daxter had disappeared into the storm.
With no other choice they struggled through the storm, trying to look for an alleyway.
"Look over there." Hobbes said pointing to his right.
The group turned and squinted to see what Hobbes was pointing at. Have you ever tried to see something in a sandstorm or a blizzard? It's not easy.
They saw that Hobbes was pointing to an alleyway and they began to struggle towards it.
They were just about to reach it when the winds picked up and blew them all away.
It blew them past buildings and eventually, out of town.
They laid there as the sand began to pile up on them. Burying them with no hope of someone finding them.
Hobbes gained consciousness for a moment, only able to see through one eye as the other was obstructed by sand.
He saw a hooded figure, the same hooded figure that saved Tails earlier. He was uncovering the others and putting them in some sort of wagon. Hobbes didn't know if they were alive or dead.
He saw the figure uncover Calvin, pick up his body and put it in the wagon.
He then passed out.
Author's Note: I am so sorry for the huge gap between . Between things going on in my personal life and College. I've barely had time to write any chapters for this story. Let alone write this one.
See you whenever the next chapter is posted.