I own none of the characters in Sly Cooper or it's sequels.
I only own 1 OC in this fic, her name being Tilly the Rabbit (who is now, at this time, 17 years old).
I will let you know if a new OC will come into play at any point during the fanfic.
With this out of the way, let's begin.


Ch53

"From what Tilly and Neyla have told us, the Guru won't be able to leave the stockade until he is reunited with his walking staff and moonstone. He also insists we clear out Ayer's Rock of miners. Only then will the Dreamtime spirits be appeased and he'll be free to use his powers. Tilly must've left an imprint on him, because now the Guru wants to see us in pairs of twos before he is set free. Something about finding our spiritual centers," Bentley smiled.

"He's big on how strong someone's inner spirit is. Mine and Murray's, according to him, were fascinating when he first saw them," I smiled. "And then the smell ha-" Neyla was about to say until I flicked the eyeball she was in with a frown. "Ow!... Fine, I'll keep quiet," Neyla groaned. "He also warned us that the miner's have foolishly unearthed an ancient monster called 'the Mask of Dark Earth'. I guess it was his job to guard the thing and now that it's out, things are going to be hectic... sounds like mumbo-jumbo to me... but we have encountered some unexplainable phenomenon in the past, so I'm not going to rule it out as a threat to our operations," Bentley frowned.

"You shouldn't rule it out, Bentley. I can feel it's force... evil and menacing... just thinking about it makes me get goosebumps all over," I said with a shiver, the goosebumps really there all over my arm. "Sounds like a tough force... Murray, I think you and Slaigh should go see the Guru first, then Kiri and Karin will go, then Henriette and Sally, and finally, myself and Bruce." Bentley suggested. "Okay, I think we could work with that," Murray smiled at that. "Um... what about me?" Rojo asked. "You'll meet him whenever he escapes. When that happens, you two will work together to take out some of the machinery," Bentley explained. "Okay, I can handle that," Rojo smiled.

Soon, our gang members were off to our respective jobs, with me and Sly heading off to steal back the moonstone and the staff from the miners while Murray and Slaigh got the more fun job. What was it? Driving the biggest damn truck in the whole entire world and collecting scorpions to drive off the miners in Ayer's Rock. "Aw man, I wanted to ride in that thing," I grumbled to myself as Sly and I went into a cave that we suspected would hold one of the artifacts. I had to resort to taking the long way around with Sly as my flight time had expired earlier and it hadn't been an hour yet. "Be careful, one misstep and we'll be in a ravine filled with razor sharp rocks," I frowned.

After some tricky maneuvering on the various drills, we eventually came to the point of interest. A small safe in the furthest corner in the cave. One that had a rotation lock rather than a standard one. "I'll handle this one, Sly. Leave it to the one with the ears," I smiled as I listened intently for the clicks, the drills not bothering my heightened hearing as a single click could be heard with the rotation I made clockwise, then counter-clockwise, then clockwise once more. The safe then opened up and I grabbed the moonstone. Only when I picked it up, I saw something on it. A light-sensitive detonator! "Drat! Let's book it! This thing's gonna explode if we don't get outta here fast enough!" I gawked. "Or, I could just do this," Neyla frowned as she sent out her blue laser and formed a warp vortex for us, which Sly and I didn't hesitate to jump through. We then were exposed to the sunlight of the sunset and the moonstone's detonator powered down and fell off.

On our way to the next cave, however, we came across something that truly made me terrified. I saw a much larger kangaroo minion attacking some other dingoes with it's kicking legs. And what was on it's face? "T-The Mask..." I gulped as Sly saw it too, looking a bit worrisome about the size change in the kangaroo. It made him at least 2 times bigger than normal and it's clothes were all but ripped off. "I'll try and attack the mask with my Zen Mode. You stay here," I frowned at Sly.

I then sighed and closed my eyes, activating my Zen Mode. And sure enough, just like with the tentacle demonic from before, the mask immediately turned it's attention to me and forced the poor soul to go after me specifically. "HooooghhhhhYAH!" I exclaimed as I channeled my energy into a ball of power and sent it straight at the guy's face. I thought for sure it'd destroy the mask but, at the last possible minute, the mask leaped off the person and it hit the chap right in the face, forcing him to go to sleep. "Crap! That mask can move!" Sly gawked as the powerful demonic actually floated away and into the distance. "No telling when it'll strike again, but it'll probably try for a bigger baddie than a kangaroo," I frowned as we finally went into the next cave system with the situation now getting tenser.

Upon entering the cave, we found that our moonstones that we had on us (that being mine and the Guru's respectively) were invaluable in getting around these particular set of tunnels, as there were no lights and it was dark as the abyss without them. We ended up having to ride on different rails as well as grab onto some moving hooks with our gadgets, that being Sly's cane and my boomerang respectively. "Oh how I missed using you, old friend," I smiled at my table-fan boomerang with a smile. We eventually made it to an alcove at the end of the cave and came across yet another rotation safe. "My turn," Sly said. I waited patiently while he turned the wheel slowly and carefully until he felt small little vibrations to let him know when to turn the other way and, after nearly a minute of him turning, he opened the safe and we got the stick... only to realize...

"OH COME ON! It's just a stick!" Neyla gawked. "It's made of Aboriginal spirit wood, so of course it's going to be booby-trapped," I frowned as Neyla did the same thing with the warp vortex and we escaped just in time, right as some guards were coming to attack us. Once we both saw sunlight again, the stick's detonator powered down and we saw not only the giant truck returning from Ayer's Rock with Murray and Slaigh on board, but also seeing Henriette and Sally returning back to the Hideout as I ran into Bentley, Rojo, and Bruce. Literally! I accidentally knocked Bentley out of his chair and immediately put him back in it because the shame came back. "S-Sorry! I-I didn't see you!..." I immediately apologized to him.

"It's okay, Tilly," Bentley said. I sighed and looked away, facing the ground with sadness once again. "No it really isn't... it's my fault that you got paralyzed... if I would've just stayed in my big state for longer, I would've been able to stop the beak from crushing you... ugh... normal size," I sighed as my body began to grow when I said 'big' and I had to return to normal size before I alerted the guards. "Tilly... is that why you went with Murray to study the Dreamtime? Because you felt guilty?" Sly asked. "I felt intense shame from me not being able to save my friend... you'll never be able to walk again and you're stuck sitting down for the rest of your life... it made me and Murray feel severely bad to see you unconscious on that hospital bed, your legs completely disjointed from the paralyzation..." I sobbed.

"I don't blame you or Murray, Tilly, and never have. Okay?... So please, just smile," Bentley said to me in an attempt to cheer me up as Rojo hugged me gently... he was touching me for the first time in years and, for some reason, it made me feel warm and fuzzy inside... and then something started to happen within me. Something that I'd been nearly unable to control ever since it started happening to me a year ago. The urges of being in heat. "Rgh... mm... aGH! I-I need a bathroom! Ineedabathroom!" I exclaimed loudly as I ran right back to the Safehouse with Sly hot on my tail. "Are you seriously going into heat now? Damn... it's because of Rojo, isn't it?" Neyla asked me with a small giggle, which only made me get even wilder from hearing that. "S-Shut up! Bathroom! NOW!" I exclaimed as I burst into the Safehouse and locked myself in the bathroom. What I would proceed to do in there is not for you guys to know. This is a T rated fanfic after all.