THE SLY COOPER CHRONICLES
GET A CLUE
Sly Cooper was holding a green, glass bottle with a rolled up piece of paper inside and a question mark engraved on it. He studied it carefully. "Bentley, what are these supposed to be? Raleigh's entire stronghold is littered with them."
"That is a clue bottle. Now, you see, the Fiendish Five have quickly risen to the top ranks in the criminal underworld after taking the Thievius Raccoonus. They became such power figures, they thought that no intruder or rival was a challenge anymore. So to make things interesting, and out of sheer arrogance, they have littered these clue bottles around each area with a vault to tease the intruders, to see if they can figure it out the codes of their vaults from these clues." Bentley said.
"Seriously, they just leave their treasures open like that? These are the guys whom are the worst of the worst?" Sly asked surprised.
"It may sound stupid, but the thing is, the clues cannot be deciphered unless one has all the clues in an area. This is a very complex logic puzzle. And they are all well hidden, some close to deadly hazards. Not many managed to get all the clues needed, even fewer have deciphered them, and even then, no one has gotten away alive with any of the vaults' content." Bentley said.
"Up until now..." Sly said as he threw the bottle to the ground, breaking it and getting the clue inside. "I'm going to take down everything those five monsters hold dear, include beating them at their own game. Bentley, I'm getting all the clues, you decipher them. We are going to rob them blind."
"It's risky enough to take on these guys, do you really have to be so thorough? I didn't think you'd reach the front gate in one piece." Bentley said nervously.
"I'm going to pass up a sarcastic remark about how touched I am about your faith in me, because I have scavenging to do." Sly said. He jumped up a tree, grabbed a rope and climbed to higher ground to get a view of the area which would allow him to overlook the area for more of those clue bottles. He would not back down from anything the Fiendish Five threw at him, no matter how hard or frustrating.
"Using the pages of the Thievius Raccoonus as prizes in an over-glorified treasure hunt? They are really going all this way to mock my ancestry. That does it, that frog's ass is grass!" Sly said angrily as he had retrieved his first page.
TWO YEARS LATER...
Paris, somewhere close to the Black Chateau. Sly picked up a clue bottle on top of the peacock sign of the Black Chateau. He came across it by accident, while getting to higher ground to get a good look at the surroundings. "Bentley...I found a clue bottle. Just like the one the Fiendish Five used. I feel like I should be worried."
"From what I managed to dig up about the Klaww Gang...they took over as the top criminal organization in the world after the disbandment of the Fiendish Five. They try to prove themselves the top dogs by posing the same kind of clue bottle challenges to any intruder. Now, good news is that they don't cram clue bottles in every compound, there is only one vault per base of operatoin. Bad news is, the clues are fewer, further spread and harder to find." Bentley explained.
"I've managed to do this for the Fiendish Five's operations. I can do this too, and I have two years of extra experience under my belt. I'm up for the challenge. It is rubbing extra salt in the wound, extra punishment for foolishly toying around with those Clockwerk parts." Sly said with a namesake grin on his face. He would not find any blueprints or Thievius Raccoonus faces in the vaults, but he would gain a few blueprints for some new upgrades over the course of this journey.
ANOTHER YEAR LATER...
"Whoa, I can't believe that we're finally on a big scale adventure and the baddies are smart enough not to leave clue bottles behind. I'm impressed at the extra braincell." Sly noted as he didn't find any Clue Bottles in Venice.
"Well, Octavio is not part of a big gang, he runs his operations solo. Besides, according to contacts, Clue Bottles are out and Crime Bosses have a new tactic. They hide their vaults behind paintings; The combination is hidden in the painting itself, but it takes a trained eye to find them. So it is harder then a fetch quest. This may come to play in our missions later on, and it won't be just a bonus on the side." Bentley said.
"We got the world's greatest thief and sharpest mind on the team, we'll manage this. Besides, it's no longer about pulling the bad guys a new one. We want our friend Murray back. It doesn't matter if we have to stare at painting for hours or collect thousands of bottles, I am not backing down from any challenge, big or small!" Sly said.
"Me neither. There wasn't a clue I haven't managed to crack yet, and I'm not ending that streak. Get back to the safehouse, we got plenty of planning to do." Bentley said.
SEVERAL YEARS LATER...
In his own time, a few years have passed since he went legit and settled down with Carmelita. But is that still relevant when travelling through time? Because right now they were in the past in Feudal Japan. Sly found a Clue Bottle near Riochi's sushi shop. Sly sighed. "I don't think our new enemy is not just going after my ancestry, he is outright mocking me. Why else would he be leaving behind these, in the freakin' past!"
"Who ever this enemy is, he seems to know a lot about us. We got to be careful. Collect the clues anyhow. In his arrogance, he may have put more then just hints to vault combinations in those clues."
"He wants to challenge me? Well, I don't back down from a challenge. We'll show him that no matter what game he plays, we'll always win." Sly said as he crushed the bottle in his hand in anger. "No one messes with my family..."
