THE SLY COOPER CHRONICLES
TIDE OF VENGEANCE
The Welsh Triangle…a series of islands and waters north of Wales which has gotten a bad rap due to the bad weather and many shipwrecks. It was all the work of a mad genius whom created a Storm Machine. He has been using it in his schemes of piracy. The strange blimp-like machines hovered high in the air above a sort of harbor platform which served as Raleigh's base of operations…Until now.
Explosions came from part of the platform. Right now several walrus and squid workers were evacuating, as well as some people whom were kept prisoner or forced into slave labor after surviving the countless shipwrecks the Storm machine cost. But the sabotage to the work of operations and theft of the bigger treasure it was falling apart. Everyone got out safely, and would go in the direction of same safer waters, where the goons would be ambushed and arrested and the innocent people brought back home.
"Sly! That was not very stealthy or thief-like. Did you really have to do a number on the machinery like that? It could have easily and literally blown up in your face!" Bentley said. Ever since they have started this mission in the Welsh Triangle Sly has been kind of reckless.
"It worked out didn't it? And now I have all the Treasure Keys, I am going to go French Cuisine on that frog!" Sly said. It still sounded like his wise cracking self, but there was something dark about it.
"Sly…you're starting to worry me. And I don't think that cannon is a good idea. Maybe if we can get one of the wrecked planes working…" Bentley suggested.
"No time, this is my one chance to get revenge." Sly said.
"Revenge…Sly are you even hearing yourself speak? You can't just barge in like that!" Bentley asked.
"Er…you're breaking up…barely hear you." Sly said as he made some crackling noises with his mouth.
"Sly, that's the oldest trick in the book. Now as a friend, I'm worried for you so please take it slow." Bentley said.
"I told you what this was about from the start Bentley, and this is something I gotta do. I'm sorry." Sly said as he turned his communicator off. He unlocked the cannon and shot himself out and right into the Storm Machine.
Sir Raleigh didn't expect Sly to shoot in like a bullet in his lair. "What the…"
"Remember me, bigmouth?" Sly said in a dark tone.
"So you've been causing trouble all over my operations…a Cooper, of course. Connor's boy. Never thought that without your book you'd be stupid enough to come here. I guess I was wrong…there is something you got to know kid…I HATE UNEXPECTED GUESTS!" Raleigh said.
"You should have expected this Raleigh. You think I'd let you get away with murdering my father and stealing what is rightfully mine? You think THAT YOU WOULD NOT RECEIVE RETRIBUTION?" Sly had raised his voice.
"Oh…I'm so sorry for not properly finishing the job all those years ago…" Raleigh said in a very fake regretful tone. "So allow me to do so now, Cooper!" Sir Raleigh says as he bloats up to a massive size and jumps at Sly.
Sly dodges and whacks him with the cane, but it bounces off his bloated body. He then jumps up and pins Sly down under him. He then jumped up and intended to continuingly bounce on Sly until he was dead, but Sly jumped aside and dodged. Raleigh stuck out his tongue to lash, but Sly jumped over it. Raleigh retracted his tongue and spat it out again, but to Sly, thanks to the Slow Motion jump was able to slow down time and dodge the tongue in mid-air.
He landed and then did a Dive Attack on Raleigh (first page he recovered) and knocked him back. As he moved in for another blow, Raleigh kicked Sly with his strong hind legs and Sly was sent flying across the room. Raleigh stuck out his tongue again, but this time Sly caught the tongue with his hands, pulled in Raleigh and whacked him with his cane several times. Raleigh inflated himself to make Sly bounce of him.
Raleigh had become incredibly annoyed. "Enough tomfoolery! I am ending this!" Raleigh jumped onto the throne in his room. Suddenly the throne started to transform into some kind of mech armor around Raleigh. The Mech suit was very simplistic, a cube shape with stubby arms and legs, and a pair of generators on his back. They sparkled with electricity. "Let's see how you fair when I weaponize the power of my Storm Machine!" Raleigh said. The generators on Raleigh's back charged up and he fired a lightiningbolt from them.
Sly barely dodged it and tried to rush Raleigh, as suddenly Raleigh's robot stomped the floor and it was suddenly covered in ice. Sly slipped in the direction of Raleigh, whom backhanded him and slammed him across the room into a wall. Sly tried to get up as Raleigh then charged a solar laser, which he dodged…but the tip of his tail was set on fire and he rolled onto the ice to put it out. Raleigh then planted the foot of his mech on Sly's body. "I admit, you fight good for someone without the book. But this ends here right now!"
No. He had come this far already. Sly would not die here. But how would he go up against Raleigh's mech? Sly looked around the room…Gold everywhere. Raleigh was a greedy bastard. And greed would be his undoing. Sly grabbed into his pocket and attached something to Raleigh. "What are you…" Raleigh said as suddenly coins and other gold plated stuff from all around the room start rushing at him with great speed, knocking him back and unfortunately, obscuring his vision. "Gah! What is going on?"
Sly managed to get from under Raleigh. "I put my Gold Magnet into Overdrive!" Sly said. He then rushed at Raleigh and whacked the mech suit with his cane several times. Raleigh tried striking back, but Sly was too fast. All that gold attached to his mech suit was weighing him down. Sly would systematically whack Raleigh any chance he got. "Stand still, you little rat!"
"You are slipping, Raleigh. I bet none of your sunbeams would be able to hit me if you tried." Sly mocked.
"Oh yeah, taste this!" Raleigh said as he fired more solar lasers but Sly dodged them all, only the floor being singed. Raleigh being slowed down helped greatly. The ice that covered the floor was now melted into places. Sly instead just slid under Raleigh's mech, swept the feet from under it, and he fell down on the wet floor.
"Fire isn't really your element? Maybe you should try those lightning bolts again. But then again, those wouldn't hit me either." Sly said.
"Oh, they will hit this time!" Raleigh said as he called upon the lightning again…which was not a good idea since the entire floor was now covered in water from the molten ice. Sly just jumped on top of a statue in the room, while Raleigh was being electrocuted by his own attack and in his arrogance he had been tricked into causing his own downfall. After his mech had shorted itself out, it fell down, the gold fell of his mech suit as the magnet was fried too and Raleigh stumbled out of his mech suit, black and soothed by the shock.
Sly now stood over him. Raleigh saw the hate in his eyes. And he was in no state to fight back against him. "It ends here Raleigh."
"Please…Spare me. I'm sorry about your father; I'll give you anything you want; riches, power…I have connections. I'll even tell you how to take out the rest of the…" Raleigh was kicked in the stomach by Sly. "Ugh!"
"You sicken me. You're a coward. Not only that, you are disgusting. Born into wealth, with all the luxury you can dream off and you still resort to stealing from others? And now you grovel before me, the son of the man you helped kill in cold blood? I am ending your feeble existence here!" Sly raised his cane. He would have his revenge…
Raleigh whimpered and put his hands in front of him as he closed his eyes and turned away…and he looked so pathetic. This was one of the infamous Fiendish Five? He had expected someone more frightening. And Sly found himself hesitating…Raleigh was one of his father's murderers…But would that make it right?
He then remembered what his father said: "Sly, us Coopers are not ordinary thieves. We are not in this because we desire power or riches. We exist because we steal back what was unrightfully taken and other people cannot go up against. We are the modern heroes working outside of the law. We are Master Thieves…because we are the better person."
The better person…Killing Raleigh won't bring his father back…and it would not make him the better person. Sly roared and slammed down his cane, but not into Raleigh's face but the ground next to him. Raleigh was confused. "No! I am a Cooper. I am not a murderer. Us Coopers take out creeps like you to prevent them from doing harm to others. I won't sink to that level. I thwarted your operations, stole your treasure. Once I get back the last pages of the book, my work is done."
Sly moved towards a vault in the wall, and cracked it. He took the final pages from Raleigh and put it into the empty cover with the rest of the pages. "Rot in jail, you filthy toad!"
"You've made a mistake. You should have finished me. I will get out of jail and I will finish the job because you were too weak to do so!" Raleigh said, feeling confident again now he knew Sly wouldn't kill him. He was too weak to move but he tried to make a jab anyhow.
"You couldn't beat me when I didn't have the book. You won't be able to beat me now I have the pages you stole. Let it be your punishment that you always will suffer humiliation at the hands of a Cooper. Your cowardice is your prison, Raleigh." Sly said.
"You won't get far with your attitude, Cooper. I am just a pirate. But the others…Muggshot, Ruby, Panda King…Clockwerk…they are much worse than me. You won't live to assemble your precious book." Raleigh coughed.
Sly moved over to him. "If they are all as overconfident as you were I am not worried." With that Sly kicked Raleigh in the face, knocking him out. He left Raleigh to be picked up by the police later as he would get out of the ship by taking an escape pod.
Later back, at the van, Bentley and Murray confronted Sly. "Well, you got a fifth of the book back. You made it out, but that doesn't change the fact you struck out on your own! You were reckless! You nearly got yourself killed. This is not what we signed up for!" Bentley said.
"Yeah, Sly! I thought we were doing the right thing but then you got all scary and dark." Murray added nervously.
"I know. The mission should have been just taking back my birthright and stopping five criminal masterminds; But I made it a quest for vengeance. Which was against everything my family name stood for. I am ashamed that I let myself be consumed like that. I'm sorry guys. I would understand if you wouldn't care to go on with me." Sly said.
"No way, we're not leaving you behind! You can't continue on alone. You need our help. Besides, the Fiendish Five need to be brought down. Only…try to keep your mind clear in the future and don't lose it again, okay?" Bentley asked.
"Yeah. We're a team, we're a family, we stick together. We just don't want you to go crazy again." Murray added.
Sly sighed. "Thanks guys. I am counting on you to keep me grounded next time I would stray. That's why I need you, not just for your brains and brawn. I need your support. And I barely got out of there. So we should play it smarter the next time we go out."
"Now you're making sense again." Murray said as he patted Sly's back. "But…where are we going next?"
"From Raleigh's files…the next member we find in Mesa City." Bentley said.
"It has been a while since I've been back in the US…I wish I could have gone there under better circumstances. But we got a mission, and it's time to plan our next big heist." Sly noted.
ARTIST'S COMMENTS
A retelling and re-imagining of events of 'Tide of Terror', the first real level of Sly Cooper and the Thievius raccoonus.
Here it deviates a bit, but since Thievius Raccoonus was the first game into the series it may have the most flaws. I really wanted to see how Sly could be affected by his father's death. He at first was tempted to make it a quest of vengeance. But over time he learns to chill out more.
It may also explain in-canon why it was more based on platforming then actual stealth: Sly was more direct and reckless in the first game and it would also result into more thought-out big missions in the sequels.
