Hey everyone. Sorry I haven't been active lately. I've been busy with work and I'm going back to school soon. I will still be writing the story, but it will might take longer to wait. I would like to ask all of you to be patient and I will do as much as I can. Thank you.
"Holy Shit." I reacted out of shock and confusion of these voices who claim to be Sly's ancestors. I kept looking at Ruby for what she did to me. This really freaked me out and wanted to know why these three Coopers to be specifically and I just remembered why. I was reading the Thievius Raccoonus on Henriette, Thaddeus, and Galleth.
"Arg! Who ye be sunny?" Henriette questioned me and she sounded just as confused as me.
"Me? Um... I go by Lupin." I answered. I know that these three are related to Sly but I can't risk revealing my real name just yet.
"Lupin you say? You're not a Cooper judging by that cane and not a raccoon decent or what so ever." Thaddeus questioned me as I looked into my hand holding my cane.
"No I'm not. I'm not even an animal from this world. Wait, you can how can you guys see? How?" I just realized on how they noticed my cane that's a replica of Sly's cane.
"We can see through a strange imagery. The three of us are seeing a... alligator?" Thaddeus noted.
I was staring at Ruby for a second and it hit me that the Cooper ancestors are looking through my eyes. I raised my eyebrow at Ruby and had my thoughts collected and started to speak calmly, "Ruby, just what the hell did you do to me?"
Ruby croaked when she saw me looked like I was about to yell but I wasn't going to. She said, "I-I-I thought this would help you. S-So I, uh... summoned the Coopers in you to help... you..."
"*sigh* I guess it's worth a try." I sighed as I raised my cane and placed it behind my back.
"Well... this seems *cough* unfortunate, but we seem to have no choice but to work together." Thaddeus thought.
"The landlubber's right. As of now, ye be our eyes and ears, Lupin." Henriette said.
"Landlubber? I must say you are a... uh... peculiar one." Thaddeus quoted.
"Enough talk. Time for action. Go fourth and we'll guide you in the name of Cooper!" shouted Galleth.
"Woah! Easy there. No need to shout." Galleth's shouting in my head gave me a little headache.
"My apologies, Sir Lupin. But tis' time to head fourth." Galleth exclaimed as I went up to Ruby.
"Well uh... thanks for the gift, Ruby, but do you think you can send me back to Sly?" I asked.
"Of course. I'll hope to see you back here. Prove your worth to me." Ruby said as she started to cast another spell on me. This time she teleported me. I was gonna feel the electric feeling all over my body and man, this was gonna suck.
"Oh fuck."
I was transported back outside of Ruby's hideout and the smell of gunk and crap came back to me and I started to instantly gag from the smell of the swamp. "Oh god. That smell again. Uwa... uwa... uwa..." I had my hands on my knees standing up and felt like throwing up again from earlier. As I had the feeling of throwing up, I saw Sly and he started running towards.
"Nolan, pal. Where've you been? I thought Mz. Ruby's goons caught you and... and..." Sly got really worried when I was captured.
"Sly, calm down. I'm fine. See. Not a scratch on me." I got Sly to calm down as I circled around to show Sly I was fine. I was about to explain everything of what happened, until the three voices in my head started shouting.
"Arg! Tis' cannot be a Cooper? Can it?" Henriette questioned with excitement.
"By jove, she's right. Another Cooper!" Thaddeus reacted the same.
"HUZZAH! Another Cooper in our legacy." Galleth shouted which got me irritated of the shouting in my head. My guess would be that the three raccoons saw Sly through my eyes and that got them excited to find out there's still another Cooper in their family that's still around.
"Ahhh! Would you three quit it? Shit. I'm starting to think this was a bad idea." I said to myslef.
Sly looked confused. My guess was that only I could hear Sly's ancestors in my head and got him to questioned of who I was talking to, "Uhh... Is something wrong, pal?"
"Hm? Oh right. I should probably explain of what happened. Let's sit down. It's kinda of a long story" I told Sly to sit on the grass and I was explaining everything of what happened when I go captured. I told Sly everything. From the beginning of how I encountered Ruby and how she looked into my mind and saw my memories with her voodoo magic and how she was horrified, but didn't give to much detail about this world being based on a video game. I also explained how I made an alliance with Ruby once I completed her challenge to prove her friendship with me. After explaining everything, Sly dumbfounded when I mentioned that Ruby casted a spell on me with three of his ancestors.
"Wait, wait, wait. Hold on. Mz. Ruby summoned the souls of my ancestors into your head?" Sly found that hard to believe that.
"I know it sounds crazy, but Ruby told me it was a gift to me to help with this task. I guess it's to help learn about being a better thief." I mentioned through Ruby's words.
"Tis' be true, lad." Henriette exclaimed to Sly, but Sly didn't hear the voice of his pirate ancestor. Only I could hear them.
"I don't believe he can hear us, Henriette. Maybe have the young lad come closer and focus on his mind." Thaddeus theorized. It was worth a shot to have Sly believe me.
I placed my fingers towards the sides of Sly's temples and asked him, "Okay, Sly. I'm gonna try something, but I need you to concentrate and focus."
"Okay..." Sly was more confused than before and he closed his eyes.
"Alright. Say hello to Sly, everyone." I told the voices.
"It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance, my boy. I am Thaddeus Winslow Cooper III." Thaddeus greeted.
"Nice to meet ya, lad. Henriette 'One Eye' Cooper's the name, and plundering tis be my game." Henriette sounded excited to meet Sly.
"And I am Sir Galleth Cooper. Knight of the Cooper family. We are honored to have your presence, Sly." Galleth sounded humble when he did the introduction. He didn't sound dramatic like before.
Sly quickly opened up his eyes, jumped back and was in shock of he what he experienced. All of a sudden, he started to cry a bit. I guess since the tragedy and trauma Sly experienced as a kid from losing his parents, he finally found members of his family that are with him now. Not physically though, but spiritual.
"I uh... I-I don't believe it. This is um... This is..." Sly stuttered.
"Overwhelming?" I finished his sentence.
"Y-Yeah." Sly answered.
Sly was still crying with tears of joy. I came up to him and hug him to comfort him from that experience he had just gone through. Sly wiped his tears away and was back to his old self again. Sly stood up straight and looked like he was ready for action. We both shook off the emotions we felt and started to focus on the challenge that Ruby set for us to prove my alliance with her. As we were about to head out, and intercom started.
It was Ruby, "Listen here, my voodoo children. I want all of you to not get in the way of Lupin and Sly Cooper. They are here to play a little game. So no attacking the two. Ya got that? NO. ATTACKING. THE. GUESTS!"
"Wow. She really thinks of you as a friend, huh?" Sly thought that I was pretending to be Ruby's friend to gain her trust, but I actually became her friend.
"I think we really became friends." I said quite shockingly that I realized that the two of us really became chummy together.
Henriette interrupted, "Enough talk. We must go!"
This time Sly and I stuck together since he got worried for me being captured from earlier. I guess the stunt I pulled really scared Sly half to death. I should really consult with him before I plan on doing something stupid next time. The two of us, or I should say the five of us, went into a cave and found ourselves in front of a giant voodoo gate. I started to feel uneasy in my stomach as I got a feeling what we were up against.
Sly turned to me, "You okay?"
"Yeah... yeah. Just... I... uh... got a bad feeling about this." I said nervously knowing that we were gonna be chased by the giant swamp monster. I was already feeling nauseous and started to feel a bit light headed from the fear.
"I say, you seem to look pale, my boy." Thaddeus pointed out.
I apologized for having everyone worried, "Sorry. Sorry. It's just I have a feeling we are gonna face something that could be life threatening."
Sly offered, "You can sit this one pal. I got this."
I could use the break after the whole encounter with Ruby, so I just stayed behind the gate as Sly went up to hop over the passage way to the treasure key. I sat down to collect my thoughts after the whole Cooper ancestors spell that was casted on me to take in the whole process of what happened. I sat down on the grass to have a short break from thieving.
Henriette asked me a question, "Can I ask ye a question?"
"Um... sure."
"What are ya?" the pirate was curious.
I gave a simple explanation, "Well, I'm human. To put in your perspective, humans are closely related to primates. And no, that doesn't mean I'm a monkey. We just have a similar DNA."
"Fascinating. You are unlike anyone I've seen in all my years. But judging from your looks, you are not originally from here, are you?" Thaddeus commented.
"Yeah. I'm not. For some reason me and my brother were transported here out of no where and we're both stuck here." I whimpered.
"I sense an amount of emotion. Are you alright?" Galleth wondered with sympathy.
"Huh? Oh yeah. I'm fine. I'm just starting to feel more homesick." I said.
"Home... sick?" Galleth never heard of the word.
"It means that he misses his home, Galleth." Thaddeus explained.
"Yeah. Well, me and brother are stuck here and we don't if we'll ever go back. It still scares me just the thought but I'm glad I met Sly and the others. I just hope we can go back to our world and be with our family again." I held a fist on to my chest to signify of how deeply I miss my home.
I started to sense something in my mind. It was Henriette. I could feel her... crying. Like I could really feel her crying. This was the first time that I can feel something happening in my head that wasn't caused by me. It felt different like I was connecting with them. I could already tell that Thaddeus and Galleth were concerned.
"Are you alright, my dear?" Thaddeus was worried.
"Hm? Oh. Forgive these tears. It be that you reminded of me when I be young. I set sail in the seven seas at a young age and that I be missing my family. I wish to help you get home." Henriette was kind to help me.
"As will I." Galleth prospered with the idea.
"We'll help you with our skills and techniques. You may not be a Cooper, but this will an acceptation to help you learn our thieving skills." Thaddeus offered.
I smiled even though they weren't physically with me but I was glad that would help me, "Thank you. All of you." A second later, the ground started to shake. "What was that?" I wondered. I got worried if Sly was okay. I climbed up over the gate and started sliding down through the vines and I see Sly being chased by the giant snake swamp monster from the game.
"Sly!" I shouted.
Sly turned his head and sees me as he was running from the beast, "Out of the way!" Sly was running towards me and that was a very bad idea. My eyes widen with fear, "OH SHIT!" I screamed and started running away from Sly and the Beast. Sly was able to catch up with me and running side by side.
"The fuck were you thinking running towards me with that monster!" I shouted.
"What I was thinking? I told you to sit out on this. I would've got this covered if you stood put." Sly argued.
"I got worried, okay! The ground move and I thought you needed help. Can we argue about this later and not being eaten by a giant snake monster." I shouted back as we continuously ran for our lives while the snake monster was chasing us. We ran on top of vines to get the high ground but that didn't stop the monster from chasing us.
Henriette interrupted while we were running, "Lupin! I 'ave an idea."
"What?"
"Jus' trust me. Hold on to Sly." She replied.
I pulled Sly's arm and ran faster to keep our distance away from the monster. I didn't know what Henriette was planning, but I had no choice but to trust her. The both of us were still being chased by the beast and Henriette explained to me something crazy, "Turn t' port and stay put."
"What?" I questioned.
"Turn left she said!" Thaddeus translated
Sly and I turned left and we can see the treasure key on the way with a safe next to it. I then stood still and trust the pirate to hope she knows what she planned for. As the beast was coming closer and closer. It stopped. It turned its head left to right like he was looking for us, but we were standing right in front of it.
"*Hiss...* Raaaaaagggggghhhh" the snake beast roared and went down on the swamp.
I was confused that the beast left until I started to notice something. I looked down and noticed my feet were transparent, like I was invisible. Sly was also transparent as well with my holding onto his arm. I questioned Henriette, "Hey Henriette, what just happened?"
She explained, "I thought this would work wit' ye. I used the Invisible Cooper Thief move on ya."
Apparently she can be able to use Cooper techniques on me. I guess is what Ruby meant by this spell being a gift to help me out. I should really thank her the next time we meet. Sly looked astounded of what just happened. "What just happened?" he asked.
"Apparently, your ancestor saved our asses from the beast. It seems like Ruby's 'gift' was that your ancestors can perform Cooper thief moves onto me. Henriette turned us invisible to have the beast go away. Pretty cool, huh?" I explained of how we managed to escape.
Sly was surprised of what I just explained, "Wow. That's... unbelievable. So it was Henriette who saved us. I wish I could thank her in person."
"I pretty sure she can hear you, Sly. Go ahead." I mentioned while placing the upper part of my cane on my shoulder.
Sly faced me so that he could properly Henriette. He took a deep breathe and spoke, "Henriette, thank you."
I smiled at Sly and I can feel the happiness that Henriette was feeling in my mind. The female pirate said in my head, "Ye' be very welcome. I be glad both of ye are safe."
"She said you're welcome and that she's glad that you're safe." I repeated of what Henriette said to Sly.
"Excuse me. Might I suggest that we should leave now before the that beast returns." Thaddeus pointed out.
"The fancy fellow's right. We should head forth towards this challenge and complete our journey." Galleth agreed.
"You're right. Let's grab the key and the pages before that thing returns." I went for the safe while Sly went for the key. Once I got a section from the Thievius Raccoonus of Bruce O'Coop's Computer Hacking Technique, which is a very modern skill in my opinion, but could be very useful. We got everything we need and started bolt out of the Lair of the Beast level. As Sly and I were leaving, we decided to split up again to complete Ruby's challenge faster like before.
I stopped for a moment before heading to the next level, "Hey guys?"
"Yes?/Hmm?/Aye?" the three Coopers halted for a moment.
"I just want to say thanks for helping me and Sly, and giving me support with all this." I thanked them again with gratitude.
"Tis' be alright, Lupin. We be giving our support for you. Anything that be gettin ye home." Henriette said confidently.
"We will teach you anything you need to make you a good thief. You have moral support." Galleth gave me his blessing.
"And so as I" Thaddeus said in a firm voice.
"Thanks guys. And by the way, my name isn't really Lupin. It's Nolan." I said as I grinned for knowing that I can trust them.
"Well then, it is nice to make your acquaintance, Nolan." Thaddeus greeted.
"Arg! A thief name, ye say? Well I'll be callin ye Lupin for serious thieving." Henriette sounded excited.
"I hope we stay with your journeys till the very end, my friend." Galleth said with pride.
"Thanks this means a lot. Well, we should get going." I started walking to the next level. I'm very thankful to have more friends, even though I can't see them, they are with me in spirit. This will be an interesting adventure for me. Wish me luck.
Well that's it for this chapter. I will get back on working the next chapter soon. See you all next time.
