Disclaimer: I don't own any Sly Cooper characters; they belong to Sucker Punch Productions.

Claimer: I own all of my original characters.

Again, I'm sorry for the delay, but my grandmother is still very sick, in fact she's gotten worse, and it's taken me a while to get this written. So if this seems rushed, I'm sorry. I've just been stressed but I did want to get this updated. Anyway, please read and let me know what you think! Thanks!

Chapter 11: Cannons and Swords

Caribbean Islands, 1616

"Quick, go tell Henriette and Pedro he's coming and get them to turn the ship. The last thing we need is a sea fight with him." I pushed Ramona away quickly while I watched through my binoccucom as the jackals' ship got closer and closer to ours. Ramona's footsteps fluttered away while her boots impacted the wooden deck of the ship while I continued to watch our mysterious enemy. I could see him standing at the bow of his ship; a sword gripped firmly in his paw and a smug smirk spread across his face. I could already tell that we had one of two options; get on our boats and run away…or stay and fight with cannons, swords, and sheer luck. I shoved my binoccucom back into my leg pouch and noticed Henriette was already on the deck next to her, her telescope extended to its fullest length and placed up to her one good eye.

"I saw him at port early this mornin'," she said after bringing her telescope down, "he was sneaking around the shipyard, looking for a ship. I had a feeling he was a sneaky one." The jackal's ship was inching closer and closer to ours and if we didn't move soon, he'd be too close for us to run away.

"He was also in the tavern last night," Pedro's thick accent purred behind Henriette's, "said he was looking for a crew."

"Was he successful?" I asked, glancing to the Spanish accented raccoon. He nodded silently and squinted at our approaching enemy.

"More than when we have." I jumped as, once again, Carmen's paw slid up my back and the accented words from her tongue rolled in my ear.

"Carmen!" Pedro's voice barked at his sister while his eyes met me with a glare. I gave Carmen and Pedro a wary smile as her paw slid off my back. She gave a quiet giggle before standing next to her brother, peering out to the jackal.

"Vamos!" Carmen pulled at Pedro's shirt and pulled him towards their ship. The two Bandicoot's quickly signaled to their crew members to put the crossing boards in place so they could cross to the helm of their ship. While they crossed, Henriette made her way to the wheel while I trotted down the few stairs to the main deck, meeting Ramona near the side of the ship. She watched the jackal like a hawk, nervously biting at her finger nails as the ship inched closer to ours.

"I've got a bad feeling about this," she muttered softly, he eyes glued to the approaching ship.

"It'll be fine," I said in an attempt to ease the nerve-wracked raccoon, "Once Henriette and Pedro get at an angle and catch the wind, we'll be in the clear. Trust me, I've gone sailing before." I patted her should and briefly thought back to the incident with Captain Lefwee in Blood Bath Bay a few years ago. Henriette stated turning the wheel of the boat, causing it to start sailing to the left of the enemy ship. Pedro did the same, only he went in the opposite direction. To me, it looked like they had planned on lining up with the jackals' ship and blow the sides out of the wooden vessel.

However, the jackal had caught wind of what they were doing and was one step ahead. He ordered for one of the cannons on the bow of the ship to be fired, shooting off two small cannon balls, connected with a chain, from the cannon. He aimed it high and it didn't take long for the shrapnel to hit the main mast of the ship. The mast fell quickly and shards of wood splintered off in all directions. With the main mast down, our ship was immobile. Another few shots were fired and two or three holes were impacted into the upper deck of the Bandicoot ship and their main mast was down as well. Whoever this man was…he knew how to attack. With our ships unable to move, the jackal moved in himself. He stopped his ship evenly distanced between ours before dispersing his crew. Have coming to the Cooper ship and half going to the Bandicoot ship; with the jackal himself coming straight for us. It didn't take long for his feet to impact the boards of our ship and start hacking his way through the crew members. Thankfully, the small mob of riled crew member gave us a little bit of cover, enough to give me a few seconds to push Ramona down below deck. After telling her to hide behind something down below, I turned my attention to the jackal. He had his sword drawn ready to attack. I didn't have a sword to fight back with, but I did have my cane. If I could get him to the side of the boat, I might be able to knock him overboard and away from us. I held my cane up in defense as he brought his sword up to swing it into my skull. I couldn't completely fight back, but I could block and keep away from the man. I started slowly backing up, edging my way to the edge of the ship. I ducked and weaved to stand clear of the swings from our attacker. I managed to dodge one last swing of his sword before using my cane to swing him ahead of me, sending the man over the edge of the ship. I knew it wouldn't be long before he managed to make his way back onto the ship, but it bought me time to keep Ramona in the shadows.

I jumped down into the cargo hold of the ship; searching for the hidden Ramona and hearing the commotion above us start to die down. I eventually found Ramona hiding behind a few barrels of rum. I ducked beside her, telling her to keep silent and wait until everything was calm again. Everything was silent, the only sound coming from the waves crashing outside the ship. Ramona and I sat with our knees pulled to our chins, crammed behind barrels in an attempt to hide from the jackal and his boss. I felt Ramona tense as two sets of footsteps pounded against the wooden boards of the ship. I could hear them starting getting closer to our barrels and I could only pray that they wouldn't figure out our hiding spot. The footsteps stopped a few moments later and the light from the top hatch let in a little bit of sunlight, distorting the shadows of the two figures on the wall ahead of us. I could see Ramona keeping her gaze on the shadows of the two men, staring at them as if she was trying to figure out who they were; which was probably what was going through her head as she cowered behind a barrel.

"How hard is it to catch one person?" the second figure stated. His voice was vastly different from that of the jackals'; it actually seemed meaner and more vicious.

"She's not alone," she jackal replied with a sneer, "It's not that easy to catch her when you've got that meddling raccoon watching over her day and night."

"Well," the second voice became closer, just above our hiding spots, "haven't they gotten far for a pair of fuzzy mammals?" his voice was sarcastic and I could hear a chuckle come from his throat.

"Trust me," the jackals' voice was closer as well, "that tater tot won't get much farther." Ramona gave a sudden intake of her breath as her ears perked and her eyes widened. Her mouth opened slightly to say something. I clamped my paw over her mouth to keep our location hidden. Whatever they just said, struck a cord with Ramona. I placed a finger from my free paw over my lips, signaling to her to keep her mouth shut.

"She'd better not," she jackals' boss warned, "You have two days to bring her to me." silence resumed in the boat as the footsteps walked away from her hiding spot and onto the top deck. After I was sure they were gone, I took my paw from Ramona's mouth and sighed heavily, relieved they were gone.

"I know who they are," Ramona said quietly, "I know who they are." She brushed her bangs from her face before standing. I stood as well and shook the dirt from my clothing.

"Bad past?" she nodded and zoomed past me towards the hatch above us.

"I'll explain later," she turned to me briefly, "but I'm getting of this ship before they figure out where I am." I managed to squeeze past her so I could get out of the hatch first, knowing that if they were waiting for us to come out then they'd grab me first instead of her.

I peered out over the edge of the hatch carefully, looking for the jackal or his mysterious boss. Thankfully, or maybe not, there wasn't anyone on the deck. I pulled myself up onto the deck and stood, double checking our security. I reached down, grabbing Ramona's arm, and helped her onto the deck herself. After the fight on the deck, I wasn't sure where the crew or any of our ancestors had wandered off to and honestly, it was too quiet on the ship. I glanced to the sea, searching for the enemy ship or the jackal. His ship was still there, but the man was no where to be seen. I took a few steps away from Ramona and started looking for our ancestors. Something wasn't right, they had mysteriously disappeared and there was no sign of the crew.

"How do master pirates suddenly disappear?" Ramona's voice sounded from the other end of the ship.

"I don't know," I replied as I made my way to the door to the captain's quarters, "but I think I know where they are." I jiggled the knob on the door and found it to be locked. I gripped the handle firmly and slammed my shoulder into the door, trying to bust the lock and hopefully find our ancestors. I winced at the slight pain shooting up my arm with each slam on the door. With one final impact on the door, it popped open, revealing all three of our ancestors bound and gagged inside.

"Found them!" I shouted towards Ramona as I ducked down and started trying pulling the ropes off Henriette's wrists.

"Whoever that man is," the pirate muttered, "he's nothing more than a coward, too afraid to take on the captain like a real pirate."

"He's not a pirate…he's a monster." I finally managed to pull the ropes from her wrists and I had just started removing the ones from Pedro when I heard Ramona start screeching. My head snapped in her direction and after seeing what was going on, I flung my legs over the edge of the banister in front of the captains' quarters. I bolted down the length of the ship, ready to punch the lights out on the jackal. He had Ramona by the hair, pulling her with him. Ramona struggled against him and managed to slam an elbow into his rib cage before I was able to get there. He let go slightly, enough to let her slip away. The only place she was able to go was over the edge of the ship. I wasn't able to stop her, or the jackal, from being sent over board.

"Ramona!" I shouted after Ramona had landed in the water.

"Is she crazy?" Pedro shouted after sliding next to me, "Those rip currents are too strong; they'll carry her under." I couldn't see Ramona anywhere in the water, but I did see the jackal start drifting away from ships, thanks to the currents. He was floating away in the ocean and away from us, but Ramona was still missing.

"Ramona!" I kept repeating her name, hoping to find her floating in the water or pulling herself over the edge of the ship.

"I don't see her," I said after heading to the other side, "I don't see her at all." I ran my fingers through my hair and expected the worst, Ramona had either been carried away or pulled under with the currents.

"Capt'n!" the first mate Jones shouted from the stern of the ship, "She's in the water!" I was the first one to rush over to the pirate. I peered over the edge of the ship and sighed in relief when I saw Ramona. She was tired of fighting the currents and had managed to cling to a piece of mast that had been blow off the ship. Half her body was still in the water, with her head resting on the wood and her claws keeping her in place.

"Hold on, chica!" Carmen shouted as she and her brother started tossing lines into the water, "We'll have up back on the ship." She gave smile and a thumbs up as she waited for the lines to reach her on her floating piece of driftwood in the middle of the ocean.

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

"Adios guapo," Carmen purred as she delivered another pinch to my backside. Again, I jumped at her advanced as she walked post, only to have a giggle and a sway of her hips as a reply.

"I told you," I whispered harshly to the female next to me, "she starts it!" the un-amused Ramona simply glanced up to me as we walked down the pier to the ships.

"Mhmm," she hummed as she kept her gaze forward, avoiding me at all costs, "Of course she does." She glanced up again, a playful smirk spread across her face.

"Besides," I said as I hooked my thumb through on of her belt loops on the far side of her waist, "I don't care for older women." She snorted at my rather poor ancestry joke as we continued walking. We had decided to watch Pedro and Carmen set sail before heading back to the van and heading for our Wild West ancestors in Santa Fe, New Mexico. We had planned on seeing Henriette cast away, but she had slipped away from the tavern before we had a chance to watch her ship leave port. Ramona and I stopped at the end of the pier, expecting to see a rather large and somewhat stereotypical pirate ship wading in the water. Instead there was only a small little puddle-jumper boat bobbing in the water, looking like it could only seat one person.

"Is that it?" Ramona asked only we had met back up with her ancestor.

"No," he sighed, "that is only a dingy. My ship is beautiful, and magnificent, and-and huge and…gone. Why is it gone?" he searched the surrounding waters for his ship, only to be greeted with an empty harbor.

"Is that it over there?" I pointed to the open sea, where a ship could be seen on the horizon." Pedro nodded and pulled out his telescope.

"That's it," he pulled the telescope from his eye, "now why is it there?" he peered through his telescope again and growled to himself.

"Cooper." He growled to as I pulled out my binoccucom and focused on the ship. I chuckled to myself when I saw who had stolen Pedro's ship. Henriette stood at the helm of the ship, a smile spread across her face as she used a paw to wave towards the pier; steering the ship further and further away from the pier with each passing moment. Pedro and Henriette may not have had the same type of romantic relationship as our other ancestors, but it was obvious that they had one, just like all the others.